Thursday, August 27, 2009

Social Media

Tute Task Wk4 - Online Scavenger Hunt

Most of this task was complete using the search engine DogPile, which apart from being slightly slower than the other major players like Google, had sufficient results and could do relatively easy advanced searches, which was needed for some of the questions.


What did Alan Turing wear while riding his bicycle around Bletchley Park?

Alan Turing wore a gas mask while riding his bicycle around Bletchely Park, which his neighbours found quite odd, but he believed it was the best cure for airborne diseases. http://www.historyarticles.com/enigma.htm

On what date did two computers first communicate with each other? Where were they?

2. On October 2nd 1969 the first messafe was sent from one computer to another successfully. The message was ‘L’ and ‘O’. One of the computers was based in UCLA (University of California – Los Angeles) and the other was in Stanford University in Palo Alto almost 360 miles away. http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-5842105.html

What is Bill Gates’ birthday and what age was he when he sold his first software?

3. Bill Gates was born on October 28, 1955, in the USA. He sold his first piece of software at the age of 15 with the software Traf-O-Data, which measured the traffic flow in the Seattle area. These answers were found at http://www.woopidoo.com/biography/bill-gates.htm and http://www.entrepreneur.com/growyourbusiness/radicalsandvisionaries/article197526.html … using the search engine Dogpile.

Where was the World Wide Web invented?

4. At CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research), in Switzerland. http://www.boutell.com/newfaq/history/inventedwebwhere.html

How does the power of the computer you are working on now compare with the power of a personal computer from 30 years ago?

5. The power of the computer I am working on right now is massively different to that of what was used 30 years ago. It follows the theory that a computers power doubles ever 18 months and thus far has been true.

What is the weight of the largest parsnip ever grown?

6. The largest ever parsnip recorded weighed over 40 stones (254 KG) and was called Colin. http://www.thevoiceofreason.co.uk/2009/08/Parsnips.htm This link was found via the AltaVista web search site. Although i have reason to believe that this may not be true.

When did Queensland become a state and why is the Tweed River in New South Wales?

7. Queensland became a separate colony in 1859. http://www.parliament.curriculum.edu.au/qld.php3

What was the weather like in south-east Queensland on 17 November 1954?

8. Although the results have been slightly mixed it is either a flood in south-east QLD or a cyclone but I’m not super sure. It was coincidently the same day chopper reid was born in Melbourne.

Why is is Lord Byron still remembered in Venice?

9. Lord Byron is remembered in Venice for his acclaim that on 200 consecutive evenings he ‘had’ a different woman. http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/byron.htm

What band did Sirhan Chapman play in and what is his real name?

10. Sirhan Chapman was in a band named The Black Assassins formed in 1981. Although I have no sufficient proof redirections from search engines to other 1051HUM New_Com_Tech blogs believe this to be our lecturer the great Professor Stephen Stockwell. http://www.myspace.com/theblackassassins

http://for1501hum.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/ten-questions-and-answers/

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Playing an Online Game


When one plays a MMPOG (massively multi-player online game) they in sense take on the identity that they have chosen in the beginning as being themselves (in that world) i.e. your avatar can be a smooth looking billionaire, where as you your self could be living in your mothers basement eating microwave burritos for dinner every night). On the Internet no one knows who you are and because of this freedom people allow themselves to let loose and act in a total different way to that which they would in a setting with real people. These are the qualitative differences between textual chat rooms vs. 3d chat rooms, when someone plays a MMPOG they feel like they are in the game and it is part of their lives, without they have lost a part of who they are and many users become somewhat addicted and disconnected with the human world. When someone uses a chartroom they are not showing a little character of who they would like to be, what other people see and think of them is based on what they say in writing.

WoW Addiction

This video illustrates the mental capturing that some of these online games have on people. This is just one of many on YouTube.

Media Wk5


Technology is the study of mechanical arts and their application to the world. When we talk about what is commonly called “Social Media” we are talking about different ways in which we use technology to communicate with other people in a social setting (because it means social there is no need to call it “social Media”). On the Internet there are many different ways of doing this and the most recent popular type of this is social networking on websites such as Facebook, MySpace and Live Journal. Each one allows the user to send messages to their friends, post pictures, videos and music and also gives us the pleasure of giving status updates so we can know how our friends feel all the time whatever they may be doing. Of course there are many other types of Media on the net/ transferrable by the net. Another large one is Instant Messaging (IM) and video chat. Both allow the user/s to communicate to each other either by text conversations or face to face conversations, however each different type of communication on the net has its own distinct feel and people will act accordingly to what they are using i.e. they would be more respectful when talking face to face with someone as opposed to IM chat where your emotions are only displayed by text and emoticons. J

Monday, August 10, 2009

Your Rights On The Internet

Image (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons)

When talking about rights on the Internet you have to understand that there isn’t many. On most websites that your are freely allowed to join and post videos, blogs or photos you are bound to what is called a Creative Commons (this is the reason why MySpace and Facebook display random images of people on their home site). Social networking websites such as the largely used Facebook and Twitter all share what is called the Creative Commons (CC) meaning that while you own the picture or information that you put on their website they are allowed to used it for advertising purposes. Other versions of the CC allow others to share and redistribute your work as long as it’s not for profit and that they always credit you.

Other laws that apply on the Internet are the all-famous Copyright, which is means that all rights (or most) are reserved solely to the creator. And then there is SouceForge which was created to allow people to edit a piece of code however they like and to redistribute it freely however not for profit. This allows this allows code editors to rebuild programs to suit their needs while still having the core of the original program.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Tute 2

Pictured Left Steve Wozniak

Picture by gabemac on Flickr.


This is Steve Wozniak co-founder of Apple Inc with Steve jobs. He worked on making the componentes of making home PC's smaller so that they would appeal to a wire range of market after the release of their first home computer.


A video (story clip) from our first Lecture about Jesus as a cocaine dealer.






Todays lecture comprised of learning about the history of computers dating back to Industrial Revolution with the Luddiets who were opposed to the introduction of knew machines which could possibly take away their work and so would sabbotage them. In the late 1930's Britain and Germany started forming ideas that machines could do lafrge computing of numbers.
The 1960's saw the introduction of the transistor which in all means micromanages ellectrictiy which is now used in all computers because of the small size and its ability to handle large flows of electricity to a microchip.

In 1965 Gordon Moore wrote a paper stating that the computing power and capasity of microchips would double every 18 months and so far this has been true.