Blog 3

Hey guys, back again after a well deserved Easter Break!!!!!

Some parts of this lecture were hard to get your head around. It was mainly based on Walter Benjamin, and how old communication technologies influence our modern society. Walter Benjamin endeavoured to explore the issues of mass media and how they have a dramatic impact on humanity.

Some of the old communication technologies mentioned included rock art, scripts, and tribal practices which were followed by print, telegraph, telephone, phonograph, radio, cinema television and video. Some of these ‘old’ technologies are still used today.

The idea of semiotics was then explored. Trying to clarify semiotics as best of possible, it was concluded that it is the study of signs. But not just everyday signs. It can include basic signs such as star signs and street signs, but also reaches out to words, body language and photography. An article on Big Things (such as the big banana which yes I visited over my Easter break) answered more of my lingering questions on what semiotics actually is. It seems semiotics can also act as an identity, as explored in the article by Steve Stockwell and Bethany Carlisle.

In our 4th tute, we talked about old communication technologies and hoe they affect today's society. We basically reviewed the lecture. We also started to think about our essay topics, which got my brain ticking.....

I guess you never know if your answers are 100% accurate when they are on the internet. However, in saying that, information that is on an accredited site such as a registered medical site can be much more accurate than that information supplied on a private blogger. Searh engines put the websites which have the most words relating to your initial search in them. Yes, I am prone to using google to search a lot of things. I think this exercise will open up my eyes to many more good search engines which I could be using.

1. Who was the creator of the infamous "lovebug" computer virus?
Onel de Guzman created the love bug computer virus.
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/06/29/philippines.lovebug.02/index.html
http://www.altavista.com/

2. Who invented the paper clip?
Erlman J. Wright invented the first official paperclip.
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/121017
http://http://www.answerbag.com/

3. How did the Ebola virus get its name?
The Ebola virus gets its name from a small river in northern Zaire near the village where the first isolate of the virus was obtained.
www.stanford.edu/group/virus/1999/yunnie/filovirus
http://www.dogpile.com/

4. What country had the largest recorded earthquake?
The largest recorded earthquake was in Chile.
http://www.earthquake.usgs.gov/learning/kids/facts.php
http://www.yahoo.com.au/

5. In computer memory/storage terms, how many kilobytes in a terabyte?
1 terabyte = 1 073 741 824 kilobytes
http://www.t1shopper.com/tools/calculate/
http://www.ask.com/

6. Who is the creator of email?
Ray Tomlinson created email.
http://www.forbes.com/asap/1998/1005/126.html
http://www.yahoo.com.au/

7. What is the storm worm, and how many computers are infected by it?
The storm worm is a trojan horse that affects computers using Microsoft operating systems. It has affected thousands of computers.
http://au.answers.yahoo.com/answers2/frontend.php/question?qid=20071201163655AA8cWhV
http://www.ask.com/

8. If you wanted to contact the prime minister of australia directly, what is the most efficient way?
People who wish to email the Prime Minister, the Hon. Kevin Rudd, MP will find a contact form on the Prime Minister of Australia website.
http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/contacts.asp
http://www.yahoo.com.au/

9. Which Brisbane-based punk band is Stephen Stockwell (Head of the School of Arts) a member of?
Stephen played keyboard for the Black Assassins.
http://www.griffith.edu.au/school/art/staff/stockwell.htm
http://www.yahoo.com.au/

10. What does the term "Web 2.0" mean in your own words?
Web 2.0 is a very broad word. It can be described as a set of practices that bring together sites that demonstrate these such practices.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html
http://www.dogpile.com