Week 5:Photos

For this weeks task, I have chosen to grab some of my photos off my Myspace Sight, and also from image search engines, as I do not have a digital camera at my disposal.



Friends:

This photo I feel is a good representation of Friendship. This particular photo was taken on my Eighteenth Birthday Party, these are some of my Friends.-

From left to right: Zac, Scott, Rob, Nathan, Luke, Liam, Myself and Melita.

Technology:

This Photo is of the back Roll Cage assembly and chassis stiffening on Nobuteru Taniguchi's Drift Racing Toyota Aristo. This Roll Cage is not only for safety purposes, it also ties the whole car together, allowing it to act 'as one' through the bends, minimizing chassis flex. I think that this is a good representation of Technology, as the assembly of the cage has been highly researched ( Type of metal used) and calculated (strength) and has been made to exacting specifications.

Image was taken from: http://www.superstreetonline.com/featuredvehicles/130_0508_toyota_aristo_drifting_car/photo_07.html

News:

Although this is incredibly sad, the first thing that comes into my mind when I think of News is Televisions sometimes brutal slaughtering of Current Stories. In particular Today Tonight's Naomi Robson's face pops into my head.


This Image was Taken from:


http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/enews/Networks_swarm_to_Crocodile_territory_060906.html

Summer:


This picture is what I think of when I think of summer. A beach with people sunbathing, people swimming and just relaxing in general. This particular beach is Cable Beach in Broome.


This Image was taken from:

http://www.australianbedandbreakfast.com.au/west-australia-bandb/gallery/images/cable-beach-broome.jpg

Unconventional:

This is Slipknot. They look quite unconventional. they dress in elaborate costumes for every concert they perform, and didn't have a public persona as such until recently. This is also quite abnormal, as most people who are that famous and successful would be eager to get the fame and exposure that comes with the fortune.

This image was taken from:

http://www.dbmagazine.com.au/349/iv-Slipknot.jpg

Uni Life:

This picture is what I immediately think of when I think of university life-being stressed out and still having a lot of work to do!

This image was taken from :

http://www.bohcooper.com/images/Studying-Boh.jpg

What is a Search Engine? Part 2b

A search engine is a mechanism that allows for pieces of information from many different parts of the Internet be retrieved once a specific Word or phrase had been entered, and searches have found results that match the criteria that the user has entered.

Firstly, a device called a Web Crawler is used to search the entire World Wide Web, and goes through and stores every page that comes up with the entered search criteria. The search engines then rank certain items of info or sites relating to the entered criteria by a few different ways. The first is to save a Cache (part or all of a source page) and then organises the index of pages in order of relevance. This is the way that Google's search engine works. Others , such as Atavista, takes every word of every page that relates to the search, and then index all the words, and this means that their cache always holds the text entered, or search criteria.

when one page comes up before another, alot of the time this is due to the cache being more relevant, and this is due to there being more key words that match the entered criteria.
Although some pages are more relevant than others, in that the caches that they hold contain more relevant search outcomes, some search engines are funded and supported by Advertising, and as such allow for their higher paying customers to receive a higher index rank in exchange for payment. this is not always the case though, as some search engines, such as Google, open up a separate results section for their contributing clients.

My favourite search engine is Google. I like it because it is easy to use, I am familiar with it, and it has a lot of new and useful software under its company and site. some of these extra programs include:
-Google maps
-University search
-Image search
-online Documents and spread sheets
-Google Earth
-Google Translate
-Google News
and Blogger.com!!

Recently, Google has been in the news for a few reasons.
One is that they are including three new software updates; , PC Tools Spyware Doctor Starter Edition, Symantec Norton Security Scan and Google Photos Screensaver.

Link to the site: http://www.informationweek.com/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=198700381

This will allow for increased security online, which is the most important recent addition, and protecting your computer from spyware that can be picked up on sites you frequent on Google is also another important feature.

Task Three, Scavanger Hunt. Part 2a

.1:What is the weight of the world's biggest pumpkin?
-using altavista.com-
URL: http://www.pumpkinnook.com/giants/record.htm
according to the above source, the worlds largest Pumpkin is 1502 pounds (681.295kg) and this was grown by Ron Wallace of Greene, Rhode Island. it was weighed on the 7 oct, 2006.

2: What is the Best way (quickest, Most reliable) way to contact Grant Hackett?
-using icerocket.com-
-http://granthackettonline.free.fr/-
This is Grants Site, and you can leave messages for him on this site.

3:What is the length of a giraffe's tongue?
-using a9.com
-http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-giraffe.html
according to the above source, the length of a Giraffe's tongue is 18-20 inches, 46-50cm.

4. How would you define the word 'ontology'
- using altavista.com
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology-
Ontology as i understand it is in the branch of metapyisics, is the study of the nature of existence or being as such in the world. It has one main question which is "what really exists?"

5:What was David Cronenberg's first feature film?
-using altavista.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lynch
-Eraserhead, 1971

6. When was the original 'Hacker's Manifesto' written?
using Wikipedia.org-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_Manifesto
- 1986, January 8th

7. Why do all phone numbers in Hollywood films start with '555'?
-using metacrawler.com
found on http://www.freefilmschool.org/ffs/06more/6-2-100.shtml
- So that people dont get an actual Persons number if they try to ring the number on screen, it wasnt until recently that it became a phone number. it is possible if you use a real persons phone number, that can be considered an invasion of privacy.

8. What is the cheapest form of travel from Crete to Rhodes?
- using metacrawler.com-
- http://www.greecetravelpage.com/aboutgreece.htm
apparently Ocean Travel is the cheapest of all options.

9. What song was top of the Australian Pop Charts this week in 1965?
- Using Alstavista.com
-http://www.popculturemadness.com/Music/Pop-Modern/1965.html
The Beatles, Eight days a week

10. Which Brisbane band includes Stephen Stockwell on keyboards and vocals?
http://www.brisbanewritersfestival.com.au/2005/content/standard.asp?name=StockwellS
-The Black Assasins

Me and New Communication Technology, Week 3

I think that if I didn't use the amount of new communication technology that I do at present, then I would not have nearly as much connection with my friends and family.

I don't live very close to any of my friends, and so in order to keep in touch with them, I use means and methods other than face to face communication.

Take my mobile phone, for the first example. Without this seemingly small object, I would lose contact with my friends if they wanted to meet me somewhere, and more importantly I would not be able to call anyone if in the case of an emergency.

The reason I got a mobile in the first place was because I felt the need to keep in contact with my family when I started driving by myself, just in case I had a crash, or needed to call for help if I found someone in a serious state after an accident. For this reason I think that it is extremely important to have my mobile on me, at least when i am driving.

Another form of new communication technology I use quite regularly is the internet. Wether it is talking to my friends on MSN messenger, or posting on Myspace, this consumes a lot of my 'online-life'. Although I don’t use the internet to meet people in the sense of randomly talking to new people, I do get to notice 'regulars' on certain forums I am on. This means that I get to know people from what they post up, but I don’t actively seek these people out.

I have been using MSN messenger since I was 15 years old, and still use the same account. This is an easy way for me to chat with my mates when they are online, and organise up coming activities. It helps to keep me in touch with people, where ever they are, local to me, or on the other side of the country (in this case it saves the cost of a long distance phone call).

My Friends were the biggest influence on me using the internet based Communication, and the purchase of my mobile phone was most influenced by my parents, perhaps to make sure they could always get a hold of me.

Introducing Myself

Hello!
Firstly I would like to introduce myself. My name is Matthew Dart, I am eighteen years old, and currently live in Cabbage Tree Point, 30 minutes from the Gold Coast. I attend Griffith University on the Gold Coast, and thus I spend most of my time on the Coast. I have a part time job at MacDonalds where i work a few hours a week.
My main interests are cars and the beach. I think the reason that i like cars so much is that there are so many different types of cars (makes, models, variants, special editions), and then when you modify a car, it is possible to make it entirely your own creation, a four wheeled representation of yourself if you will. I love the beach because it is a cleansing feeling to go into the water, excercise and have fun.
I have only just started my studies at Griffith Uni, and I am liking it so far. I seem to have made good choices in my enrollments, as I am starting to make connections with topics in my lectures, and getting settled into my tutorial classes. This class in particular (New Communication Technology) is appealing to me because I find it really interesting to see how different forms of technology combine to create or connotate a certain feeling or idea.

Thankyou for reading so far, and I hope to develop this space in the coming weeks into a more interesting and informative space.
-Matthew