Task Force 2

Search Engines

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

Early search engines (e.g. Excite or Altavista ) ranked pages based on page content and formatting and based on the content of metadata tags. Attention was apparently paid to bold text or to keywords and summaries in the head of the HTML document.

Google ranks by how frequently other sites link to you, not by what you do or don't say on your site. Basically your popularity is what counts. They also use what is on your site to determine whether your page is of relevance. Of course its techniques are ever changing though.

Other search engine companies are merely competing with Google and are mostly already incorporating many of Google's techniques to improve their own results

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 direct, plain-text link from a site with a high Google rank will increase any businesses / advertisers own Google rank

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

www.google.com - An old friend in IT told me that search engine placement can not be directly purchased on Google and I like that Google clearly distinguishes "sponsored links" from search results

Walter Benjamin

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Production

The essay was interesting and forced the reader to not only note the transition between the cult value and the exchange value of art, but also question the future. It is too easy to draw conclusions about the negative effect mechanical production has on cultic works and I do not think that this is what Benjamin was trying to emphasize. I think the focus is on what the transition into reproducibility means for art as a whole. Apart from bringing old works into new modes, what about reproducing future works?

Commoditization of the work of art is definitely an issue. I wonder how do we produce in the age without allowing the work to become commoditized ? or do we? Is there a value to the dissemination of art without loss of quality? Personally I think that depends on your definitions of quality. I know artists who work computer magic and create awe inspiring art and film and yet I still prefer the tactile quality of yesteryear. A reproduction of Jackson Pollack may on all accounts be sharp and indistinguishable ( I saw one created from a computer in New York) but you know he hasn’t pissed on it himself. A human touch and statement that cannot be replicated.

Task Force + Why I hate Wikipedia

Task at Hand demonstrates Why I hate Wikipedia

Some of the Wiki answers are accurate and some answers actually made me question my other sources,however it is very clear that Wikipedia is by no means a reliable source.

Who was the inventor of the ‘love bug’ computer virus?
Onel de Guzman, in the Philippines in 2000 admitted to writing this type of virus and that it may have been released by accident

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E03EFD81639F935A3575AC0A9669C8B6

WIKI ANSWER: Chris Moon ( With "Citation Needed" written next to name)

Who invented the paperclip?
Samuel B Fay 1867

http://www.officemuseum.com/paper_clips.htm

WIKI ANSWER: SAME AS ABOVE

How did the Ebola virus get its name?
The virus gets its name from the Ebola river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it was first recognized in 1976

http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9002205/Ebol

WIKI ANSWER: The "EBLOA" River in Africa ( Spelt wrong the last time I checked! )

What country had the largest recorded earthquake?
9.5 earthquake in Chile in 1960

http://www.geotimes.org/dec04/WebExtra122704.html

WIKI ANSWER: SAME AS ABOVE

In computer memory/storage terms, how many kilobytes in a terabyte?
1073741824 kilobytes = 1 terabyte

http://www.unit-conversion.info/computer.html

WIKI ANSWER: SAME AS ABOVE

Who is the creator of email?
Ray Tomlinson

http://www.forbes.com/asap/1998/1005/126.html

WIKI ANSWER: The exact beginnings are murky but it is known that Ray Tomlinson initiated the use of the @ sign to separate the names of the user and their machine in 1971.

What is the storm worm, and how many computers are infected by it?
It's a network of computers that have been infected via malicious e-mail messages, and are centrally controlled via the Overnet P-to-P protocol.Approximately 1.5 million were infected.Originally it was estimated that around 50 million were infected.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,138721-c,virusesworms/article.html

WIKI ANSWER: The Storm Worm began infecting thousands of (mostly private) computers in Europe and the United States using an email message.As of January 22nd,2007, The storm Worm accounted for 8% of all infections globally

If you wanted to contact the prime minister of Australia directly, what is the
most efficient way?
By Post:
The Hon Kevin Rudd MP
PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

By Phone:
Ph (02) 6277 4022, Fax (02) 6277 8495

By Email:
Kevin.Rudd.MP@aph.gov.au

Activist sites regularly employ people to find Government details. They are motivated to find accurate information as it is their passion to make a difference.
http://www.foe.org.au/anti-nuclear/take-action-1

Not on Wikipedia

Which Brisbane-based punk band is Stephen Stockwell (Head of the School of Arts) a member of?
"The Pink Pencil Pushers"...Only joking..." The Black Assassins"

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~toxicoh/blackas.htm

Not on Wikipedia

What does the term "Web 2.0" mean in your own words?
An umbrella term for the second wave of the World Wide Web, which was coined by O'Reilly Media and CMP Media in their 2004 and subsequent conferences on the subject.Its about making the Internet useful for computers.

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

WIKI ANSWER: Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as a platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform.

Alphaville

Lemmy Caution......Art imitates Life!

Alphaville was an unusual film to say the least. Definitely a strange adventure! It was both disturbing and funny. It manages to be classic film noir ( Which I love) A mix of imaginative science-fiction, action and suspense and - most surprisingly of all - a very entertaining black comedy

Jean-Luc Godard artfully outlines concerns about the impact of computer technology on society at the time, with the underlining suggestion that widespread dehumanization and total state control will be the outcome. These themes are popular and at first I thought it was cute but not a very original observation.( Although obviously this film/book predates Ridley Scott!)

However, I believe the real genius of this film lies in Godard's exploration of the idea rather than the idea itself. Nowadays. In my mind it easy to draw parallels between Alphaville and the ever-expanding Bill Gates empire.

So these questions were raised in the tutorial. Is technology the new utopia or really the new distopia? Obviously the film suggests distopia with a continual transference from a knowledge culture to a mechanised society. Perhaps art imitates life...Wouldn't be the first time.I guess only time will tell.