Lecture 6 - The Academic Study of Video Games

Today’s lecture is about the Academic Study of Video Games, it’s pretty interesting. I remember that the first video game that I played was Mario, the very classical and interesting game that I still like to play when I have time.
The majority of video games’ producers are about 20 years old, and they are just graduated from universities. Video Games are designed for most of young players to have fun in their leisure time, so I think the young video games’ producers can add more fashion elements in video games because they know what the young like. Video Games are a new form of media, it gives people the new feeling of media and it also provide images and sounds and even a story.
The video games are different from the traditional games, I think one of their differences is that the video games are virtual worlds and the traditional games are not. Virtual means not real, it’s like our imagination, for example, the SecondLife is the virtual world of video games which we can use the virtual money for shopping, have meal, buy house and do almost everything just like we do in our real life, but all the things are not real and we can not use the virtual money to buy things in real life.

Lecture 5 - Virtual Philosophy

Alongwith the development the world, the virtual reality is also improving, more and more people like to live in the virtual world. Although we live in the solid world, we can not leave telephone, television and other technologies nowadays.

When I open eyes everyday, the first thing I will do is open my computer. I check emails, listen to music and do other this sort of things. I have tried to watch one movie which without any sound, unfortunately, I gave up to watch it after about 20 minutes, because I think the music or voice can improve the quality and feeling of the movie, so I think this is why the growth of the communications industry over the last century has produced a new grammar of sound and image. Furthermore, the imagination is a powerful force in the development of technologies, people interest in something and desire their dream can come true, so there will be a lot of inventions and creations.

The 3D films are interesting and I often go to see it, wear polarised eyeglasses, and the films become more interesting, now we even have 4D film that add the real object such as water, wind and other touch feelings to make the film to be true.

Tutorial Task 5 - Internet Field Trip

A few months ago, my friend invited me to join the second life activeworlds, so I took a field trip of the second life through the internet, and I found it is interesting and like a true life on the internet, we can shopping, do business, have party and almost all the things that we are doing in the solid world, but I didn't join in it for the reason that I don't want to spend my life in virtual world, I think my life now is good, good, good!

The qualitative differences between the regular IM program and a 3D environment have many aspects, I think the 3D environment such as the secondlife, IMVU and other different kinds of 3D worlds are virtual, not real, but the advantage is that we can make a lot of friends in the 3D world like the Second Life even we are at home. I use MSN to chat with friends and my families overseas, I think use video call is a very good way to chat, just like face-to-face.

Tutorial Task 2 Part 1 (b) - Open Internet

This video is about the open internet in our lives.

Tutorial Task 4 - My favourite singer - SHE

Lecture 4 - Free Culture, Free Society

Nowadays, we have a free culture and free society included in the internet. We can share pictures and videos with each other around the world, but when we use others' pictures and videos, we need to have the creative commons. About the creative commons (cc), it means when sharing, remixing, reusing pictures, videos and other sources online, it should be legally used by users, it is a nonprofit organization that increases sharing and improves collaboration. The CC also provides free, easy-to-use legal tools and some rights reserved.

We have a lot of free sources that we can use in this modern time. Like software, the free software (open source) model, such as Linnx, OpenOffice, Firefox and VLC, etc.. The source code is freely and openly available, I like to make my own MV by using my favourite singers' songs and their pictures, so anyone can see source, edit it, use it under Limited-rights licence (GPL), I think this makes our lives so interesting. The software developed by teams of volunteers in the community and they set development goals to the software.

Well, I am going to make my own video for today's tutorial task by using the Windows Movie Maker for free! :-D

Tutorial Task 3

Part 1 - Scavenger Hunt questions

1. What did Alan Turing wear while riding his bicycle around Bletchley Park?
A: Alan wore a gas mask while riding his bicycle around Bletchley Park to prevent hay fever symptoms. - found by using yahoo.com

2. On what date did two computers first communicate with each other? Where were they?
A: The first two computers that communicate with each other was in 1969 in California and Utah. - found by using yahoo.com

3. What is Bill Gates’ birthday and what age was he when he sold his first software?
A: Ha ha, this one is easy, I typed "Bill Gates' birthday" on Yahoo, and there are 7,110,000 results appeared, he was born on Oct. 28, 1955, and he sold his first software when he was 20 years old. - found by using yahoo.com

4. Where was the World Wide Web invented?
A: The world's largest particle physics research center, CERN. Simply, I typed the whole question and find this answer in the first link. - found by using altavista.com

5. How does the power of the computer you are working on now compare with the power of a personal computer from 30 years ago?
A: The processor that used in computer 30 years ago had a 8088 8-bit processor, however, the computer today uses a 2.60GHz, 800FSB, 2MB processor. - found by using yahoo.com

6. What is the weight of the largest parsnip ever grown?
A: Norman Craven grow the largest parsnip, it weighing in at 8 lb 6 oz. - found by using altavista.com

7. When did Queensland become a state and why is the Tweed River in New South Wales?
A: I typed "history of queensland" in yahoo, and I go straight into the page of Queensland's History underneath the Queensland Government website. Just over four decades of autonomy elapsed before Federation, on 1 January 1901, created the union of the Commonwealth of Australia. The majority of Queenslanders voted 'yes' to a referendum asking whether Queensland should join the Federation. Once this referendum was passed, Queensland lost its colonial status and became a State. I typed "Tweed River in New South Wales" in yahoo, then 1,940,000 results comes up, I click on the first link and I am in the Tweed Shire Council, at the top right I found a link that says "About the Tweed", then I click on the second link "History" on the left, but no certain reason. - found by using yahoo

8. What was the weather like in south-east Queensland on 17 November 1954?
A: I found this information in the Bureau of Meteorology underneath the Australia Government website. Heavy 25 to 75mm rains on the southern Downs during the 3rd and 4th renewed the flooding in the Macintyre River which was still carrying considerable run-off from the October rains. - found by using yahoo.com

9. Why is Lord Byron still remembered in Venice?
A: The reason why Lord Byron still remembered in Venice is because he wrote some of his most famous works including ‘Don Juan’ in Venice. - found by using altavista.com

10. What band did Sirhan Chapman play in and what is his real name?
A: The band name is The Black Assassins. - found by using yahoo.com

Finally, I did it! Well, I still love google!! :-P

Part 2 - Questions

(1.) How do search engines rank the stuff they find on the internet?

A: Internet search engines are special sites on the Web that are designed to help people find information stored on other sites. There are differences in the ways various search engines work, but they all perform three basic tasks:

• They search the Internet -- or select pieces of the Internet -- based on important words.
  
• They keep an index of the words they find, and where they find them.
  
• They allow users to look for words or combinations of words found in that index.

Before a search engine can tell you where a file or document is, it must be found. To find information on the hundreds of millions of Web pages that exist, a search engine employs special software robots, called spiders, to build lists of the words found on Web sites. When a spider is building its lists, the process is called Web crawling. (There are some disadvantages to calling part of the Internet the World Wide Web -- a large set of arachnid-centric names for tools is one of them.) In order to build and maintain a useful list of words, a search engine's spiders have to look at a lot of pages.

"Spiders" take a Web page's content and create key search words that enable online users to find pages they're looking for:

Meta tags allow the owner of a page to specify key words and concepts under which the page will be indexed.

Building the Index: Once the spiders have completed the task of finding information on Web pages (and we should note that this is a task that is never actually completed -- the constantly changing nature of the Web means that the spiders are always crawling), the search engine must store the information in a way that makes it useful. There are two key components involved in making the gathered data accessible to users:

1. The information stored with the data
2. The method by which the information is indexed

Building a Search: Searching through an index involves a user building a query and submitting it through the search engine.

(2.) 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: I think keywords can improve search engine's placement and ranking so that it is put at the top of the search results.

(3.) What are some of your favourite search engines? why do you like one more than others?

A: My most favourite one is Google, and I also use Baidu (Chinese), Altavista and Yahoo. I like Google most is because it can help get the most satisfied result that I search for.

Lecture 3 - Media, New Media, Social Media

The theme from Internet Studies have two parts: Virtual Community and Individual Identity. The internet at few years ago was not like today's, Turkle, the author of , talked about the media in her book, but when she wrote this book at 1995, the internet was appeared as texts, only words. We all know that the internet nowadays is more about pictures, vedios and other appearances, no longer only words, it becomes more attractable and interesting. People become used to share interests with their friends both they know in person and only know on the internet nowadays. For me, I would like to share music and pictures with my friends, I think the majority of people like to share these things through the internet.

The Web 2.0 includes the open API, Folksonomy and the idea of user-generated content. The open API means different websites can talk together, they can share data openly. There is another one called Folksonomy which organise knowledge, in other words using "tags" on posts or items.

The social media has many parts, such as weblogs/blogs, social network services (SNSs) and content sharing communities. However, our lives become more interesting and meaningful with the internet in this morden time.

Tutorial Task 2 Part 2 - My own experiences with communication technologies

The first time that I used computer was in my mum's office, playing computer games, I was about 8 years old at that time. Along with my growth, I began to know more communication technologies, such as mobile phones, emails, online forums, etc.

In junior high school, I began to use mobile phones to chat with friends or SMS after school. I used the chatting tool QQ and MSN to keep touch with my friends because a lot of my friends started to ask me what my QQ number is or MSN account name wherever I was at, so I began to think about that I need to have a chatting tool so that I can contact with my friends. We chat during our free time share information around the world.

When registration, we always asked to provide our personal information. I think it is not safe to provide personal information due to the internet virus, so if the information that asked us to provided without a asterisk[(*)it means must be provided], I will not give these informaiton due to the security reason. Sometimes, companies like google and facebook collect information for maketing use and let us easily get back our password if we forget it, it is understandable.

I only know a few friends that I know only from the internet and have never met in person, I think it is much different from the friends that I know in person, because information on the internet are not always true.

Lecture 2 - The history of computer and internet

Today's lecture was about the history of computer and internet. The computer was firstly invented by Charles Babbage in 1791, it was designed to calculate and print mathematical tables, not like today's. As our convenor Adam mentioned in the lecture, the first home computer was invented in 1975, it was the first one that actually developed, because actually the first PC came out in 1940s. In 1960s-1970s, people have to build computer by themselves after they bought it.

The internet is about 40 years old till now. In 1966, three people (the father of internet) get three computers connected together and made it work.

Bill Gates wanted to create a language that could be used for simple application, such as word processing, basic accounting and some games, so he started writing a language called BASIC for the Altair. After he created the lamguage, he marketed his program by running a little company called Microsoft - which is now known to almost everyone around the world.

There are some early internet applications that were instrumental in defining the nature and use of the internet. The email was invented in 1971, the begining of TCPIP was began from 1974, in 1979, the usenet (online forum comes from usenet) was come out and the most commonly used emotion [:-)] nowadays in chatting online was invented in 1982.

Lastly, it is important to understand that the internet is not the same thing as the web, web is just one part of the internet, there are many other things included in internet, like MSN, online forum and so on.

Lecture 1 - New Communication Technology

In recent years, people always use computers and mobile phones to contact with others under many situations, such as sending emails, making phone calls, having online video conferences and so on. They are new communication technologies that commonly used by people which have many advantages in our daily lives, for example, parents can contact with their children if they are in other places of the country or overseas by using mobile phones or chat with them on the internet, such as skype, MSN, facebook and other chat tools. It is more convenient and quicker than writing letters.

In my experience, checking emails and chating on the internet by using MSN is the most common things that I do every day. Because emails may have some important information from my parents, friends or the university course information, and I think that keep touch with friends is very important. I will check the announcement that posted on the learning @ griffith website of the griffith university every single day as well.

In general, the new communication technology makes our lives more convenient and colorful.