Puddle of Lecture Blog - Week 5

This week was interesting. We looked at some social networking sites, like twitter, and talked about others like facebook, myspace etc. We also looked at isolatr.com the rejection site for people you just don't like. We were all dubbed as "Social Media Experts". I didn't really know how to feel about that. To me it's more of another name for young tech savvy kids. We were introduced to 'Web2.0', the current state of the internet which includes using social networks as forms of communication, instead of email. The rapid, and constant growth of the internet is also a part of the Web2.0 title, in that it is always new and used for more than just calculations, word processing and emailing. The internet today, was described as a place where people with similar interests communicate through new media on the internet.

3D IMing Vs. 2D text IMing

My experiences with 3D Instant Messaging started when i was about 14, with Habbo Hotel. There i could pretend to be an 18 year old. I found it such an enticing thought i spent $75, on fake money, which they called habbo creds. BIG MISTAKE. To my disgust at the time, my account was cancelled for inappropriate behaviour, and i lost my $75 to the pixelated world of time wasting. Meeting new people nevertheless was fun and communicating with other adults (probably also 14 years old) was intruiging. Messagers like MSN i have used in the past, but their format is boring, so now i use facebook and use their chatting system, which is convenient when i want to be checking out photos of people and be doing some facestalking.

Week 4 tute task #2

Q: How do search engines rank the stuff they find on the internet?

A: According to the number of correct matches to a key word, and similarity to any implied contexts (bing.com uses this) a page will appear higher or lower in the search results. Commonly used sites eg. wikipedia will often appear high on the list, as visits to sites, such as this provide the person with the information they need.

Q: 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?

A: Some sites pay for a higher ranking in the search results. Apart from that though, i have little idea how one makes a site more useful other than being well referenced and with clear concise information easily accessible by the internet users.

Q: What are some of your favourite search engines? why do you like one more than others?

A: I have always used google. I do prefer it over others as it categorizes the results for me, by placing the image results on top, followed by the most visited sites, allowing me to find what i need quickly. I enjoy also using blackle.com (Google's energy saving search engine).

Puddle of Lecture Blog - Week 3, 4

Week three's lecture consisted of a whole lot of nothing with a side of nothing, thanks to the Ekka day holiday. With the absence of our lecturer, Steve Stockwell, our fourth week's lecture called for a substitute. We focussed on the language of film and television, eg. how we communicate to our audience through our use of specific techniques on the screen. This included head and talking space/room, where too little of either seemed to disconnect us from the image/person on screen and too much gave us a sense of discomfort and of abstractness.

Puddle of Lecture Blog - Week 2

In week 2, discussion followed that of the different companies in competition with each other to create the new best thing. These were Apple and Microsoft. We heard of the growth of the computer industry, from its birth to its relatively highly advanced state today. In the tutorials we learnt to create our own blog using blogger.com and posted our first post.

Puddle of lecture blog - week 1

Ahhhhh, yes. The first week of New Comm Tech. Well, simply enough, we explored how we today interact with technology, and how it came to be this way. Discussion of new medias, and their role in people's lives today, seemed to play the main role in the lecture. Additionally the rapid growth and expansion of the technology since its arrival was also discussed. We were shown a youtube video called 'Cocaine Jesus' demonstrating the use of new medias to tell and spread new stories. Polls were taken within the lecture to see how many of us used the new social networking tools available to us today, such as the now out-dated myspace, the simple yet informative facebook and the baby of the bunch twitter. With the results showing that facebook was most commonly used throughout the New Comm Tech horde.

Pizza Pizza Partay! Pizza Pizza Toot FrOO

Some Of My Favorite Ads

Tute week 4 answers... i think

1. Gumboots and a beanie. Or a gasmask because of his allergies :)
2. September 2nd 1969 at UCLA
3. a) Bill Gates was born October 28, 1955. b) ?
4. 1989 Tim Berners-Lee invents the WWW at MIT in the United States of America. or somewhere in europe (Switzerland) :D
5. ?
6. 8 pounds 6 ounces
7. a) 1901, during the referendum after the federation in the same year b)
8.
9. Love affairs with mediterranean women and young boys
10. a) Black assassins b) Steven Stockwell

all attained by using bing.com

'IT' is the best!

Two clips from the UK television series the IT CROWD. Both relate to hypothetical issues that we could be faced with today.
VERY VERY FUNNY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWc3WY3fuZU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rNgCnY1lPg&NR=1

So You Think You Can... Make Yourself Look Like An Idiot On The Dancefloor??

"Chernobyl child playing ping-pong", "Milk the Bull", "Arabic Aunt".... my life is complete

Richard Puddicombe: and the lure of the shiny buttons

Technology and Communication come hand in hand for me. From my first game-boy, to my most recently acquired MacBook Pro, i have always been in touch with technology, and not because i thought it was necessary... but because i wanted to. It did and continues to make me happy. Technology offered me a way to learn something new but also gave me the opportunity to have the biggest toy in the playground. So yes, since about the age of 5 i have been lured to the shiny buttons which beg me to press them again and again. Most technology just seems to find its way into my life, whether it's through the television or through spam email, my brain is always aware of the new and hip things about to hit the shelves.

For years it has been said that Diamonds and Dogs are humans' best friends. I don't know about that. My best friends are Facebook and iPhone. Facebook does enjoying hearing about my day and will sometimes delve a little deep into my personal info but that doesn't worry me... i mean it's safe right? So, i have nothing to worry about :). Facebook does offer me many benefits. Because of it, I have been able to get in touch with friends i haven't seen or spoken to in over 13 years. So i thank Mr.Facebook everyday for that. My iPhone is my source of joy each day. I have Facebook on my iPhone, making it the most convenient way to communicate with my friends. It has a camera, and the internet and a GPS and as many games as i can set my fingers onto. There's no reason to not get one!

I have never met a person on the internet and communicated with them on a personal level. It just doesn't seem quite right. I think it's because when you meet someone new you can read they're body language and interact with them in a 3D space. I have however posted on forums and spoke to people with common interests and concerns. It is quite strange as you never can tell whether the information you receive comes from an old pervert, a toddler, or a well-informed teen, but that's what makes it so fun!

Don't get wet blog puddlers!,

Dick P.

The Way Of The Future

Man #3 for such an old man, is still very in sync with the current technologies

This video shows the possible direction technology may take in this ever changing technological climate (minus guy #3 with the Fart Faxer).

Hello puddlers!

Im new to this *that's what she said*. This is officially my first blog. :) ,

Bloggin' Out!