Posting a video on Youtube

3D Chat Rooms vs Instant Messaging Programs

Todays task was to examine the differences between instant messenger programs (such as Skype and MSN) and 3D chat rooms. Instant messaging programs are simple, convenient and allow users to communicate on a very relaxed basis. However it is evident from exploring 3D chat room sites that there is a much higher degree of communication. This is highly due to the fact that users create a virtual person known as an avatar. This gives users better ideas of who they are talking to. The possibilities on 3D chat worlds are much broader. Not only can users type to eachother, but they can also dance, walk, flirt etc.

New Communication Essay

Has Virtual Reality gone too far?

The Internet is the fastest growing type of technology on the planet. Therefore it is no surprise that with the increased interaction over the World Wide Web, alongside the rising popularity of social networking websites, that virtual reality is the next big phenomenon operating in the cyber world. The first applications that spring to mind are websites such as Google Earth and Online Poker. But there are much larger, diverse programs out there, known as ‘Virtual Worlds.’ These are places where real users create avatars that virtually live in a digital utopia.

Arguably the most popular and successful virtual world is known as Linden Lab’s ‘Second Life.’ Where users create cartoon human figures that respond to keyboard commands and socialize with others' characters. The probable reason for its success is widely due to the fact that unlike other virtual worlds, the game has no specific objective, very much like the real world. The similarities do not stop there. Millions of dollars of actual money is passed around each day through buying, selling and trading almost anything. This open-ended digital environment is a second home to over 6 million registered users. These include a vast array of citizens such as Former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina and a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination who has opened a virtual campaign headquarters. Countless numbers of companies such as IBM, Reuters and even Adidas have jumped on the bandwagon reaping the rewards of widespread digital publicity. Even countries such as Sweden and Maldives have created virtual embassies in the game.

The fact that real people are making real money in a pretend environment shows that interactivity has reached a new level and no longer must someone work 9 till 5 to make a living. From clothing and accessories, to land and property, anyone is now able to create something in a pretend world, sell it to a pretend person and earn real money in real life. It is clear that the boundaries have been broken and there now lays a parallel world, the only difference is that it is a cyber world. Whilst most view this as an exciting break through, others aren’t so accepting. There are issues that need to be raised such as a moral behavior in the virtual world, copyright laws and even a person’s rights.

A fact of life is that when there is money to be made, people will be there and they will fight to get it. Therefore it seems logical to bring in copyright laws after there have already been countless conflicts of people stealing another persons virtual creations. Lawsuits include cases of someone breaking into a virtual house, a case of alleged rape, where a character supposedly raped another character and even someone accused of stealing ideas for clothing that another user designed and sold.

Copyright laws are probably the easiest and least complex law to enforce in Second Life. It is common enough in the real world to sue someone if they stole an idea off someone else for money. Therefore it should be understandable enough that rules and laws should be enforced for Second Life. Since there is money involved, copying is a money killer. Just like in the real world, it should be illegal for someone else to profit over somebody else’s ideas. Recently, a downloadable program called ‘copybot’ was designed for the Second Life game. This obviously created uproar due to the fact that now any user had the resources to duplicate any other item, accessory or house in the game. When something is scarce it has a high value, however creations are pointless if users can easily clone it instead of buying it. This resulted in Second Life merchants going on strike and shutting their stores until action was taken.

The reason that defining other laws are so difficult to deal with in the game is largely due to opinions believing that it would be ludicrous to fine or potentially send someone to jail all over a video game. Mixed feelings are evident when asked if the law enforcement should patrol the digital frontier. Another problem is that each country has different treatments for breaking certain rules. For example, it becomes unclear of what to do when a 34 year old male from Australia has virtual sex with a 19 year old female from the United States. The issue is that in Australia the man is not committing a crime, yet in the United States he is virtually having sex with a minor. Virtual renderings of child abuse are not a crime in the United States, but are considered illegal pornography in Germany. There is also the issue of charging the avatar or the player. For instance, if a male avatar was seen having sex with a female child avatar, despite both players being middle aged men. Even if charges could be laid, it would be hard to determine whether this was statutory rape or child pornography.

I believe that behavior in the virtual world of Second Life should be treated with the same moral ground of someone in the real world. Disgusting online acts should not be seen as digital fiction, considering that too many other elements of the game have the same regulations as in real life. It should not matter whereabouts in the world that the user controlling the avatar is from, nor should it matter how old the user is. There should be an official, prosecutable and consistent virtual justice system used by Linden Labs to ensure that proper conduct is strictly adhered to in the virtual world. Whilst meantime, the users of Second Life should all see themselves as citizens of a new place, not their individual countries.

Reference to Academic Journal Articles:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1570708,00.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/01/AR2007060102671_pf.html

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/34598/118/

http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2008/02/07/virtual-retailers-decry-second-life-crime-wave/

http://thinkorthwim.com/2006/11/16/copybot-copyright-issues-in-second-life/

http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/commentary/circuitcourt/2006/11/72143

Reference to Websites:

http://www.secondlife.com

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com

http://www.sciencedaily.com

http://searchcio-midmarket.techtarget.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b72CvvMuD6Q

Microsoft Excel Task

The Microsoft Excel task was considered as a lot more complex for me, due to the fact that I have had very little experience with the software. However I believe I did a good effort at entering and presenting data and using basic formulae. This was mostly due to the fact that I am familiar with computer toolbars in other Microsoft office programs. I had much more trouble when it came to using macros. This was too complex for me and I was unable to complete the task. However all in all, I learnt a lot about using Microsoft excel from the task and will be much more confident using it in the future.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia Article 1: City Beach

City Beach is a beach side suburb in Perth that I spent most of my teenage years growing up in. Therefore I figured it would be worth seeing if the information on my home town is correct.

Is this an accurate article?

The article is very accurate containing extensive information that is factual. Every topic discussed is very useful and helps the reader understand it more.

Does it cover all the basic facts that you'd need to understand this topic?

The article does cover all the basic facts that are needed as far as describing a suburb goes. It includes the location in relation to other cities and suburbs, whilst informing the reader of activities to do in the suburb, as well as attractions, features and a brief history of the place.

Does this article follow the wikipedia guidelines for useful articles?

Yes it does, it starts off with a brief introduction and then leads into more detail as all other wiki-articles do.

Is this article fair and balanced, or is it biased towards a particular side or argument?

This topic is not biased because it is very descriptive and only states facts. This is important because it is easy for the writer to be biased towards certain issues. One of the users wrote down that he was famous and he lives in the suburb, but it is evident that he is not serious.

Wikipedia Article 2: West Coast Eagles

The West Coast Eagles are my favourite AFL team and I have been supporting them for 12 years now. They are a relatively young team compared to other Victorian based teams, however over their short period have been very successful.

Is this an accurate article?

Everything in the article was correct as far as I could see. There was extensive details into results, previous players and sponsors. However one error that was made labeled the leading goal kicker and best and fairest as 2008 winners, when in fact they were 2007 winners of the awards.

Does it cover all the basic facts that you'd need to understand this topic?

The article covers a lot of information and I found it hard to not find all the information I wanted on the topic. The only fault with the article would be that it is not up to date as much as it could be.

Does this article follow the wikipedia guidelines for useful articles?

Yes it does. There are clear sections and is easy to navigate to find the information needed.

Is this article fair and balanced, or is it biased towards a particular side or argument?

The article is not biased because it also contains bad stories from the football club. It tells of controversial information about players involving drugs and assault. If biased was used, there would be no mention of this behaviour.

Microsoft Word Task

I found the Microsoft word task relatively basic and simple throughout exercises 1 and 2. This was due to the fact that I had already had prior knowledge from previous experiences. This included text adjustment, copy and pasting, saving documents and inserting bullet points.

However in task 3 and 4, I ran into a bit of trouble. I firstly read how I had to add text into the header and footer of the document. I had no idea at first but after some common sense kicked in I was on my way. Double spacing was another technique I was unaware of until I played around with some different options for a while.

Track changing and mail merging were a different kettle of fish altogether. I had no idea these tools even existed, but thankfully due to the clear tutorial instructions and the practical Microsoft Word usability, I was able to figure it out.

In the future, these new skills will definitely come in handy and it is easy to see how they are useful in everyday tasks such as writing letters.

Walter Benjamin's Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction and Contemporary Digital Media

In the eyes of Walter Benjamin, ‘Aura represented authenticity.’ His idea being that anything perceived to be replicating original art form, lacked authentic value. Nowadays, contemporary digital media such as, music, film and television would be viewed by Benjamin as unauthentic as well. An example of this would be viewing a movie. This is replicated due to camera and would only be considered authentic if an audience were to watch it as a live performance. Walter Benjamin believed digital things were not genuine forms of art, due to their lack of ‘aura.’

In this day and age, it is possible for anyone to digitally produce “Art.” This will no doubt continue on into the future due to the progression of technology, and due to the inevitably of this being the trend, it is crucial to distinguish the two types. Therefore when keeping Benjamin’s ideas in mind, the line can be drawn at digital technology in terms of when art loses its authenticity.

With this in mind, I firmly believe that “Art”, whether it be in the past, present or future, has its place in society. History represents change and will continue to do so as long as the earth keeps revolving. Yesterday’s artist is today’s graphic designer. Who knows what tomorrow’s artist will be???

Search Engines

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

Although search engines work in different ways, they all have one thing in common. This commonality is called a web crawler, it retrieves information from websites and saves it in their database. The reason they differ is because Google stores only main important phrases, whilst something like Altavista stores all information. Another factor that determines order is the success of the website (or the number of hits the website has had).

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?

This is determined by the popularity of the website, as well as how relevant the searched words are with the information in the website.

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

My favourite search engine (and the only one is ever use) is www.google.com, i find it the most popular one, so it should have the most results on it right? Its also easy to use and always seems to be the homepage for computers. Sounds good to me.

Scavenger Hunt Questions

1. Who was the creator of the infamous "lovebug" computer virus?

Onel De Guzman

Website- www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4572123-103690,00.html

2. Who invented the paper clip?

The modern paper clip was patented on November 9, 1899 to William D. Middlebrook of Waterbury, Connecticut.

Website- www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/paperclip.htm

3. How did the Ebola virus get its name?

The virus gets its name from a river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it was first recognized.

http://ebola.emedtv.com/ebola-virus/from-what-place-did-the-ebola-virus-get-its-name.html

4. What country had the largest recorded earthquake?

the largest being in 1737, and was the worst natural disaster in India in more than 50 years.

http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/archives/secondary/casestud/india/2/earthquake.html

5. In computer memory/storage terms, how many kilobytes in a terabyte?

The definition of a megabyte is 1,024 kilobytes; however many people think of it as 1,000 kilobytes.The definition of a gigabyte is 1,024 megabytes; however many people think of it as 1,000 megabytes.The definition of a terabyte is 1,024 gigabytes; however many people think of it as 1,000 gigabytes

Therefore 1024 x 1024 x 1024 = 1 073 741 824 kilobytes = 1 terabyte

http://www.fortypoundhead.com/showcontent.asp?ArtID=764

6. Who is the creator of email?

A computer engineer called Ray Tomlinson invented internet-based mail in late 1971.

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, the file attached is executed, and then it spreads. The computer becomes apart of the "Storm Botnet", which basically means a network where the RAM, hard disk space, and computing power is used in a "collective" net. It is estimated to have infected betweem 2 and 5 million computers.

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.phphttp://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.

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

10. What does the term "Web 2.0" mean in your own words?

Most people believe that web 2.0 is the collection of networking programs. These include Limewire, Google, Wikipedia, BitTorrent etc.

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

Alphaville

In week 3 of New Communication Technologies, we viewed the French New Wave/Science Fiction film, Alphaville. Directed in 1965 by Jean Luc Goddard, the movie is set in the future and portrays the belief that in the future people are controlled by computers…(or in this case a computer known as alpha 60).


Alphaville was a ground breaking film back when it was first produced. But in all essence it seemed more like a comedy when viewed by today’s modern audience. This is greatly because of the advancement in technology, i.e colour, effects.

An interesting fact about the movie is despite it being extremely futuristic and ahead of it’s time, no special effects were used. It is all filmed in Paris using modern settings to give a futuristic feel. This place is known as Utopia, where the citizens and technology are in harmony.

Overall Alphaville was an experimental movie that was unbelievably well-crafted for its time. It shows a concept of humans being controlled in the future by technology and computers. Now over fifty years later, it seems like today’s society has come to that, in a much more subtle way, and those original ideas from Goddard don’t seem so crazy anymore.

How do I use new communication technologies to communicate with family and friends

When asked what new communication technologies I use to communicate with family and friends, two words come to mind. Email and Myspace.com. Email is of course the classic and most common way of communicating over the internet, whilst myspace (as their logo would agree) is “A place for friends”

Since I live away from my family, (and have since I was 16) email has always seemed the most effective and obvious option. Its quick, easy and a great way to share photos and small video files. With the added benefits of msn and web-camming it makes it the perfect tool for keeping in touch with Mum, Dad and my two little brothers.

Myspace is the more sociable of the two for remaining in touch with old friends, meeting new ones and also just a cheap way of communication for my group of friends of today. Its easy to use format makes it great to communicate, whether it be in private or publicly. It also gives users the opportunity to exchange photos, listen to music and even watch videos.

I think the reason myspace.com is the more preferred option of the two, for teenage socializing is because of the more open format and creating a sharing cyber community. Whilst email still remains private, this is a more appropriate way for family to communicate. Unless of course your Mum gets myspace…….NOT COOL

Virtual Reality, Spam and Blogging!!!

The information that I’ve found interesting over the last week in New Communication Technologies include Virtual Reality, Spam and Blogs.

When has Virtual Reality gone too far?

One topic that has been discussed in the first few weeks of New Communication Technologies, were the good and bad points of virtual reality. We looked at people whose lives have changed for the better from playing the online virtual phenomenon “Second Life”. Whilst other people whose lives have been ruined from the game. It raises the question of when does virtual reality step over the mark and start affecting our real lives?

What is Spam?
Is it
a) Sending multiple, sometimes thousands, of unwelcome messages to a newsgroup or mailing list to promote a commercial product or Web site.

OR

b) Delicious "meat" in a can


Unfortunately for all the butchers and fine meat loving connoisseurs out there, spam is not the classic “spiced ham” product we have all learnt to know and love. Nor was spam invented in 1934 by Professor Edward Spam even though some wikipedians out there will disagree.

We have all received those emails before where Nardoni Al Bolandri has $1,000,000 to deposit into your bank account or Michael Jones had received a bulk order of Viagra and he wants to pass the savings on to you. But the truth is that if it’s too good to be true, IT IS.

Billions of spam emails are sent each day because there are still some people out there who are ill informed about the cyber world. The spammers make their money by that 1 in a millionth person who operates on about 4 brain cells. So whether we like it or not, they’re here to stay for a lot longer. Or at least until the old man down the road stops replying to all those Viagra emails.

Blogging, Blogs and Bloggers

Another topic that is worth raising is Blogging, Blogs and Bloggers. Are they journalists? Are they a reliable source of information? These questions aren’t able to be answered as easily as the spam questions. But I’ll give it a go anyway.

Are bloggers journalists with a reliable source of information? Well now that I’ve written this on blogger.com, technically I’m now a blogger. However I don’t feel any more important, wiser or journalistic than half an hour ago. And I’m not hooked on the whole idea that I am a worthy source of information.

In my opinion, a blogger could be classed as an entertainer. With the chance to upgrade as a journalist or informative information teller if they are highly regarded enough and withstand the test of time, with factual and interesting information.

About me ..... (Danny)

Hi, my name is Danny and this is my blog page. I’d give you a warm welcome and encourage you too look around, but since this is my first EVER blog all you are really going to be looking at is the few lines of text below here.

How about I start off with a brief description of myself.

Im currently in my first year at Griffith University studying Media and Communication because i would love to get a job in the media one day and .....well....communicate. I've lived all around the world and just generally like chillin with mates, going out and having an all round great time.

My job over the next 13 weeks is to enter the “Blogosphere” and write to you about what I have learnt in the lectures, tutorials and the voluntary research I do during the week. Please note- No voluntary research has yet to be conducted, but when I run out of beer we will be underway.