Day Five
The first part of today’s lecture was about Instant Massaging (IM). IM’s are familiar to most of people using internet. They are good example of new communication technology which let the internet user to contact each other easily. IM’s are developed by different companies with different names. The most popular IM are MSN, ICQ, AOL Instant messenger and yahoo messenger. All of us use the chat or being in a chat room. The new version of this kind of technologies is voice chat and video chats.
The second part of the lecture was about Audio portable devices. Again these days everyone knows IPods. The new generation of technology gives people the ability of listening to their favourite music or radio station – or maybe the lecture of their relaxation class – anywhere. All of us see someone with something on their ear in university, street, bus stop (and sometime in quiet section of library).
The next part of this lecture introduces the video games as a new communication technology. For so many people playing video games is like a habit. They use hours in front of their computer or television for playing. The new generation of video games whit high quality of images and sound are very attractive. They can send their message or show something true in a format of game that everyone loves it.
Day Four – Part 2
As it mentioned in previous section we had an experiment of using one 3D Instant Message program which is called active world. It was based on the virtual life theory and based on computer images. It was quite different from using the messengers or normal chat rooms, because most of the concentration is on the pictures and activities. It was interesting but after one hour playing I fill headache and could not continue. However like other chat rooms it makes the socializing easier, because you do not know who you are talking to.
Day Four
Today’s lecture was about very interesting topic, which was virtual philosophy. If we think deep it is very wide topic. But what is virtuality and what is reality? According to the lecture the definition of virtual is “the things which are in our memory that is to say, the things not exist now, include our memory from past or our dream about future.” The example is if we think about doing something is in virtual stage and when we are doing it is real. From definition it can be seen is most about our observation. So what about our feelings? Are they virtual or real?
It is a little bit more confusing if we only judge from what we can see right now or what is happening now. This definition is true if we talk about materials, however the things like our soul or our feeling cannot be virtual, they are real because they are exist. In other words, there is a very thin line between reality and virtuality.
There is another question for me, our night dreams are virtual or real? We have feeling and everything is real in night dreams, but they do not exist in our world. Maybe we are virtual!!!?!!!
However, the main topic of this course is about communication technologies, so we concentrate on this part not philosophy of virtuality. On new generation of 3D games which called “Second life”, was presented in the lecture. It was interesting, all different activities of human life simulated on computer based program. Like playing game or being in a chat room, users can live in a world and have ability to do all the human activities such as shopping, trading, having fun and etc., But in virtuality. Second life is not the first idea of this kind of virtual life; they are developing from movies and games and now they are trying to simulate the life. The previous version of second life was presented in tutorial session.
In addition, the first negative point of them is they are most kid of commercial stuffs, they trying to take a market. That is to say, the idea is good but it was not developed well. Next disadvantage of all games generally is their physical and mental side effects of them.
Day Three – Part 2 – Answering questions:
The second task of today’s tutorial is to answer some question by using search engines. The interesting thing when we use the search engine is there are thousands of answers or websites related to our search. But the question is, all of them are right answer? How can we know which one is the right answer? And if the answers are right, which one is the most relevant to our question?
Basically all of above questions are depended on how we search or what key word we using for our search. That is to say, a little knowledge searching techniques can help us to narrow down our search to the clear answer. There are lots of tips and skills for searching, but do these skills enough to find all of our questions in Internet? Of-course not! All of us have an experience to try to find something on Google and was not successful.
In this section the answers of following questions are searched form different search engines which introduced in tutorial session, the best answer with its link will be presented:
Questions:
1. Who was the creator of the infamous “lovebug” computer virus?
2. Who invented the paper clip?
3. How did the Ebola virus get its name?
4. What country had the largest recorded earthquake?
5. In computer memory/storage terms, how many kilobytes in a terabyte?
6. Who is the creator of email?
7. What is unique about the political organisation of the Kingdom of Nri?
8. If you wanted to contact the prime minister of australia directly, what is the most efficient way?
9. Which Brisbane punk band is Stephen Stockwell (Head of the School
of Arts) a member of?
10. What does the term “Web 2.0″ mean in your own words?
Answers:
1. Onel de Guzman. (www.cbsnews.com)
2. Samuel B. Fay in 1867. (www.ideafinder.com)
3. Ebola is one of the two viruses classified as Filoviridae, viruses made of RNA. Filo is Latin for ‘worm’, an apt name, as filoviridae look like worms and threads under a microscope (Oldstone 134). It could be that Ebola is ancient, as RNA is the most basic ‘code’ of life (Preston 85).The Ebola virus, named for a river near the place of its first outbreak (Tomlinson 1), is divided up into strains, which are variations of the virus. (en.wikipedia.org)
4. Chile. (www.extremescience.com)
5. 1 TB = 1024 MB = 1048576 KB. (en.wikipedia.org)
6. Early 1970’s, Ray Tomlinson. (www.openmap.bbn.com)
7. The leader exercised no military power over its subjects. Douglas chambers were the first white person to be made a royalty in the NRI government, after he spent time researching on the eastern Nigerian. (www.nri.org)
8. By post and the address which gives by government is:
The Hon John Howard MP
Prime Minister
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600
9. Black Assassins. (www.brisbanewritersfestival.com.au)
10. Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as soial-networking sites, wikis, and folksonomies — which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing between users. (en.wikipedia.org)
Day Three
Today’s lecture was about media, it has three part, media definition, history of media studies, and new media studies. The first part of the lecture was mostly about definition of media. Media comes from word “medium”, which is related to something allows communication between other sources. The things like newspaper, films, CD, DVD, and…. are good examples of media. However, nowadays internet is known as media. Also TV, Radio which are related to news, known as mass media because of their capacity of information they can exchange.
According to the lecture, development of broadcasting information and mass media was in twentieth century. However, if we want to talk about the history of media, we should analyse the different discipline derives from communication, which can divide to communication studies, media studies, and cultural studies. Also, in parallel to these discipline establishments, number of practically jobs focussed on disciplines have emerged, such as: Journalism, Public Relations, Advertising, Marketing, Design, and etc.Also by developing the computers and other new communications technologies, more disciplines have been established such as: New Media Studies, Cyber Studies, Internet Studies, Cyber culture Studies, Web Studies, and etc.
In addition, according to the lecture, the followings are the brief history of media:
Media studies:
-1900, Ferdinand de Saussure Studies the role of signs as part of social life.
Communication Studies:-
1920, Bullet Inoculation Theory of Maximum effects
-1930, Application of Statistical Method
-1940, Minimum Effects
-1950, looking for effects – connections to psychology
-1960, Marshall McLuhan
-1970, Mixed Effects
-1980, Return of Maximum effects
Culture Studies:
-1930, Walter Benjamin
-1940, Frankfurt School
-1950, Situationists Society of the Spectacle
-1960, Habermas
-1970, Louis Althusser
-1980, Baudrillard Simulacra
-1990, Fraser – Subaltern counter publics Finally, by developing internet and cyber culture theory around the world, the new media studies is take a place, and it is developed so fast.
Day Two – Part 2
In this section as it mentioned on tutorial task, I would like to write my own experience to use the communication technology. In my opinion technology is mixed to our everyday life these days, It is very hard - or I can say impossible – to leave a day without using any type of technology. Just imagine a day without using electricity, telephone, microwave, car, computer, Internet and…..!?!
Especially when we say communication, we talking a bout a most impotent need of people in their social life. People need to communicate with each other for their life and their work, because we are created as a social member. The new researches show that increase in number of the mental disease, like depression and anxiety, is mostly because of social problem like spending the time with friends and families. That is to say, today communication technology is one of the most useful tools for our life.
If I want to talk about my own experience of using communication technology, I would say as I remember back I was in love with my Atari games and when later my parents buy me a commodore128, it was one of my best moment. Later on at the school we had to do some of our homework by computer, and now as a every day habit, I check my E_mail and I surf the sites to reading the news every morning. Also, as a student I do all my assignment by using my laptop and I need to search about topic which is using the Internet again. Because I am living alone here I use the chat of telephone to talk to my family and friend in overseas. If I want to work in any field, I should use different type of soft-wears or contact with so many people. I couldn’t forget the night before one of my exams that the Internet connection was failed for 2 hours and I was so nerves.
Day Two
The second lecture was more about history of computer and Internet. Basically, Internet is all about computer, that is to say, we can not talk a bout the history of Internet independently.
The first version of computers are based on mathematical calculating machine. The electrical devices, which is based on digital coding system and has a ability to process data, starts from different version of calculators and it developed very fast during the time, like other type of technology. In each generation, ability of those processors were increased also the shape and function of them was changed. Calculations, game, better visual quality, faster processing, better quality of sound, more capacity and etc. was the factors which were caused the development of computers step by step, from calculators to Atari and commodores and then the high technology laptop and desktops in recent years.
According to the lecture, the development of computer is based on Alan Turing’s work. He was born in England in 1912 and he used his studies in quantum mechanics, probability, logic to write a crucial paper clarifying the computability of numbers and the possibility of a machine to compute them.
Also, IBM was the first company to produce the first generation of the computers, which was large, unwieldy and expensive machines for military, commercially in 1950s.
In addition, some factors such as competition between big companies, like Microsoft and Apple, makes the development of computer technology faster. every day we can see the new device or software is coming to the market.
However the most use of computer is Internet. Internet is the network which connect people to getter. Internet is the best example of communication technology, people can access each other easy and fast from all around the word. The idea of the Internet is developed by Rand Corporation in 1960 for first time. World Wild Web (WWW) is not Internet but make the use of Internet and communication easier for Internet users.
There are so many different type of use of Internet and it is various depending on users and their need. some things like using E-mail is familiar for every one these days. Mainly, the use of Internet is based on transferring the data by a protocol.
Day One
As I mentioned, my background is civil engineering and I am doing the new communication technology subject as an elective subject of my course. At the beginning, some terms like communication, journalists, writing and etc. sounds unfamiliar and hard, however, when I start to relate the information of first lecture to the real life it became more interesting and usefull for me, especially when if found out I can write my own web-log!.
The first lecture was more about introduction about Communication and Technology, the history of each of them, their relation and the role of them in our life. The following paragraphs are the summery of the first lecture.
Technology is growing so fast. some thing which is a new technology today will be the old technology maybe in a couple of years.
The interesting thing about technology the philosophy of technology suggested by Marshall McLuhan which argues that technologies are extensions of human body, like a tool is an extension of the hand and a wheel is an extension of the leg and a book is an extension of the eye.
In general the communication is the process of transferring data or information to someone. simple example of communication is speaking.
By improving technology the type of communication between people is changed. Using Internet, mobile phones and ect. makes the communication and transferring the information so easy and fast.
I never forget my grandfather’s face when I was telling him that I send my homework to my teacher by E-mail.
Getting Start
On monday 19th of November 2007, at 4:20 pm I start to write on my web-log for first time!!!
At the beginning it seems too difficult for me to do it but it is getting more fun when I am getting comfortable with that. (especially when I have to do it as apart of my course!!!)
Anyway, first I would like to write a little bit about my self; I Ali Soltani Born on 9th of July 1979 in Tehran and currently living in Gold Coast, one of the most beautiful coasts in Australia. I am studying civil engineering in Griffith university. In my free time I like to listen music and I love flight simulators.
The next following web-logs are about the topics which presented in each lecture of the new communication technology. This will be a part of assessments of this course, but more than that I would like to improve my writing skills and using the new technologies to writing in my own stile, not just writing a report.
