3D Worlds and Socialising on the Internet

"Active worlds," similar to many other 3D chatting programs available on the internet, transports users to a 3D computer world where they can interact with other users from all over the world. The majority of these programs have similar 3D characters on screen to the computer game "The Sims," except users can actually create their own characters to represent themselves. This medium not only allows users to communicate with random users from random parts of the world but also allows them to be a different character for a day, so to speak, should they so wish. This notion of cyber freedom is further accentuated when many of these 3D chatting programs allow users to build objects in their own worlds as well as to make a living in the cyber dimension. This is vastly different to using Instant Messaging (IM) programs such as MSN Messenger because the latter only allows users to chat with people they know. On MSN Messenger for example, a user must add another user's email address in order to communicate with them. Other internet applications such as IRC and chat rooms allow users to talk to random users, but not in a virtual world setting like 3D programs, and certainly do not give room to have a "second life" on cyberspace. With faster internet connections and improved technology, 3D worlds are increasingly becoming a popular medium of internet communication as well as recreation, making the world fit onto the keyboard and allowing cyber creativity like never before.

The Search Engine

According to Encarta, a search engine is "a computer program that searches for specific words and returns a list of documents in which they were found, especially through a commercial Internet service." Users of the engine type in a keyword, phrase or something they want to search and the engine will retrieve an index of what is stored in world wide web sites. This is done through what is known as a 'web crawler,' a type of robot browser that goes through the web and constantly retrieves pages it finds. The next step in the process is the indexing of pages according to the words contained in them. Special priority is given to headlines and titles to best fit the words that users type in. When results are shown, in general, they are ranked in terms of the number of other pages which have links to them. This is based on the common belief that if a web page is good, then other users and websites will put links to them. Criteria for page ranking is different from engine to engine, the above mentioned method however, is a common one. Some really good engines include Google.com which is the most popular by far as well as yahoo.com and altavista.com. Google is generally well-liked because of its speed and comprehensiveness in retrieving web pages. News regarding search engines in recent times have included Google, MSN and Yahoo! being under fire for cooperating with the Chinese Government to censor Internet content and helping to trace political dissidents who published their essays online in China. Both people involved were traced via their Yahoo! account and sentenced to 8 and 10 years in jail respectively! This raised controversy in the Western world because the view of the Internet being a medium for free speech and thought was challenged.

Scavenger Hunt

World's Biggest Pumpkin:

Ron Wallace holds the record for the world's heaviest pumpkin which weighs 1502lbs
(source: ABC- 49 news. website: http://www.49abcnews.com/news/2006/oct/09/worlds_heaviest_pumpkin_weighed/

Best Way to Contact Grant Hackett:

Contact Michael Wenden, Olympic gold medallist and a coach of the Australian swim team seeing as I know him personally hahaha. Otherwise, submit an enquiry to Swimming Australia on http://www.swimming.org.au/About%20Us/Contact%20Us.aspx, if they tell you they can't do it for you, there probably is no other way. His official fan site shut down in 2002 and there is no other fan site that gives contact information. Alternatively, if you can locate his manager, that would probably get you in touch with him.

Length of Giraffe's Tongue:

According to the Encarta Encyclopedia website, a giraffe can extend its tongue for as long as 45cm or 18 inches. more information can be found here: http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761561060/Giraffe.html#p12

The Definition of Ontology:

Encarta Answers defines ontology as: "the study of existence: the most general branch of metaphysics, concerned with the nature of being" More can be found at http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/search.aspx?q=define%3A+ontology\

David Croneberg's First Feature Film

"Stereo" was david Croneberg's first feature film. It went for 65 minutes and was made in 1969. More information on David Croneberg's work including his writing and producing of films can be found on http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000343/ a movie database.

Hacker's Manifesto:

The original Hacker's Manifesto was written on the 8th of January 1986 by 'The Mentor.' The piece remains popular today on hacker websites and can be found in full on http://cybercrimes.net/Property/Hacking/Hacker%20Manifesto/HackerManifesto.html. Cybercrimes is a site made by the University of Dayton's School of Law and hence quite a reliable source.

Phone numbers in Hollywood Films- Why do they ALL start with 555?

The following passage is from http://www.telephonecollecting.org/code.htm (extract from Mark Cuccia in Telecom Heritage Issue 27) responds to the above question: "The answer lies 30 years ago or more when the use of exchange names as part of the telephone number was still popular in the USA. Dials had letters as well as numbers and the first 3 letters of the exchange name were dialled followed by numbers. An example might be CENtral 78978. You dialled CEN 78978 or, using all numbers, 236 78978.

It so happened that 5 on the dial corresponded with J K and L and you can’t make any English place names using any combination of J, K and L as the first 3 letters. So the 555 code was allocated to service levels such as Directory Assistance, Operator, Repair Service, etc.

Due to the "low fill" of the 555 code, Hollywood was encouraged to quote 555 numbers in their productions to prevent real subscribers being harassed by members of the public trying out the numbers quoted on the screen. Generic and satirical advertisements and commercials often used 555 numbers. In the early days of exchange names the prefix KLondike-5 was used as this exchange did not exist. "

Cheapest Way to Get From Crete to Rhodes:

The 2 common ways to get from Crete to Rhodes are via ferry or airplane. There are many companies online that allow people interested to book via the web. Due to different offers and promotions that are constantly changing, no fare has been included in this scavenger hunt. A quick search on a search engine like altavista.com or yahoo.com would provide more than adequate options to choose from. The challenge then is to find the cheapest company on offer at that point in time!

Top of the Australian pop Charts this week in 1965:

The number one song of the pop charts in Australia this week in 1965 was "I'll Never Find Another You" by "The Seekers." this information was found on http://www.onmc.iinet.net.au/topspot/1965.htm

Steven Stockwell aka "The Lecturer's" Brisbane Band:

Steven Stockwell our lecturer was involved in the keyboard and vocals of the Brisbane punk band, 'The Black Assassins." His other many qualifications can be found on a Griffith staff website at the following url: http://www.griffith.edu.au/school/art/staff/stockwell.htm

Culture of the Internet

The internet is a form of new communication technology that many use to meet new friends. Although there is a plethora of applications like MSN messenger and MySpace available for communication and socialising online, in my opinion, they cannot ever replace or come close to having proper face-to-face contact and conversation with someone. Despite this however, I have to admit, that these programs make cross-border communication easier and more affordable. Coming from a different country and without internet technology I would have a hard time in keeping in touch with family and friends as well as an expensive phone bill. The net in my opinion, is also revolutionary for containing vast amounts of cheap, easily accessible information and research but, can be dangerous when people become addicted to the internet and spend all the spare time they have in front of a screen! I have been using the internet for a couple of years and was influenced to start using it basically because everyone else did. I also got MySpace because everybody else did. MySpace is a combination of blogging, text messaging, emailing and instant messaging, allowing users to meet and/or stay in touch with a vast network of people without giving them details that may be too personal including phone numbers or email addresses. A scenario where this might be useful could be meeting a friend of a friend at a social function and contacting them after through MySpace. Users can view the profiles of their "Friends" and the profiles of the "Friends" of these "Friends" and find people they know like real life friends or people with similar interests. Meeting people online like on MySpace however, is drastically different from meeting people in real life. One reason for this could be that communicating through the internet allows people to adopt a different persona online. In a broader context, the internet is a form of new communication technology I believe that has the potential for both good and bad and an incredible future filled with opportunities. In the near future I believe that this new technology will be even more advanced as more people learn to exploit its many opportunities (internet shopping in recent years, for example). Hopefully by then, we would not have also forgotten the value of other forms of communication! Human beings are born with the need to communicate and looking at the history of humankind to date we can look forward to newer and more advanced forms of communication technology that may even surpass that of the internet.

Introduction

Hey! My name is Daryl but I'm also known by many as daz, dazza, dazzle, dazmatron, bedazzle and anything with a d in it really... I've just turned 18 and enjoying life after school. Doing uni now which I think is interesting... sometimes anyway. For example, I've only just found out what a blog is today as part of my tutorial in New Communication Technologies. It's actually kinda cool seeing as I'm pretty clueless when it comes to computer and internet territory! I think communication is one of the most important skills you can learn because it's ESSENTIAL in anything you do, career and otherwise. Although I daresay blogging will not be an essential skill to put on a resume, it is an up and coming trend that's definitely worth learning about. Having practice and learning about the web and its possibilities is also something I'm looking forward to learning about in this course. Other than that, I hope through the course I can also brush up on my communication skills as well as gain a little insight into the world of communication technology with reference to its history, as well as appreciate more its importance in contemporary society. Just by glancing at the course outline though, I believe the subject will also help to lay a foundation in other arts/communication and journalism subjects...which is a good thing because that's what I'm studying...