Course round-up

So far the course is interesting and I'm learning a lot from it. For example, have a look at my Online C.V. and let me know what you think (click on the link). I know the web page is very basic, but it is my very first attempt at web design, something I never thought of ever doing. I plan to add to it as I learn more. So you never know, it could could all "singing and dancing" after a while. I am learning about the different protocols used in networking and their encoding. Also I have learned a bit about MPEG encoding, something I want to go into a little deeper. WHY IS THERE SO MANY CODEC's?
Our next lecture touches on peer to peer networking (file sharing) As I am interested in BiT-Torrent, (A form of file sharing, used mainly in sharing movies. Also see my links). this should be interesting.
Also, part of the lectures are videos on various topics on networking and the internet. These form a very important part of the course and I feel link the course to the "REAL WORLD". One of the video's was about "911", the World Trade Center disaster and how it affected the public telephone network. One of the buildings destroyed beside the World Trade Center contained one of the biggest public telephone switching nodes in America and all traffic had to be routed away from it. As was shown in the video, cables were even temporaly put through the office window of one building and into the window of another building across the street. It was truely was a feat of engineering. It also showed, how in times of crisis how much traffic increases on the public telephone network, with everyone desparate for information and how this was dealt with. Many people also started their own web sites, to list people that survived. It makes you think how much we depend on information.