This is my 7th blog entry and this one is going to be about Wikis. A Wiki is a page or collection of Web pages. They are deigned to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute of change the content. They are often used to create collaborative websites and also to power community websites. They are used in business to provide intranet and Knowledge Management systems. The developer of the first wiki software, WikiWikiWeb, Ward Cunningham, said that it was, "the simplest online database that could possibly work". WikiWikiWeb was designed in 1994. It was installed on the Internet on March 25, 1995. A Wiki invites all users to edit any page or to form new pages inside the Wiki. This does not need any extra add-ons. They are not carefully crafted sites for casual visitiors, but it seek to involve the visitor in an ongoing process of of creation and collaboration. they enable documents to be written collaboratively using a web browser. New pages can be created with ease and are very easy to update.
A good wiki is not complicated and is easy to navigate around the site. It allows people to add things as long as they are members. The Science Museum Wiki is successful as they can get feedback on what their visitors think of the Museum, rather than having to fill in questionnaires. They put info and pictures of objects in their museum and the visitors comment on them.
The Wiki for Lenovo Thinkpads is also successful as it gives product info. for potntial. buyers. This removes the hassle of having to phone Customer Support, which is often very time-consuming. Instead, one can post their question on the Wiki, and someone alse will answer it.
I think that Wikis are very useful as a group of students could create one and pull all the info together to have a much better document than each individual would have had had they done it on their own.
Both the England captain, Kevin Pietersen, and the Coach, Peter Moores are no longer working at the same jobs that they were two weeks ago. The latter was sacked, while the former resigned. Andrew Strauss has replaced Pietersen as the captain. Andrew Flintoff and other senior players in the England team have been criticised for not wanting Pietersen as captain. Flintoff has dismissed suggestions that he had sought Pietersen's removal as skipper. He said he wanted both of them to carry on their jobs. He also said that he supported Kevin as captain and he said that he enjoyed working with Peter. Pietersen resigned as captain last week and Moores was sacked by the ECB on the very same day.
The relationship between the two got stained the the tw0 tests in India as they had disagreements over training regimes and then by the decision to leave Michael Vaughan out of the forthcoming to to the West-Indies. Flintoff admitted that he had not realised the impasse of the two men, having only just returned to the squad following time out because of and ankle injury which he was recovering from.
Both of these events has left England's Ashes preparations in disarray. Having been favourites to win the series, England are now almost certain to lose.
So, this is my third blog entry and now I am going to do one about Google Earth, Google Maps and Google Sky. I think that Google Maps is really good. It has the whole world mapped down so you can look at any part of the world, when you want, and where you want. You can also get directions from place to place. This is much easier than having to find the destination in the map, then finding your home, and then working out which route to take. With Google Maps, you type in the destination postcode, or city, or road, and then type in type in the postcode of where you are going from. It gives you the quickest route and even gives an estimate of how long it should take, traffic permitting. It gives you a sheet of directions to take ant a map as well. Ok, it's not as good as a TomTom or SatNav, which work out the best route depending on the time of day, the day and the traffic, but TomToms and SatNavs are not free and Google Maps is.
Google Earth is also fantastic. You can view any part of the world, and it is in much fore detail than Google Maps. In Google Earth, you can also view the Earth in Satellite view. You can also get directions on Google earth, and they are very similar to those of Google Maps. It gives a sheet of directions and also a map. I think that the directions on Google Earth are more precise, as it marks the places where a new direction is on the map, something which Google Maps does not.
In my mind, I think that both Google Maps and Google Earth are very good, but Google Earth is more precise and better.
Kevin Pietersen has recently said that he did not in any way persuade any of the England Test squad to return to India after the terror attack in Mumbai, although he said that if necessary, there would be a collective decision to come home. He said, "It's fantastic if the guys to want to go and rub shoulders together with India at a time of need." He also said ,"It's a huge stance by this England team to jump on a plane and go and do the business." The 23-man squad will travel to Mumbai on Monday following their landing in Abu Dhabi.
Because of the risk of airborne attacks, Indian airports have been put on high alert.
Stuart Broad is staying in England to receive treatment for a hamstring injury, but will join up with the squad in Chennai where he will have a fitness test. Ryan Sidebottom is missing the tour altogether after not recovering from a side strain picked up in the one-day series.
This is the squad for the two match test series.
KP Pietersen (capt, Hampshire), TR Ambrose (wkt, Warwickshire), JM Anderson (Lancashire), IR Bell (Warwickshire), SCJ Broad (Nottinghamshire), PD Collingwood (Durham), AN Cook (Essex), A Flintoff (Lancashire), SJ Harmison (Durham), MS Panesar (Northants), MJ Prior (wkt, Sussex), OA Shah (Middlesex), AJ Strauss (Middlesex), GP Swann (Nottinghamshire).
Performance squad: RS Bopara (Essex), MA Davies (Durham), RH Joseph (Kent), A Khan (Kent), SI Mahmood (Lancashire), SR Patel (Nottinghamshire), LE Plunkett (Durham), OP Rayner (Sussex), A Richardson (Middlesex), AU Rashid (Yorkshire).
India have given Yuvraj Singh one more chance to resurrect his test career after being slelcted for India's 15-man squad for the series against England. He is expected to replace Surav Ganguly's place at number 6. Pragan Ojha, a left-arm spinner has also been recalled and M Vijay and S Badrinath have been kept as reserve batsmen. RP Singh, the left-arm seamer, has been dropped to be replaced by Ojha
Here is the India squad:
India squad: Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, M Vijay, S Badrinath, Pragyan Ojha.
Hugh Morris, the ECB chairman, says that England will return to India, following the terrorist attacks.
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