Week 4: Part 2!

The way search engines rank web pages when they are being searched by user is by following a certain algorithm. The first and foremost rule is searching for pages with the keywords in the HTML title tag. These pages are often assumed to be more relevant to others in the topic. Search engines also search if the keywords appear at the top of the web page such as in the headline or subheadings. Frequency is the next biggest factor for search engines. A search engine will analyze how often keywords on a page appear relevant to the other words. The higher the frequency the more relevant the search engine deems that web page.

Search engines also analyze how pages link together and can determine what pages are about and how important they are deemed to be and whether the page deserves a ranking boost or not. Another factor is clickthrough measurement. The search engine watches users and the results they select from a search and eventually change the ranking and importance of different pages depending on the clickthrough measurement results.

My overall favorite search engine would have to be Google. I choose this search engine because its so simple and user friendly and almost always gives me the best results. It also has a few good features such as the dictionary, calculator, language converter and currency converter. My next favorite search engine would be msn as it again achieves good results and is user friendly.

Week 4: Part 1!

Below is the question and answers for this weeks blogging task. I obtained my information from various sources which I had previously had experience with. I found news sites, scientific sites and answer sites the most useful in finding the answers. I could never be absolutely sure that these answers were 100% accurate but by sticking to highly appraised sites such as answers.com, news sites such as CNN.com and science research sites such as ebola.emedtv.com I am able to be fairly confident that these answers are correct.

1. Who was the creator of the infamous "lovebug" computer virus?
Onel de Guzman -
http://edition.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/06/29/philippines.lovebug.02/index.html

2. Who invented the paper clip?
Johan Vaaler -
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpaperclip.htm

3. How did the Ebola virus get its name?
From the name of a river where the virus 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?
Chile on May 22, 1960 -
earthquake.usgs.gov/learning/kids/facts.php

5. In computer memory/storage terms, how many kilobytes in a terabyte?
1 terabyte = 1 073 741 824 kilobytes -
http://www.t1shopper.com/tools/calculate/

6. Who is the creator of email?
Ray Tomlinson -
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/entdev/article.php/1408411

7. What is the storm worm, and how many computers are infected by it?
It is a Trojan virus that infects a computer and accesses its email log book and keeps sending spam emails. It is unsure how many computers the virus has infected as it is sent out to millions of users everyday. However some experts have put an estimate of storm worm infected computers at 10 million. -
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2007/10/the_storm_worm_maelstrom_or_te.html

8. If you wanted to contact the prime minister of australia directly,
what is the most efficient way?
On his website -
www.pm.gov.au

9. Which Brisbane-based punk band is Stephen Stockwell (Head of the School
of Arts) a member of?
Black Assassins - https://secure6.ozhosting.com/brisbanewritersfestival/2005/content/standard.asp?name=StockwellS

10. What does the term "Web 2.0" mean in your own words?
Is a term given to the second generation of of the World Wide Web -
http://www.answers.com/topic/web-2-0?cat=technology

Week 3!

I guess most of my life I have been connected to some form of new communication technologies. As my parents work has always delt with computeres and the internet I have had an email since I was about 6 or 7 and have always been connected to different groups on the internet. These groups include forums, blogs and various online games.

Through playing online games which led me to intereact with the program 'ventrilio' (voice chat rooms using mics on computers) I met many different people and still talk to them to this day. One of the people I met on one of the online games I played i actually became good friends with and when he came up to the Gold Coast for our schoolies as he was the same age as me, we met in person. However these online game days are behind me now.

The main forms of new communication technologies that I interact with today are mobile phones and msn messenger. The use of a mobile phone began when my parents felt it neccesary to give me a mobile phone to keep track of me as I became a roudy teen. The use of msn came into play during highschool as all my fellow class mates had it and it was the cheapest and easiest way to keep connected to my friends after school hours.

I have never had any problems with privacy issues. I have given my number out but only a few times and only to people I had been talking to for a long time. I have also given out my home address but that was to the friend I met at schoolies. We began to send each other music, dvd's, software and games. All which of course were legal copies! *cough*

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog for the class of New Communication Technologies. My name is Matthew Parker and I am currently in my second year of university studying a bachelor of arts and business through Griffith University on the Gold Coast. I have played a musical instrument all my life and currently playing the guitar. I have played soccer for various clubs and teams and love to travel. The purpose of this blog is to show my progress in the class of New Communication Technoligies by posting my thoughts and feelings after each weeks class and uploading my tutorial work and assessment.