How an online database works.

This will go over how Microsoft Access databases work, this is the database software that I have been using to create databases so I will go over in detail what happens when a database is created.

Microsoft Access has many of the same componants of a regular database application, and one big difference. Access is designed to install and run all of the components on a single computer.

Access can work with remote database such as SQL Server, but is normally used as a package on a single computer using its own database.

The Access application server is called Form View.

The Access developer modules for forms, tables, etc. are called Design Views.

The modules are so closely integrated that most people don't realize that there are several different modules.

• The Jet Database Server is installed when you install Access. Whenever you open Access the database server starts. Access can also connect to SQL Server and a few other databases, but Jet is the default.

Microsoft Access is not as easy to share with other users as separate applications and databases, but it is possible to build complex and sophisticated applications with Access, especially if the application runs against a SQL Server database, these will work very well for a website that stores a lot of passwords and accont details such as Amazon.

Entertainment, Radio, Muti-User games.

Entertainment has changed a lot over the past years, especially entertainment typically found on the internet, many websites have been set up to provide movies and tv shows to be watched online. One of these websites is 4od, the purpose of this website is to show any tv show that was shown on channel 4 for those who may have missed it.

The website is easily accessed, it only requires a free account to start watching tv shows and movies. Advertisements are quite common on this website, which is to be expected considering it is a free service.

Other website similar to this one is Netflix, Netflix allows users to pay a monthly fee of around £6 to watch any movie on the site, there is no limit to the amount of movies you can view, it even includes most new movies.

It allows you a free one month trial to see if you like the service, and after that if you continue to use the service it will charge you £5.99 a month.

These are just a couple of the many sites that offer movies and tv shows that were only previously available on the TV, watching movies and tv shows on a computer of mobile device has become increadibly easy and the popularity of such services has grown in the past few years.

Online Radio.

There are many online radio services but the most popular of which is BBC iPlayer, this website allows you to listen to live radio, as well as listen to radio from earlier which would be otherwise impossible to listen to.
This website doesn't require a log in, or any kind of payment to use the service, it is generally easy to navigate and find what you want. Although you are able to create an account which will allow you to get updates on tv shows and radio shows on your email. It will also allow you to comment on certain radio shows.

And that is just a few of the many websites that allow you to watch and listen to radio and tv shows/movies, the growing popularity of such sites are now making them very popular and easy to use, even being able to access them on you phone is a new feature that has proved very popular.

Ebook Evaluation

In order to create my Ebook I used Adobe Dreamweaver as it is an easy application to use and proved very helpful with the problems I encountered during the making of the website.

Target Audience & Purpose of the Ebook.
The target audience for my Ebook is those who wish to see what technology was like at the time of creating it, as technology is rapidly changing, this gives a good representation of what it was like to create a website, and also gives a lot of information on the current age of technology. The three categories I have in my Ebook each show a different area of technology in the world, from advancements in mobile technology to the digital divide which neglects many countries of any kind of technology.

Problems I faced while creating the Ebook.
While developing my Ebook I ran into multiple problems, most of which I was able to resolve by correcting errors in the html code, the main problem I had was the positioning of my banner that was supposed to span the top of the page, a lot of the time it wasn't centred and so to fix this I simple put the code <div align="centre"> at the end of the html code for the image. Another problem that I faced was that the web page was too large, it needed to be smaller for it to work correctly as an Ebook, I fixed this by adding a footer to the web page and limiting the height it could be. Problems with hyperlinks were also a major problem for a while, after creating a new page I had to rework the hyperlinks on that page to work with the files I was using, this was generally easy to fix but was time consuming.

How my Ebook designed.
My Ebook is designed in such a way that you can never get lost and navigation is fairly simple. On the home page there is a description of how to navigate. To the right of the page are 4 categories which are: Life in the information age, The Digital Divide, Online services and Ebook. Clicking on one will take you to a series of links which you can navigate by clicking the "Next" button at the bottom of the page, to get back to the home page you can either click home or click on the banner, you are able to get to access all of the categories and the homepage from anywhere on the Ebook by simply clicking on the side navigation bar.

What can be improved?
The main problem I see with my Ebook is that it is not very eye catching, I didn't have time to fully design the style of the page and so I had to focus of functionality of the website over the look and style of it. Another improvement that could be made would be the ability to access posts in a category from the home page instead of having to click on the category and then cycle through the posts in order to find the one you are looking for, once again this was a problem with my time management and I wasn't able to include this feature in time.

Amazon: Setting up account.

I will go through the steps you need to take in order to set up an account on Amazon. The first step to doing this is to click on the "Sign in to your account" button in the top right hand corner of the screen.

Once on the page you will be prompted whether you have an Amazon account or not, if you don't then it gives you the option to create one. You will need to enter your email adress and then click the "okay" button.

After you will get a conformation email to confirm that the linked email adress is really yours, once you click on that then your account will be functional. You will be sent to your account page where you can access all your orders and depending on what type of account you've made, you can also sell items as well.

The diagram above shows the process which the website goes through when an account is made, and how an account works and functions, orders being processed are also shown.

Website Analysis: Amazon.

Amazon has a fairly simple lay out, there's a menu bar at the top of the screen which gives you quick access to your account, which stores your information and your purchase history, with that information they are able to recommend you items from the site, you can see recommended items at the bottom of the page, these items have been chosen based on my search history, making it more likely for me to purchase from the site. There's also the option to view your basket, the basket contains all the items you wish to purchase and makes it easier for you to buy multiple items at once. On the left hand side of the screen is the "shop by department" drop down menu, this allows you to specifically filter items to your need, some of the departments are "Books" "Electronics" and "Computers". This option makes searching for your items much easier and saves you time as you no longer need to look through items that don't have relevance. In the centre of the screen is an advertisement, these change over time to show the user what deals or new products they have in stock.

Amazon Account Page

The account page shows you a lot of information about your purchases and also gives you the option to view and change your payment details. Your details have been stored in the "account details" page and were stored when you first entered them, this is so you can easily pay for an item without the need to keep entering your details. You're also able to check your orders and even track them to see where they currently are, although this option doesn't always work, there's a "prime membership" which allows you free delivery for everything as long as you pay a certain amount of money a month, this could potentially save you a lot of money, so it's a good option to have. Gift cards are available for purchase from this page too. The settings menu contains all of your account details and your delivery address, you can change these whenever you want as long as you can provide proof that it's you on the account, they normally check this by making you enter your password or send a conformation email to your linked Email address.

Searching for specific items.

Amazon filters the items on the site based on keywords from your search, as you can see here, when I type in iPad, the closest results show up first, being iPads, and when I go further down they will soon become less and less relevant to my search. On the items shown are customer ratings, which are very useful when you haven't had and experience with one before and want to know what others think of it. At the top of the screen are related searches, these are fairly useful as it creates more specific searches based on your own, which will be useful if you don't know what specific item you want.

Item page.

The item page is fairly standard, a description of the item is given further down the page which specifies the features that it comes with. To the left of the page it offers third party warranty for the product, ranging in 2-3 years, with prices that match. Delivery options are also given with the prices that go with them. Customer reviews can be found at the bottom of the page. In order to purchase the product you must simply click the add to basket button to the right, then select your payment option from the basket window.

And so that concludes my analysis on Amazon, the websites ease of use and simple design make it a favourite for many people, they also have a very reliable service with flexible payment options and delivery options. All this added with cheap prices from multiple suppliers and security measures that mean that you can feel safe ordering make it a excellent website to shop from.

Ebook

What is an Ebook?
An eBook is an electronic book, one you read digitally on your computer, laptop screen or on devices called ebook readers. You will find them in various formats and until the industry has a standard accessible in all devices these various formats will exist. The PDF format is a popular format for ebooks, it is used as it creates an easy way to read on a pc or mobile divice. All platforms are able to gain access and read PDF formatting. . There are still many who prefer printing out the pages of an ebook to read and PDF files have always been good for this purpose. And recently the Amazon Kindle has became very popular, allowing people to read books specially designed for this device.

So, why would you want an ebook? As you discover this new industry with your surfing over the Internet, you will discover ePublishers and eBookstores gradually growing in numbers. Take a look at what they offer and what they have to say about their authors and titles. Thousands upon thousands of authors write books yearly. Of those, a small percentage have the good fortune of being accepted by a publisher. This is not because they don't make the grade, but because of the vast numbers.

The Internet is a wide open medium. Excellent, talented authors can take their books to the Net, market/promote and sell those books themselves. Others are coming to the growing epublishing houses and taking that route. It is guaranteed as you journey through the epublishing world, you are going to find outstanding, spell-binding, and top-class works, which are well worth the read. So Ebooks are really giving authors more of a chance then they had previously.

Ebooks are prefered by many people over normal psysical books, there are many reasons why people prefer them, such as:

1. Ebooks are delivered almost instantaneously. You can purchase, download and start reading them within minutes, without leaving your chair. You don't have to go to a bookstore to buy them, neither wait for them for days, weeks and sometimes more to arrive in the mail.
2. No trees are required to manufacture paper for the pages of ebooks.
3. When you need certain information, you can get it immediately, by downloading an ebook.
4. Many ebooks are sold nowadays with bonuses, which you usually do not get with a printed book. This adds value to your purchase.
5. Ebooks take up less space. You practically don't need any space to store them. You don't need a library or a room for them. You can store hundreds and thousands of ebooks on your computer or reading device.
6. Ebooks are portable. You can carry a whole library of hundreds of books with you, on CD, in a laptop, notebook or any ebook reader, without worrying about their weight.
7. With today's technology you can read ebooks everywhere, on the bus, train, airplane, and while standing in line.
8. Ebooks are more safely stored and carried from one place to another, than ordinary books. They also withstand time more than books.
9. Ebooks can show links, for easy access to more information and related websites.
10. Ebooks are searchable. You can easily search for any information in an ebook, instead of turning page after page.

For my Ebook I used Adobe Dreamweaver to design it and make it functional, I used HTML in order to get it to work on all browsers.

E-Government and the Digital Divide.

The concept of the digital divide has been evolving over the years, being generally defined as a social issue linked to the different amount of information between those who have access to the information society and technology such as computers, and those who do not. It also refers to countries, regions, cities, and businesses that are at a differentiated economically and culturally with regard to ICT accessibility.
The UK Labour Government under Tony Blair has set targets for the development of E-Government in the UK.  These are aimed at reducing the digital divide in the UK . This divide also effects the way other services are provided, like Police and the National Health Sevice. There are a few ways in how the government has tried to decrease the gap and develop on E-government, these are:

The introduction of online services, and example would be the Government's website, it allows users to find informaion on the current government and allow's users to find out when the next meetings or hearings are taking place. A website such as https://www.gov.uk/ are used for this. This is a good way doing things as in gives people an easy way of accessing government information without the need to even leave their home.

Another way of expanding E-Government is to introduce online payments, payments such as paying taxes and monthly bills can all be done over the internet now and no longer will you need to go to the bank and fill in paperwork. Once again making it easier for the general public to go about their everyday lives.

Online reporting and advice has also been made accessible to the public, this means that people can now go onto the internet and find out the local news and get information on current governmental matters, although such information was available from the television or radio which could be accessed from home just as easily, but being online means that you are able to look back at news incase you miss it first time around on the TV.

Online booking is another useful feature that has been introduced, it allows people to book for appointments or work interviews over the internet, this is very helpful as it saves time and money as you no longer need to actually visit the place you want to book an appointment for beforehand, and means you can avoid driving there and wasting fuel. This service also allows the user to sort out bookings and rearrange meetings without the need to use the phone, it can all be done over email, which is free.

The UK government hopes to have saved £1.3 billion, and the public £1 billion by migrating its sercices to online. This is because they are useing less staff in places like banks and shops, and the public would be saving money as they wouldn't be using as much fuel as before.

With all the advances in E-government, the government has to account for those in low income families who aren't able to access the internet.
The government is to spend £30m over the next three years to bring broadband access to schoolchildren and low-income families. A further £600,000 has also been earmarked to subsidise home computers for entire year groups at 50 education institutions across the country, schools minister Jim Knight told an education conference last week. The plan is the government’s latest attempt to bridge the digital divide between those with access to technology and those without.
The government has already invested £5bn in IT for schools since 1997 and another £837m was budgeted over the next 3 years.
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