Favourite Search Engines and Why?

Our task is to answer the following questions! And yes I have used my favourite search engines to answer them in certain areas! :D

How do search engines rank the stuff they find on the internet?
The various search engine sites work in different ways, but they have a commonality, which is they use a web-crawler (also known as a web-spider) to retreive information from the sites and save it in their databases. This is where the different search engines work differently, Google stores only main important phrases, whilst sites like AltaVista stores all the information. That is why when searching different results appear. It also very much depends on the success of a site (hits it has).

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?
The relevance of the information in coherence to the words one has searched with. Also how popular the site is with other people having done similar searches would definitely affect the ranking of it.

What are some of your favourite search engines? Why do you like one more than others?
My favourite search engines would be: Google.com without a doubt, and then wikipedia.org and dictionary.com. The key word for google.com being my favourite search engine is because I'm so used to it and know how to use its advanced options, which has enabled me to find the results I want much faster than when I use other search engines.

Wikipedia.org is my favourite site when it comes to gathering background information on things, places, people etc. as it is a collective effort of people. It is an ever-evolving encyclopedia, which makes it great as it is always up-to-date.

Dictionary.com, I use for finding definitions and synonyms as I have gotten used to it and find it very helpful.

Quick 10 Questions!

Our task: Answer 10 questions given to us by our tutor! The following questions were answered by checking on other sites/search engines to verify the information found was accurate. Questions are in black and answers are in orange.

1. Who was the creator of the infamous "lovebug" computer virus?
Onel de Guzman, 24, a computer school student from the Philipines.

Source:

http://premium.asia.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/06/29/philippines.lovebug.02/index.html

2. Who invented the paper clip?
Johan Vaaler (Norwegian), Cornelius J. Brosnan (American), and William Middlebrook all have had a huge part in the invention/creation of the paper clip. Johan Vaaler got the patents on his invention the paper clip in Norway, Germany and then the United States. Corneluis J. Brosnan also received patenting rights in the United States and last but not least William Middlebrook had the patenting rights on the "Gem" paper clip (only the machine though).

Source:
http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20031120.html

3. How did the Ebola virus get its name?
It was named after the Ebola River in northwest Democratic Republic of the Congo where the disease was first noticed.

Source:
http://www.answers.com/topic/ebola?cat=health

4. What country had the largest recorded earthquake?
Chile, it happened in 1960, and it happened roughly 100 miles off the coast, and the epicenter itself was only 60 meters below the surface.

Source:
http://www.extremescience.com/GreatestEarthquake.htm

5. In computer memory/storage terms, how many kilobytes in a terabyte?
1024 x 1024 x 1024 = 1073741824. So 1,073,741,824 kilobytes in a terabyte.

Source:
http://malektips.com/computer_memory_definitions_0003.html

6. Who is the creator of email?
A computer engineer called Ray Tomlinson invented internet-based mail (also known as: email) in late 1971.

Source:
http://inventors.about.com/od/estartinventions/a/email.html

7. What is the storm worm, and how many computers are infected by it?
It starts with an email, and once the email is opened an file attached is executed, and then spread. One's computer becomes apart of the "Storm Botnet", which basically means a network where one's RAM, harddisk space, and computing power is used in a "collective" net. It is estimated to have infected betweem 2 and 5 million computers.

Source:
http://what-is-what.com/what_is/storm.html

8. If you wanted to contact the prime minister of Australia directly, what is the most efficient way?
Through either of these sites:
http://www.alp.org.au/people/qld/rudd_kevin.php
http://www.myspace.com/kevinrudd

9. Which Brisbane-based punk band is Stephen Stockwell (Head of the School of Arts) a member of?
The Black Assassins.

Source:
http://www.griffith.edu.au/school/art/staff/stockwell.htm

10. What does the term "Web 2.0" mean in your own words?
With over 9.5 million hits on Google.com, there is much dispute as to what Web 2.0 means. Some people believe that it is simply a meaningless marketing buzzword created to create hype. Others believe its all the elements of the internet that have some form of networking involved; BitTorrent, Google, Wikipedia etc. Where people come together and share/do something together, a community feeling.

Source:
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html

How Do I Make Use of Communication Technologies?

In this blog I am going to talk about how I make use of modern day technology to keep in contact with friends and family. I also look at my concerns of facebook, and also define how much I use the various communication services.

Facebook, the networking site that enables me to view what my friends and family are up to, and also re-establish communication with old friends. I'm really thankful that the site exists as I travel a lot and so do my friends, so it's a great way to stay in contact. For example now I'm studying in Australia after having lived in Denmark for 12 years. Which basically means that all my friends are back home in Denmark or somewhere else in Europe studying. It may sound a bit odd, but the site helps making me feel less home-sick as I still can follow their lives even though I am physically not there. Facebook also allows one to upload pictures and keep friends updated.

On facebook I'm not worried about people "lurking" and viewing my profile, but I am concerned that if companies were to view pictures of me partying etc., it may give a dimmed image of who I am. As I would consider myself a person that enjoys partying but at the same time also likes to focus on my studies. Therefore certain images may give the wrong impression of who I am academically.

Another great service that I use is Skype and MSN. I use it to keep in contact with friends back home in Denmark. And before I left Denmark I set up Skype on my mum's computer, so she also knows how to use it now. When chatting with my mum we also use webcam, as she wants to see how I am, which she feels she can do better if the webcam is on. The fantastic thing about Skype is that you can "multi-chat", so at times I am sitting and chatting with 5 of my friends back home. It's great it "nearly" feels like one is sitting with them. That is one thing that I was surprised with and that was that there is no delay or lag at all when chatting with my friends back home (although the webcam images are a bit choppy).

SMS'ing is something that I also do often as it is a small text message, which is fast and quick. It's great when arranging gatherings as you can multi-send an SMS message. And of course I use the mobile for not only SMS'ing but also making phone calls.

Last but not least is blogging as a communication technology that I use. Today we learnt how to create a link list, which basically is a list of blogs that you keep an eye on. Before the class of New Communication Technologies I had never created a blog before, which I now realize is actually a good way to keep track of events and things that have happened to oneself. It also is another way of keeping your friends up-to-date on what's happening with you.

To summon up I use MSN-chatting the most and have used it for several years now. I would spend roughly 30-60 minutes on MSN chatting everyday. Skype on the other hand I haven't used untill roughly 4 months ago as I used to use another voice chat program called Ventrilo (www.ventrilo.com), but would now use the program roughly 10 minutes a day. It works in another way, one has to be hooked up to a server, therefore one can't make direct calls to someone like one can in Skype, but on the other hand it uses less bandwidth as it is a server hosting the connection and not oneself. I would probably send 5-10 SMS's a day.

All-in-all I would consider myself an avid user of new communication technologies as it is easy and simple and its a great way to keep in contact. Definitely Internet > letters!

G'Day Mate!

A very sterotypical phrase most non-Australians want to hear when arriving here! And I have yet to hear an Australian say that! (Sighing while writing this.... quite disappointed!)

Two weeks ago I moved from the cold winter that was in Denmark to the sunny Gold Coast in Australia. Why would I move to the other side of the earth you may ask? Yeah it sounds impulsive and everything but it all started roughly 3 years ago when I visited my sisters for Christmas on the Sunny Coast, and fell in love with the country and the culture. People here are so outgoing and happy all the time and especially the people on campus are great. Living in the Griffith University Village (the picture is of GriffithUV) is also great, as one is "forced" to meet people all the time, and therefore make friends fast seeing as I didn't know anyone before arriving. Everyone is in the same boat, all a bit nervous and jittered but all embracing the feeling of uni with open arms!

After having only been here for roughly 2 weeks I already feel that I have a solid group of friends, and a girlfriend which definitely has meant I have yet to feel home-sick even though I have a great handful of friends back in Denmark. I haven't regretted moving here, nor will I, I'm loving every minute down here!

I will also be seeing family soon as my brother will be getting married in 2 weeks time in Melbourne, where everyone will be gathered!