Day 3 - Social Media

[ Image retrieved from http://thefuturebuzz.com ]
Social media is a wayh people can communicate with eachother especially online. This online communication can be through programs and services such as Facebook, Myspace, America Online, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messanger. In the early 90's online social media was more based on discussion forums, so groups of people with similar interests could talk and discuss about a topic, even though this is defiantly still available, social media has turned to a egocentric and individual focus. The individual focus has moved away from disccussion forums and more on the individual person, how they present them selves and who is wanting to talk to them. This change has allowed people to experiment with online identities, by been able to represent themselves in a perfect and always at there best, or a completely different personality that they can experiment with. Sherry Turkle implied that what we put online is what we want to be known as. This approach is starting to look at more of an individual view, about the people who use the internet and how alot of it channels into the person. For example, lets use facebook and how your profile is about you and what you do with your life. Look at all the "cool" and exciting things I get up to and all these people I know. Now obviously that is not how everyone uses facebook, but if you were to look at peoples profiles it seems as though it is an athem and everyone is singing my that persons tune.

DAY 3 TUTORIAL EXCERSISE

1.What did Alan Turing wear while riding his bicycle around Bletchley Park?
he wore a gas mask to avoid hayfever.
I found this using BING
http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/content/museum/tour28.rhtm

2.On what date did two computers first communicate with each other? Where were they?
They first communicated in 1969 in california

3.What is Bill Gates’ birthday and what age was he when he sold his first software?
His birth date is 28/10/1955 and sold his first software as microsoft (this was found using dog pile at culture base website)

4.Where was the World Wide Web invented?
It was invented by Berners-Lee and Cailliau at CERN. Info Found using BING.
http://www.boutell.com/newfaq/history/inventedwebwhen.html

5.How does the power of the computer you are working on now compare with the power of a personal computer from 30 years ago?
The altair was first in 1975 with a Intel 8080A (rarely 8080), 2 MHz, 256 Bytes. This information was found at http://www.old-computers.com/MUSEUM/computer.asp?c=62
. The power of computer now are can go up to gigs of ram and just are really reall powerful

6.What is the weight of the largest parsnip ever grown?
found at 8 lb 6 oz http://www.vintageassessments.com/vd/rawf_2003.html

7.When did Queensland become a state and why is the Tweed River in New South Wales?
In 1859, Queen Victoria signed Letters Patent, which declared that Queensland was now a separate colony from New South Wales. Queenslanders celebrate June 6 every year as Queensland Day, the day which marks the birth of Queensland as a self-governing colony. answer found at http://wiki.answers.com/Q/When_did_Queensland_separate_from_New_South_Wales


8.What was the weather like in south-east Queensland on 17 November 1954?
It seemed as though there was no signigicant events on that day.
http://www.bom.gov.au/hydro/flood/qld/fld_history/floodsum_1950.shtml

9.Why is is Lord Byron still remembered in Venice?
I found this on Bing and the reason why he will be remembered is because he had an affair with Teresa Guicciol, the wife of a nobleman. He was also a romantic poet. Information found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/byron_lord.shtml

10.What band did Sirhan Chapman play in and what is his real name
Sirhan chapman plays in a brisbane band known as the Black asassins. http://www.blackassassins.net/Download.html

TUTE TASK 2

How do search engines rank the stuff they find on the internet?
They use what is known as the "page rank system". This is basically a popularity contest where website swith more links coming in deem it more important.
Found at; http://www.seowebsitesdesigners.com/search_engine_optimization/how_do_search_engines_rank_websites.html

who, or what, makes one page (that you might get in your search results) more useful than another one, so that it is put at the top of your search results?
Clicks and popularity

what are some of your favourite search engines? why do you like one more than others?
Google is my favourite. The reason google is my favourite is because it has other features with it. Like google scholar, google maps, google images etc. This allows it to be more universal, more stuff in the 1 place. Google is also a very fast search engine, it has limited title page images and has nearly always presented me with relelvant information to my topic being searched.