Topic 4- Old Communication Technologies and Theories

Topic 4-
Lecture:
The lecture by Stephen Stockwell started off this week with a brief discussion on the film ‘Alphaville’ watched before the holidays. The lecture hall raised thought about the themes and the presentation of the film in comparison to today’s society. The second half of the lecture was talking about old communication technologies and theories. The discussion of old communication technologies like the telephone and morse code where bought to attention along with radio and others. Communication studies ranging from the 1920’s and culture studies ranging from Walter Benjamin’s theories to Fraser- Subaltern counter publics. Lecturer Stephen Stockwell went through each topic individually raising a discussion on each technology among the group.


Tutorial:
The tutorial today consisted of going through the essay topics and explaining the assignment. The essay draft was explained by the tutor Chris and questions and a general discussion of the assignment was had by the class.
The reading ‘ The work of Art in the age of mechanical reproduction’ was also a topic of conversation within the lecture and the tutorial. The class decided that it was one that needed to be read more than once to understand the true meaning and theories of the piece written by the late Walter Benjamin.
The tutorial task of completing the ten questions that were posted on the portal took up the majority of the tute with everyone searching the web for the answers before the end of the lesson.
The last part of the tutorial consisted of the tutor coming around to each indivudal and looking over the blogs done over the past 4 weeks of semester and giving positive feedback to everyone.

Tutorial Questions
1) Who was the creator of the infamous "lovebug" computer virus?
Onel de Guzman, an ex-student of Manila's Computer CollegeSource: http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vbmV3cy56ZG5ldC5jby51ay9pdG1hbmFnZW1lbnQvMCwxMDAwMDAwMzA4LDIwODA5MzUsMDAuaHRt

2) Who invented the paper clip?
The modern paper clip was patented on November 9, 1899 to William D. Middlebrook of Waterbury, Connecticut.
Source: http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/paperclip.htm

3) How did the Ebola virus get its name?
The virus gets its name from a river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it was first recognized.
Source: 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?
The Great Chilean Earthquake
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chilean_Earthquake

5) In computer memory/storage terms, how many kilobytes in a terabyte?
1024 gigabytes in a terabyte
Source:http://www.sonoma.edu/users/c/carusor/web219/hardware_terms.htm

6) Who is the creator of email?

Ray Tomlinson in the early 1970’sSource: http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LmxpdmluZ2ludGVybmV0LmNvbS9lL2VpLmh0bQ==

7) What is the storm worm, and how many computers are infected by it?
The "Storm" worm computer virus/botnet/trojan horse/malware extravaganza got its name from its first method of transmission -- an e-mail attachment with the subject line: "230 dead as storm batters Europe." Slammer infected 75,000 computers in 10 minutes.”
Source:http://www.hothardware.com/News/What_Is_The_Storm_Worm_For/

8) If you wanted to contact the prime minister of Australia directly, what is the most efficient way?
Parliament House
Suite MG 8Parliament HouseCanberra ACT 2600
Tel: (02) 6277 7700
Fax: (02) 6273 4100
Source: http://www.alp.org.au/people/qld/rudd_kevin.php

9) Which Brisbane-based punk band is Stephen Stockwell (Head of the School of Arts) a member of?
Black AssassinsSource: http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vbWljcm9oLndvcmRwcmVzcy5jb20v

10) What does the term "Web 2.0" mean in your own words?
People of the second generation sharing online information from the web between one another and world wide.

Reading:

The reading for the week, The work of Art in the age of mechanical reproduction’, by Walter Benjamin, sent a wave of confusion among the class and lecture hall. The concept and theories of the late Walter Benjamin are hard to grasp and need to be definitely read more than once to be able to understand and relate to his work. The script has been transcribed over the years and even the UCLA School of Theatre, Film and television’s version is no easier to understand. With over 25 pages of written script it is clear that there is a huge amount of work and research that has gone into the piece that needs to be appreciated and can only be after reading the piece more than once.