Week 5: Scavenger Hunt

1. Where was the first University established and in which year?


Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, is considered to be the oldest university in the world. It was founded, in 969 AD. The first lecture was delivered in 975 AD. I found this answer on Yahoo Answers http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060729054252AAiUY0V
Accessed August 23rd 2011


2. What is Stephen Stockwell's band called and what does he play?  Can you name a couple of their songs?


Stephen Stockwell plays keyboard in The Black Assassins.  I found this answer on http://members.optusnet.com.au/~toxicoh/blackas.htm. Accessed August 23rd 2011.
A couple of their songs I could not find without using google.


3. What is the weight of the world’s biggest machine? How much did it cost to build?


The world's largest machine is the Bagger 228 digging machine weighing at around 45,000 tons. It cost $100 million US to build. I found this on http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Humor/Workshop/Trencher.htm, Accessed on August 23 2011


4. Who is Justin Bieber's lawyer, and what is the best way (quickest, most reliable) to contact the lawyer?

Justin Bieber's lawyer, almost impossible to find is Kenneth Feinswog. 

http://www.manta.com/c/mms3lh1/kenneth-a-feinswog-attorney Accessed August 23 2011

5. What is the cheapest form of travel from the Gold Coast to Melbourne?

At this very moment, $87 with Flight Centre economy class.  

http://www.flightcentre.com.au/product/1032390?WT.mc_id=dfa00011116 Accessed August 23 2011

6. Who is Hatsune Miku? What company does she belong to? What is her birthday?

Hatsune Mikuis a character from the Vocaloid Character Vocal Series synthesiser developed by Yamaha Corporation. Her Birthday is August 31st. 

http://www.animevice.com/miku-hatsune/18-20703/ Accessed August 23 2011

7. Find a live webcam in Belarus. Find a place to stay in Antarctica.

http://www.webcamgalore.com/EN/webcam/Belarus/Minsk/498.html 

That was hard to find, but Accessed on August 23 2011

8. What song was top of the Australian pop charts this week in 1991?

My familiarity with the ARIA charts made this question very easy to answer. It was Bryan Adam's song "Everything I do (I do for you)"  http://australian-charts.com/search.asp?search=Bryan+Adams&cat=s

9. What type of car is used to make ‘Google Street View’?

According to http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2007/05/google-maps-street-view-heres-how-they.html, accessed August 23 2011, Google uses a VW Beetle with a roof mounted high-def camera.

10. Translate these questions into Spanish and then translate them back into English.

¿Dónde estaba la primera universidad establecida y en qué año?
¿Lo que se llama la banda de Stephen Stockwell y lo que él jugar? ¿Puede nombrar un par desus canciones?
¿Cuál es el peso de la máquina más grande del mundo? ¿Cuánto cuesta para construir?
¿Quién es el abogado de Justin Bieber, y cuál es la mejor forma para ponerse en contacto conel abogado (más rápida, más fiable)?
¿Cuál es la forma más barata de viajar desde la costa de oro a Melbourne?
¿Quién es Hatsune Miku? ¿Qué empresa ella pertenece a? ¿Cuál es su cumpleaños?
Encontrar una webcam vivo en Belarús. Encontrar un lugar para quedarse en la Antártida.
¿Qué canción fue cima de las listas pop australianas esta semana en 1991?
¿Qué tipo de coche se utiliza para hacer 'google Street View'?
Traducir estas preguntas en español y, a continuación, convertirlos en inglés.

And in English...

1. Where was the first University established and in which year?
2. What is Stephen Stockwell's band called and what does he play?  Can you name a couple of their songs?
3. What is the weight of the world’s biggest machine? How much did it cost to build?
4. Who is Justin Bieber's lawyer, and what is the best way (quickest, most reliable) to contact the lawyer?
5. What is the cheapest form of travel from the Gold Coast to Melbourne?
6. Who is Hatsune Miku? What company does she belong to? What is her birthday?
7. Find a live webcam in Belarus. Find a place to stay in Antarctica.
8. What song was top of the Australian pop charts this week in 1991?
9. What type of car is used to make ‘Google Street View’?
10. Translate these questions into Spanish and then translate them back into English.

For this I used http://www.spanishdict.com/translation which I accessed on August 23, 2011

Week 4: Google+

I chose to write about the newest website of the social networking craze, Google +. It has only been around a few months and is the next addition to having an online life. I think it's clever and with work and time it will take over Facebook, and with the ability to separate family, friends and colleagues it's only a matter of time before everybody activates their Google + account and the Facebook accounts start rusting with our myspace accounts.

The terms and conditions are here: Google+ Terms and Conditions

In terms of content it seems we have a lot of options when it comes to privacy settings. We're able to control a lot of what people see, which is very convenient. All they ask is pretty simple. No nudity or other inappropriate images. By experience through friends, it seems Facebook is pretty on the ball with their removal of 'forbidden' material online. It seems they have a big team of people working on removing the reported images. While I still see the occasional inappropriate photo with an added date from '07, a lot of images are removed within an hour.

Week 4: Lecture & Tute

Growing up I did enjoy a good video game, as I'm sure many of us did. At a young age I was entertained by pretty much any style or genre of gaming. Back then, anything was fun. As I grew up I played some violent games in my time, but never considered any of it to be realistic. When you play these kinds of games you have to realise that it's not promoting this behaviour, it's simply letting you experience it so you don't have the urge in real life. I guess this worked for me, but not for Anders Behring Breivik, an extremist who killed 85 young people at a youth camp in Oslo, Norway. David Johnstone says "It didn’t take long for reports to claim that violent computer games were found at Breivik’s house. Nor did it take long for some to use this for their political advantage. However, since Breivik has published a 1500 page manifesto detailing all sorts of things, it is worth looking at this to see what he himself says about games." His manifesto details all of the games he played and basically formulates his plan of attack on all of the people he murdered.


Not all murderers are video game junkies, but it does make you consider how much of an influence these games do have on people. To think  - without these games, could it have possibly spared the life of 85 people? Obviously he has issues beyond his own self-control, but it is hard not to think that these games pushed his drive over the line to commit the crimes he did. So I think video games are fine if they are in the hands of the right people. But in Anders Behring Breivik's case, maybe it's not such a good idea.


Reference


http://davidjohnstone.net/blog/2011/07/anders-behring-breivik-and-violent-video-games


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/norway/8657475/Norway-killings-The-laughing-gunman-who-shot-85-young-victims-one-by-one.html


Accessed on August 18th 2011

Week 3: Old Internet Community

Having always been a fan of music and needing to own the albums I wanted, downloading them for free online always seemed like a smarter option and easier on the pocket money. From a young age I was downloading music as my two older brothers showed me the ropes. Way back we had Napster, but once the lawsuits started coming in for them, my brothers scouted out Kazaa, spelt 'KaZaa'.  It started out as a peer-to-peer file sharing application which almost instantly applied to music, soon becoming a very popular program to simply search a song and download it for free. 


However, Kazaa didn't have any virus protection and months down the line, the odds were that you were more likely to download a virus instead of a song. Alas, the end of our usage of Kazaa, as well as our computer. Since using Kazaa, we steer clear from all file sharing programs on our computers and laptops, even avoiding downloading Limewire for all the years it was popular. I'd like to say now we're loyal online customers for the iTunes store, and we were for a few years, but that's not the case anymore. Kazaa was a big contributor to my family's collection of music and now it's good to see that it is still active for people in the USA as an online store. It seems to be the direction of all the new file sharing programs to hit the net. Once they face legal challenges, they become a legitimate source for purchasing music.


After stealing millions of users from Napster, the appropriated file-sharing app Kazzaa slowly learnt that you can't get away with giving out free music. As for the future of free online file-sharing, it's still easy, free music is still accessible. More and more file-sharing programs are coming out along with websites simply feeding us torrents. So the future is looking rather repetitive and I think there will always be a new program or site for free music. Who knows, with the progression of Facebook's photo and file sharing now, maybe one day we'll be swapping music online while social networking.








References


http://www.dailytech.com/Kazaa+to+Pay+100+Million+to+Record+Labels/article3535.htm


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5220406.stm

Week 3: Databases

• What was Stephen Stockwell's first article in an academic journal? What year? Provide a full citation. What database did you use?
  

Stephen Stockwell's first article in an academic journal was "The Brisbane Model: considering a unique experiment", 1995 Urban Policy and Research Volume 13, Issue 2, pp. 89 - 96 via Taylor & Francis Online

• In which comic did Governor Slugwell appear? Which Issues? Give their full citation for the earliest. Where did you find this information? What database did you use?
  

Govenor Slugwell first appeared in a comic called 'Flaming Carrot Comics' by Bob Burden. He first appeared in 1985 in Issue 7 called 'When The Shoes Aren't Worth The Shine'. In order to find this information I searched 'Govenor Slugwell comic'. It was as simple as that and lead me to a database 'Underground and Independent Comics'

Burden B 1985, 'Flaming Carrot Comics', Issue 7. p 1-36

• What is the latest medical thinking on the dangers of mobile phones? Provide a full citation.
  

According to the Daily Mail UK, world health chiefs warn that mobile phones may cause cancer. "Mobile phone owners were urged to limit their use last night after the World Health Organisation admitted they may cause cancer.

The UN’s health agency advised ‘pragmatic’ measures to reduce exposure, such as using hands-free kits and texting instead of calling.

Fiona M 2011 'Mobile phones may cause cancer, warn world health chiefs' Daily Mail UK June 2011

• In Bladerunner, what is Leon's reaction when Holden asks him about his mother? Quote the 1982 draft script and provide a full reference.
  

"Leon looks shocked, surprised. But the needles in the computer barely move. Holden goes for the inside of his coat. But big Leon is faster. His laser burns a hole the size of a nickel through Holden's stomach. Unlike a bullet, a laser causes no impact. It goes through Holden's shoulder and comes out of his back, clean as a whistle. Like a rag doll he falls back into the seat. Big slow Leon is already walking away, but he stops, turns, and with a little smile of satisfaction fires through the back of the seat."

Fancher H, Peoples D, Webb D, Kibbee R 1982, 'Blade Runner', Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. Alexander Street Press,  via Trial Database and American Film Scripts.

Week 2: Own Experiences

Since my first mobile phone, the nokia 3315, I have upgraded every two years or so and seem to be able to do so much more to waste time on it. First it was all about texting and calling but with the introduction of the camera phone, mp3s and now the revolutionary iPhone, I don't think there's anything I can't do with my mobile phone. When I first started social networking using msn messenger and later myspace.com, I only used these when I was on a computer. But when I got an iPhone it was possible to go on msn, myspace and the latest craze facebook. To this day I religiously use facebook, it's accessibility and practicality makes it hard to avoid. With the ability to communicate with any of my friends, any time of the day, with the likely hood of them receiving anything I send instantly, I can't imagine it can get any easier. 

The only experience I've had with meeting a stranger over the internet was back in high school. My friend Troy, who was a stranger at the time, shared many mutual friends with me and I knew who he was through photos on the internet but had never formally met him myself. One day he added me on myspace.com and I accepted him, because I obviously knew who he was and thought maybe it could be the potential beginning of a new friendship. After talking online, we organised to hang out with some of our mutual friends. To this day, he remains one of my longest running friends and when it comes down to it, we have myspace.com to thank.

Week 2: Response

I searched 'new communication technologies' on youtube because I figured I'd be more likely to find a video just getting straight to the point. This video is of Lisa Lochridge, the director of Public Affairs, Adam Basford, National Affairs Coordinator, Kathy Richardson, A PR Program Manager and Scott Willin, a director of Industry Image and Relations. They discuss the development of new communication technologies and consider the future of technology as well.

One question I often get asked by friends is how to make a YouTube account. So in part II of the response I decided to find an online tutorial of how to create a YouTube channel, in the simplest way I could find. This lead me to this website called slideshare. It's a very accomodating website that gives users online help with everyday problems. See the link below

How to set-up a YouTube Channel

Week 1: Convergent Technology

In the week one tutorial we were asked to talk about a convergent technology. I thought of all the different technologies that have advanced through time and couldn't help but choose one of the most convergent technologies of our time.

Looking back through history to the invention of the very first car in comparison to the automobiles of today are quite a confronting contrast. Cars today implement all different devices and gadgets to improve the convenience of having a car. Car contraptions have come along way from the first invention of the car radio to now installing televisions, gaming consoles, GPS systems and overall having the ability to personalize your car as much as you can.

Here is a video called The Cars of Tomorrow. It was filmed in 1948 and promotes the future of automobiles. Popular Mechanics produced short films in the 1940s and 50s that showcased technology of the near and distant future. The narrator proclaims of the second car "If you're looking for a 1960 model, this may well be it!". It is funny to see how we think we can predict the future but this was filmed in 1948 and today, in 2011, there aren't too many of us driving around in 3-wheel-drives.

Week 1: Introduction

Hey everyone, I'm Jakob.
This is my first year doing a Bachelor of Communications. I'm not used to blogging. I've never really been the kind of person to do daily status updates or share copious amounts of personal information online or to many people in real life either. 
I do however have a personal blog that I use for my photos, still new to writing online.


That's all for now.