B200 : : : T171 : : : T209 : : : T223 : : : TT28x : : : M206 : : : M358 : : : M360 : : : T396

T209 - Information and Communication Technology

My Public Key is here if you want it. The only real original material about the course is this explanation of sine waves which I made in answer to a question and which I've preserved in case it helps anyone else. You can also hear my T209 Message to the Planet. The T209 Course Team asked me to take down the TMA's that were here because they were worried people might - y'know - learn something from them... Anyway, showing the courage and fearlessness for which OUWho is justly proud, I caved in immediately. Instead, I've presented the more speculative and general essays from the projects in a way that aims to be more generally informative and educational for anyone interested in the technology in general.

I need to spend some time making them "safe" - i.e, stripping out the questions-specific elements and making them into general essays about techie issues, but they'll be back shortly in a plagiarist-proof form. Why? I dunno. Would a plagiarist look for essays on the web? I doubt it somehow. Much too public. Most, I imagine, would ask a friend for a copy of an old essay. Of course, it wouldn't matter if there were new questions every year...<sigh>... but whatever...

General T209 Stuff

Dept of Telematics : : : IEEE : : : Why Oct. 31 Equals Dec. 25 in Hexadecimal : : : Learn Binary : : : Belbin info for the group work section : : : Gartner Group : : : Slashdot : : : IT Papers : : : T209 Course Description

Other T209 Student Pages

Jenweb : : : Toni Walton : : : Mystic Bunny : : : Sue's OU Pages : : : Steven Willingale

WAP/GPRS/3G etc.

CDMA interactive demo : : : How Cellphones work : : : NTT DoCoMo article : : : IEC WAP Tutorial : : : UMTS Forum : : : GSM World

Voice Recognition

Writing a Speech Recognition Program : : : Voice XML : : : W3C Specification : : : Microsoft Technet (Troubleshooting Problems in Speech Rec Systems) : : : The Economist - Just Talk To Me

Networks

You can download free/trial software to capture and view packets as they go in and out of your machine. Ethereal is a good one and it's free (make sure you get winpcap driver for it though if you're using windows). Colasoft CAPSA is interesting too, but it is a time-limited demo. There are a few others floating about but these are the only ones I tried. LANFlow is supposed to be handy for designing networks too. Again, haven't tried, don't know.
Techsoup Networks : : : Warriors of the Net : : : Networking (Powerpoint Slides) : : : Metcalf and Boggs' original Ethernet Paper : : : IETF : : : MCI/Worldcom (I couldn't get their site when I put this page together. Maybe they're all in the nick.) : : : Practically Networked : : : CISCO SNMP Page : : : SNMP Link : : : IPv6

T209 Cyborg Module

This is the tough bit because it involves co-operating with others. My advice - if you have the willpower to do it - is to start early and start setting deadlines. It's nice to think you can be an open, sharey, democratic group with no leader, but you can't. Deal with it! A real group takes ages to bond and gel and find its group roles. If you wait for this to happen, nothing will get done and you'll fail together, so don't be shy; set deadlines and ask your team members (politely!) to please comment on them, change them if necessary, then, as a group, respect the deadlines that have been set.
The group work can be a bit of a pain, depending on your group. It's a good opportunity to wallow in sci-fi, though, If you haven't already seen the movie Ghost in the Shell, try and get hold of a copy. It's by far the best cyborg movie ever. Even better than Terminator! OK, so I'm a nerd...
Robotics - Asimov's Laws : : : MIT robotics Group : : : Cybernetic Intelligence Research Group : : : ASIMO : : : Daytime TV with Rodney Brooks (needs realplayer) : : : Robotics FAQ : : : AI lab - Robotics Links : : : History of Cybernetics : : : Open University's RoboFesta page and Robotics Outreach Group
AI - Alice : : : Kurzweil AI : : : Tufts Centre for Cognitive Studies
Cyborgs/Implants/Wearables - The Cyborg : : : Crusty type of Bionics Page : : : Wearable Computing : : : BodyLAN (Isn't that something to do with cricket? : : : Robo-Rat : : : Cochlear Implants : : : Cyborgs 'R' Us : : : Democratic Transhumanism (mm-hmmmm) : : :
Cyborg Nutcases - Orlan : : : Steve Mann (I mean, you've only to look at the bloke...) : : : KW Implant SIte : : : The Register on KW : : : Haraway (Ok, so strictly speaking she's a postmodernist rather than a nutcase but it's a thin line...) : : : Some other twat
Cyberspace - Psychology of Cyberspace : : : Actor-Network Theory : : : Sherry Turkle Homepage and also a lecture in real media format (scroll down a bit and click on the link!) : : : Cybertown : : :
Cyberpunk - Mirrorshades : : : Brunching Shuttlecocks Cyborg Acronym Decoder : : : Cyborg Manifesto : : : Click here to hear the Truth about Cyborgs (only slightly less convincing than K Warwick et al.)

Security (General)

Infosyssec : : : Wiretapped : : : Windowsecurity : : : The Hacker Crackdown : : : Dis,org : : : Neworder (These sites have varying degrees of dodginess, so tread carefully!

Security (Crypto)

MSDN Crypto Page : : : Centre for Applied Cryptographic Research : : : Modular Maths : : : More Modular Maths : : : Steven Levy's Crypto Page (It's mainly a book plug but there are some good links) : : : Cyphernomicon

ECA - Wireless Networking

How Bluetooth / Wireless Networking Works : : : Wi-Fi Network Maps : : : Internet news - Bluetooth / Wi-Fi : : : Wireless/Wired Security : : : Bluetooth Resources - and more Bluetooth Resources ! : : : Comparison : : : Wireless Tech Briefing : : : Bluetooth : : : Bluetooth Voice Packet : : : O'Reilly Wireless Dev Net : : : QoS Issues : : : Open Spectrum Resources maintained by some real ugly looking geezer : : : Going Wireless (actually an ad for a book (see 'Audible' section below) but has some interesting stuff) : : : Wireless Security (Real streaming media) : : : Bluetooth Demo (windows media stream) : : : Wireless LAN 'Primmer'(sic) : : : Warchalking : : : Lucent Wireless News : : : Build a wireless antenna out of a tin can, a pringles tube or some actual - y'know - stuff!

T209 Audible Goodies

My favourite online service. They produce electronic audio books for download. There are a few that are helpful for T209 students. I've had to use affiliate links because it was the only way of linking to individual titles (because of the way the java server pages work). I don't particularly like doing that but that's the way the ball bounces. Clicking on this link will take you to a list of useful titles by course. Each one uses a session cookie for the transition. Personally, I think their use of cookies is responsible and respectful of privacy, but I know there's a certain amount of paranoia about, so if you disagree with their privacy policy, best leave it alone.