Topic Six

Lecture- This week’s lecture was about the history of the computer and the Internet. The first basic form of a computer was the Abacus, used c 3000BC. It was simply used to manage large sums.
Charles Babbage attempted to build the difference machine which was designed to calculate and print mathematical tables. He only had time to make some early parts for it.
Ada Byron, inspired by the difference machine, thought of a machine that could compose and play music and be of everyday use.
Alan Turing helped make the first working computer to help break German codes in World War Two.
Computers were first commercially produced by IBM in 1950s. They were large and expensive for military, government and corporate use.
Moores first law was that the capacity of microchips doubled every two years. For forty years this was correct.
Xerox PARC developed ideas such as the mouse and pull down menus in the 70s.
The first PC was released in the mid 70s. The user couldn’t communicate with the computer because it didn’t have its own language. Bill Gates wrote a language for it.
World Wide Web is one particular use of the Internet. It is not the same thing. The Internet is a network of networks, and the World Wide Web is a feature of it.
Tutorial Task- The task for this week’s tutorial is to look at Wikipedia and to find two unrelated subjects that I know about on Wikipedia and to answer a few questions.
The first subject that I looked up is Runescape, an online Virtual World game.
It most likely is an accurate article, not only because it seems to be true to me, but there is a long list of References. Most are different websites including the company that designed Runescape, and a few are Newspaper articles.
Does it cover the basic facts? To be honest, I don’t think so. It is a long article, but it mostly speaks about the creation of Runescape, what it does and the very bare obvious facts. It doesn’t speak about the interesting things of the game, like all the monsters, the clothing or even the quests of the game.
The article would follow the Wikipedia guidelines. The facts are accurate and none of the content is abusive or offensive.
Although the article is accurate and fair, it is missing a very important perspective. The long term player. The article speaks of society’s reception to Runescape and how it might affect teenagers, but the article wouldn’t really interest any long term players of Runescape.
The second subject is The Terminator, a franchise of movies starring Arnold Schwarzeneggar.
The problem is that The Terminator can mean a wide variety of subjects. It can be a meaning in electronics, but with the Terminator franchise there is a large amount of subject material that can contradict each other. There are books, comics, movies and video games of The Terminator, each with bits of information that contradict each other. If you only want to take the movies reality into view, ignoring the rest, then Wikipedia wouldn’t be accurate.
Does it cover the basic facts? Yes it does. The article is accurate and objective as well. It is perhaps a little too fair, and a little too broad in knowledge about everything to do with the Terminator, not just the movies.
Readings- The reading was “What’s new about ‘New Media.’ It basically examined the newest forms of technology, such as the internet, the Web, Wi-Fi, mobile phones etc. The reading basically has the attitude that since technological media is growing at such an accelerated rate, it is not correct to describe any technology as old or new. This is because what might be described as old and outdated to one thing might be newer compared to something else. New Technology media has three main relationships.
· Digitalisation and Convergence
· Interactivity
· Networks and Networking
However, a lot of technology is combining these relationships together.