Downloading Blackboard Unit Course Content for Offline Viewing

Blackboard is a great tool for completing college courses online, but sometimes you can get stuck without the internet making it difficult to study. There is a way however, to use a command line tool wget to download the site content for local, offline viewing.

It should be noted however, that this method is unlikely to be endorsed by your college – so use at your own risk!

To download the content for offline viewing you need two things (in FireFox):
1. Install the Firefox Cookie Exporter
2. Install wget

Use Cookie Exporter to export to cookies.txt

-the next command will download all the course material after loading the cookies.txt

wget -mk --no-check-certificate --load-cookies cookies.txt https://link.to/the/course/CODEE_LEE7/Content/

If you use this method to download from courses with lots of content you may want to consider inserting “-w 20” into the wget command, which tells wget to wait 20secs between downloads (give the server some rest otherwise you may get booted).

Resolutions…

It’s been a tumultuous month for me. The past 14 months haven’t exactly been a riot, but it’s been great being a stay at home Dad, studying. And I think that on the home front and the study front, I’ve done pretty well. I have occasionally bitten off more than I could chew, but I’m still on top and that’s something.

Recently though, I find myself increasingly wanting to find some more normality with life. Days seem to roll into one another and I dislike the disparity between days that are so full and busy I can barely breath and others so debilitatingly boring that I end up not doing anything constructive at all. One of the major problems I have discovered with being home and self-paced is one of motivation, and this is something that has plagued me my whole life. I am a very passionate person, and I love to jump fully into things with my eyes open and irrespective of consequence, but to take this action independently is something I’ve always found incredibly difficult. After reflecting on this recently (in one of my dreary, semi-conscious state of minds, after another night of sleep deprivation) I have come to the conclusion that it might be Freudian in nature. Constantly trying to seek the appraisal of others, and perhaps from my parents.

Whatever the reason, it no longer matters. What matters is the future, and this is the attitude I am trying to embody for (at the very least) the rest of the year, specifically in respect to study and my weight-loss.

At the risk of sounding arrogant, my intellect is both my biggest asset and my biggest curse. Apparently I am smart enough to be able to luck my way through life, smart enough to ‘guess’ the answers to the things I need to know. However, I am also stupid enough to never actually apply these ‘smarts’ in any significant way. In many respects I think the frustration I have within myself for knowing that I am smart enough to succeed in virtually anything I want, but constantly failing to properly apply myself to achieve it; is a primary driver for my decision to finally obtain a university degree. I am sure a psychologist could provide us a number of insights as to what events in my childhood led to these behaviors, just as it would be very easy to simply call me lazy. In either case is, this main point is that I need to retrain my mind and body to be more disciplined. To try and change past behaviors and relearning how to think and to stop taking the path of least resistance; lest I actually have to work hard.

This goes for my weight-loss too. I think both my attitude to study and my attitude to weight-loss are a microcosm for a larger, unhealthy lifestyle. What’s more, is that I am able to create an environment for myself that supports my unhealthy attitudes. I’ve lost 25kgs in 8 months – and most people, especially those closest to me consider this to be a great success. But I know in my heart that I barely tried. The same is true of my studies. My academic transcripts scattered with one or two credits and a handful of distinctions and high distinctions. I know I could have tried harder.

But I’ve never been pushed before in my life by anyone. And unfortunately, I seem to resent anyone who ever does try to push me. I live a life of comfort, when I should be living a life of much greater success.

But how do I train this old dog new tricks?

Games: At Work, No One Knows I am a Wizard

A treant from World of Warcraft

There is still a strong social stigma attached to people who confess to regularly playing computer games in western culture. The lingering stereotype of gamers being solitary male teenagers with poor social skills persists, despite studies showing that the average gamer is 30 years old, and has over 30% chance of being female. The fledgling industry is now breaking into the mainstream, and the rise of casual and social gaming has turned the games industry into a $39 billion per year powerhouse of entertainment. In the next 12 months, this figure is expected to balloon into $55 billion per annum, which is a figure that will rival the international film industry and predicted that it will soon be the preferred and dominant form of entertainment.

The popularity and rise of recent casual and social gaming owes much thanks to the phenomenal success of the Nintendo Wii games console, who’s success is largely the result of it’s ability to not only break through the traditional image of the games industry but to transcend it entirely. The Wii made gaming accessible; making games a social experience anyone could enjoy (particularly families and the elderly) – opening up games to a new and untapped demographic . While not the sole reason, it was one instrumental in the rise of casual and social gaming, which in the past 12-24 months has become a seeming tidal wave of success.

There is a deep psychology to gaming that’s yet to be fully understood. Researchers have found that games provide “sense of freedom and connection to other” and this lets us explore ourselves, our friends, our families, but also complete strangers in way we could never do during a face-to-face interaction. Playing games, particularly online, gives us remarkable insight into other people free from typical social constraints, for example PlayStation’s Smash Up Derby allows users to drive classic motor cars, like the T-Bird; but also drive them at breakneck speeds into other users.

This combination of reality and fiction is deeply stimulating. It also allows us to validate and test our moral systems, since people can be exposed to morally questionable situations that would never arise organically in the real world. Studies also suggest that games make us smarter. Educational games such as Immune Attack (presented by the Federation of American Scientists) provide mental and social benefits to players. Unfortunately, there is also a cost. Games are highly validating, in that they provide a source of fun, thrill, competitiveness and this makes them very addictive; although there is a lack of formal diagnosis in current medical or psychological literature. Unfortunately, the number and frequency of deaths and illnesses resulting from online game addiction continue to grow.

While social and casual gaming can clearly enrich our lives and relationships, we must be mindful of the possible problems when taken in excess.


This post is a slightly modified version of a piece I wrote for a University assignment for the Curtin University Subject Internet Studies 102/502: The Internet and Everyday Life, answering the question: What are the implications of the rise of casual and social games on the internet for online gaming and everyday life?

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My Thoughts on Dating, Intimacy and Sexuality

Second Life

The Internet can be a powerful tool for everyday people to explore thoughts and emotions without inhibition.  Since the Internet provides us with great anonymity, we can explore and share deep feelings and ideas without fear of judgment and retribution.  This can facilitate very positive outcomes; especially for people with otherwise quite acceptable sexual feelings and desires, but who feel impeded and couldn’t or wouldn’t act them out in real life (such as is often the case with young people exploring sex and homosexuality).

Arguably, cybersex is also perfectly safe.  Cybersex provides people with a physically safe environment, since the nothing physical ever occurs (other than possible self-masturbation, which often accompanies cybersex).  However, sharing and exploring sexual feelings and desires online, is accompanied with strong and intense emotions.  It’s these feelings and emotions that are significant to infidelity and therefore any sexual activity, regardless of whether it is merely flirting, seeking arousal or orgasm, could reasonably be considered betrayal by most romantic partners. Indeed, the Fortino Group reports “one-third of all divorce litigation now involves one partner’s online infidelity”.

We live in a world where the Internet is becoming a pivotal and sometimes pervasive component of our everyday lives.  Our physical bodies are exposed to stimuli that transcend our own thoughts and views of the world and we’re exposed to more than we can imagine.  We can participate, or contribute as much or as little of ourselves as we desire.  Because of this the line between the real world and the virtual-world is becoming increasingly difficult to define.  Since we carry ourselves into the virtual-world, it has become a mere extension of our physical selves.

If we define physical acts of sexuality to be foremost the emotional connection between two people sharing a sexually arousing experience, than Cybersex is just a real as intercourse.  The Internet has also adapted to make Cybersex as real as possible, further blurring the line.   The social game Second Life, grants players great control to ensure that players can highly customize their game avatar; designed to be the player’s representation in the Second Life digital world. Player’s can then control their avatars, much like a puppeteer would control a puppet, and as such can enact any activity the player can imagine.  Second Life is known for player avatars being able to enact and enhance sexual activities, augmented by text chat or voices using a microphone . It’s easy to trivialize Cybersex as harmless fun, but doing so also trivializes illegal sexual activities such as the computer depiction of adults having sex with children .  While people should feel free to explore Cybersex as part of normal and healthy sex life, normal real world social rules and expectations need to still apply.


This post is a slightly modified version of a piece I wrote for a University assignment for the Curtin University Subject Internet Studies 102/502: The Internet and Everyday Life, answering the question: How far would a partner/spouse have to go online before it is considered cheating? Up to what point is flirting online acceptable? How ‘real’ is cybersex?

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Politics: Julia Gillard is My Facebook Friend

GetUp!

Democracy literally originates from ancient Latin as “government by the people” and as a system of government, it allows the citizens of a country to directly or indirectly participate and manipulate the legislative process. Only a few short years ago, for a single individual to be heard, required great effort, coordination and some luck. As a result politics evolved many defenses against individuals attempting to disrupt the status quo. This meant that citizen activism was slow, encumbering and difficult to coordinate en mass.

This is changing as the mainstream continues to adopt new Internet technologies and has created for itself “transformative opportunities related to key public sector issues of transparency, accountability, communication and collaboration, and to promote deeper levels of civic engagement.” This has resulted in an unprecedented and transformational level of citizen participation and organization. Where citizen activism used to take days, weeks or even months to coordinate, it can today be organized and executed, quite literally overnight. Getup.org.au (GetUp!) is a community advocacy group dedicated to getting greater community participation on important issues. They take a very strong and active role in Citizen Democracy; not only making suggestions, but also providing specific and intricate instructions on how people can engage in a number of specific political and social agendas. The site provides many examples on its front page, and these are constantly changing with an ever-changing social landscape.

Conversely, the Queensland Government’s Get Involved initiative is more about how the general public can participate in their local communities . There are suggestions towards influencing Government Policies and decision-making, but the bulk of the suggestions involve passive political activities, such as donation and volunteering and are reasonably ambiguous and nondescript. But its not just the underlying vagueness that is the problem with the Get Involved website.

The main issue is one of obviousness and one of timeliness; it provides dated, obvious suggestions for which most people would be already be aware (e.g., volunteering at a local school). However, the Government cannot be seen to be biasing or influencing the public, which stands to reason why the Get Involved website is quite generic in it’s suggestions. However, even after forgiving Get Involved for its politically sensitive content, I think the main reason why GetUp! is more successful, is because it selects highly specific language, which is clearly designed to invoke an emotive reaction as well as the specific links and activities to do something about it. This reduces social hegemony and action paralysis.

It’s indeed a microcosm for politics today; governments and politicians know they need to get engaged in new media, however, Social Media and the Blogosphere often cycle faster than Governments and Politicians can react. It’s interesting to me to see how the political machine will evolve and adapt to a more open and Internet-aware public.


This post is a slightly modified version of a piece I wrote for a University assignment for the Curtin University Subject Internet Studies 102/502: The Internet and Everyday Life, answering the question: Navigate around and discuss two of the following sites in terms of the kinds of involvement they encourage. (www.pm.gov.au, www.tonyabbott.com.au, www.getinvolved.qld.gov.au or www.getup.org.au)

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