Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger hunt:
1: Who was the creator of the infamous "lovebug" computer virus?
The creator was Philippine student Onel de Guzman.
Website used:
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/06/29/philippines.lovebug.02/index.html

2: Who invented the paper clip?
A Norwegian inventor Johan Vaaler invented the paper clip in 1899.
Website used: http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpaperclip.htm

3: How did the Ebola virus get its name?
The virus got its name from a river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the disease was first recognized.
Website used: 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 recorded earthquake in the world since the 1900’s was in Chile in 1960, measuring 9.5.
Website used: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/world/10_largest_world.php

5: In computer memory/storage terms, how many kilobytes in a terabyte?
1 Terabyte = 1024 G = 10242 M = 10243 K = 10244 bytes
Website used: http://www.dis.unimelb.edu.au/staff/tanya/hwtute/How_to_measure_data/measure.htm


6: Who is the creator of email?
Raymond Samuel Tomlinson implemented the first email system in 1971.
Website used: http://www.babylon.com/definition/Ray%20Tomlinson/

7: What is the storm worm, and how many computers are infected by it?
The so-called Storm worm is actually not a worm, but rather a family of Trojans that typically have the following components; A backdoor component that allows surreptitious access to infected systems; A spam relay component that turns infected machines into spam-bots; A peer networking component that allows the Storm Trojans to communicate with other infected computers on the Storm botnet; An email harvester to steal email addresses found on infected computers; A downloader/dropper component to update itself or download additional malware; and,
A rootkit is often included to hide the presence of the Storm Trojans.
Some experts have put the number of Storm-infected PCs at close to 10 million, but most estimates are more conservative, pegging the infected pool at between a few hundred thousand and a million or so machines.
Websites used: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2007/10/the_storm_worm_maelstrom_or_te.html?nav=rss_blog and http://antivirus.about.com/od/virusdescriptions/a/stormworm.html

8: If you wanted to contact the prime minister of Australia directly, what is the most efficient way?
Parliament House
Suite MG 8Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600
Tel:
(02) 6277 7700
Fax:
(02) 6273 4100
Griffith Electorate Office
630 Wynnum Road Morningside, QLD, 4170
Tel:
(07) 3899 4031
Fax:
(07) 3899 5755
Postal Address:
PO Box 476A Morningside, QLD, 4170
Web:
http://www.pm.gov.au/
Website used: http://www.alp.org.au/people/qld/rudd_kevin.php

9: Which Brisbane-based punk band is Stephen Stockwell (Head of the School of Arts) a member of?
The Black Assassins.
Website used: http://www.griffith.edu.au/school/art/staff/stockwell.htm

10: What does the term "Web 2.0" mean in your own words?
Web 2.0 is a means of using improved technology to allow for a more creative approach to the internet and a means in which users have the ability to view their own opinions, create their own news, and decipher what it is that is important to them. This term implies a whole new individual side of computer and internet usage. Allows for sharing and connectivity is main purpose.
Website used: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html

Part 2:
How do search engines rank the stuff they find on the internet?
Search engines use mirror pages or an entrance page which means that the web page is specifically created containing more relevant keywords in a single page in order to rank higher on the "spider" search engines. However common web pages usually are very broad targeted and are not themed around particular keywords or phrases because average web pages are unfocused and not optimized properly.

what are some of your favourite search engines? why do you like one more than others?
My favourite search engines are google and yahoo as i feel that they are the two with the most amounts of information whether it be highly related or only slightly, they both allow for me to gather all the information i require and then make my own informed decision.

This weeks reading by Walter Benjamin was a difficult reading to understand. However upon re-reading it was a look at the changing natures of art and the way that art can be separated into high and low arts, and the ways in which art can act as a way of communication. Ultimately however, the reading was strongly linked to the 'aura' of art that Benjamin was talking about and how the authenticity of art is changed over time.