Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Goodbye new comm tech!

Hi everyone! (except fraser)

Well this is it! Again, I really can't believe how fast this semester has gone. When I first started typing these blogs I was likke hmmmm what to write??? And know I can't stop talking lol. So this semester of uni for me has been really fun! I have met heaps of new friends and had an awesome time whilst knowing i'm setting myself up for the career I want. Uni is way overated by so many people! It's not just about staying up until four in the morning finishing assignments. You have so much more free time to do the things that you want.

So NEW COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY... this subject has been pretty breezy! It was good to have a subject that was a little more laid back in comparison to *politics.* I liked this subject for the reason that it was more personal. With the blogs we could express our opinions and talk about the suject and our experiences. It makes you realize everyone is in the same boat and if you have a problem... there is someone else who probably has that problem aswell. I have enjoyed writing blogs and have also had fun playing with photoshop. I found some awesome ways to change the features in photos and create them in a way which reflects a certain theme.

The essay was helpful as it taught me more about the subject and i'm also hoping that it will come in handy during the exam. I will be really PO if I get the questions about Turing wrong haha. The lectures were.... ok. lol. Some were pretty interesting like the one where we watched the movie on war. The movie's were really STRANGE! Alphaville and La Jette were among the weirdest movie I have ever seen. I didnt know what the point of them was until I looked into them a little further. Existenz was a little gory for my liking but I still didnt mind it. There was a part where I jumped out of my seat and i had to look around to see if anyone noticed how lame I was hahaha. I'm not a fan of scary movies... even though I dont think it was meant to be a scary movie. The movies made me think about the future of technology, the state of the world, time travel, utopia and dystopia and new innovations.

Overall I liked the subject and enjoyed most of the tasks and lectures. I'm just a little freaked out by the exam tommorrow... worth 50% ahhh. I'm hoping I do well. I hope everyone has a great mid-break! See you next semester!!!

Tutorial - Week 11

Hey guys!

It's the second week of classes! how fast did this semester go... crazy. I'm glad though hahaha now i can have some FREEDOM! wooohooo. Ok this blog is about Microsoft Excel. I did the task and i found it to be relatively easy. Excel is really handy when making tables. I used to use it when comparing data in my assignments and when trying to show comparisons within my work.

The difficulties I encountered in the task was towards the end in the advanced part. It started to get complicated when having to drag categories and when trying to find the right tools. A problem that I have always seemed to encounter using microsoft excel is putting data in the wrong boxes. Its a common mistake I make... without realizing.... until I go to make the graph. It was only confusing beacuse there were so many steps and the tool you wanted wasnt always easy to find.

Over all though, this task has taught me things about excel I never knew about. Things like being able to use buttons to see which clients created gains and which created losses. But thats it from me! bye

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Tutorial Week 10

Eyyy so how did everyone go with there essays!!! Woweee so not long until mid break... can't wait! So how awesome was this weeks tutorial task huh! it was sooo fun haha NOT. I found it really easy and when I found something a little tricky, I figured out how to do it within about 23 seconds. lol. I've always used microsoft word so I pretty much know the ins and outs of it all. I have never used a MAC and I only just realized that it's a totally different thing all togethor haha.

With the task the thing, what I found anoying was having to save it and then close it and then go back into it. What was the point of that??? I ended up just saving it and then changing it haha. cutting corners!!! but in all honesty it made no difference. With the step where we had to use that doohicky to put in those words... why couldn't we just type them in? instead of having to add them in? Geeeez. But I can see where afew of those tools might come in handy but like I said i've been using word for a while and have never needed to use any of those tooools... nor did I know they existed.

I was half doing my assignment half doing the task so it didn't take much concentration. The up side to the task is that is was pretty breezy and that I know am aware of those little tricks so I might utilize them in the future. Well that's about all I have to say on this one. Cya!

Sunday, May 6, 2007

Assignment - New Communication Technology 1501ART

TECHNOLOGY OF WAR

Where ever you may be, you are surrounded by the paraphernalia of the twenty-first century, surrounded by technology. This is because we are a product of the techno age, a product of numerous things that have been forged from steel and silicon, sweat and blood. We are children of technology, children of war. A major acceleration of technology through the motion of war began between 1939 and 1945 (Sale 2007). The most advanced and innovative forms of mathematical and technological knowledge were combined to master German Communications in the Second World War. The Enigma has been singled out by numerous war historians and great leaders as one of the best technological contributors to the war (Dabrowa, Lobodzinski 2002). This essay will explore the dynamics of the Enigma machine and look at why it was such a significant mechanism during the war. It will also outline the benefits of the device during the war and how it contributed to the future of technology.

The Enigma Machine was fabricated in 1919 by Arthur Scherbius and underwent much improvement before being implemented by the German Navy in 1926, the army in 1928, and the Air force in 1935 (Stripp 2000). A prominent American historian of cryptography said the Enigma was "the greatest secret of World War II after the atom bomb" (Kozaczuk 2001). It was originally used to keep business correspondence secret but the German Armed Forces quickly recognized its military capability (Reuvers 2006). The Enigma was an encryption device the Germans used to encode the details of field operations and to communicate with their submarine fleet (White 2005, p.138). The machine looked like a cross between a portable type-writer and a cash register and was usually enclosed in a wooden box. The input was by way of a type-writer type keyboard with twenty-six letters and the output was through a lamp-board. Inside was a complex system of gears, electric wiring and series of drums. Any letter typed by the Enigma operator on the keyboard could be transformed into an infinite variety of different letters. Encoded messages, which were a seemingly arbitrary assembly of letters, were then sent in Morse code (Cross 1994, p. 28. Chorlton 2002, p.30).

By use of this machine, the Germans reigned supreme. They had power because they were able to send secret ciphers regarding combat preparation and position without being detected. Because of the lack of technology on their part, the British went into high alert and their naval crew suffered immensely. With direct communication via the Enigma, the German naval team known as the “U-Boat Wolf Pack” sunk 108 of the 340 British Naval ships (Stanley 1987, p.59). The cracking of the Enigma Code became a high-priority operation for the British and led to the organization of a specialized team of Cryptographers and mathematicians at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire. They began decoding Enigma messages in 1940 and continued to operate throughout the war. The Germans became brash and began to send Birthday messages through the Enigma machine to their leaders. This helped the British in deciphering the codes because they were slowly discovering what numbers where being used to certain letters. The team developed an electromechanical computer, called the 'Bronze Goddess,' which was used as the principal weapon to decode the Enigma. The electric wiring matched that of the Enigma machine and was eventually able read the German signals as they were being put through (Cross 1994, p.30). The infiltration of the Enigma machine was valuable as it revealed the capacity of human intelligence and opened the door to new ideas.

The Enigma could be seen as an unethical device for the reason that it aided the Germans in killing the British, however, it became the basis for the fabrication of many new technologies and was resposible for the success in many collective areas (Flichy 1991, p.138). It was a beneficial tool for the military for the fact that it saved thousands of lives. Although they where German lives and they were seen as the enemy, it ultimately took from the death toll. Ten years after the war the Enigmas unbreakable code became an essential part of the militaries fast and mobile radio communications system and created the foundation of martial communication today. So not only did it go on to save more lives it made the armed forces more resourceful. The Enigma didn’t merely support military defences, it greatly accelerated the development of the first computer. The most fundamental was the production of a machine called the 'Colossus'. The project was led by cryptologist Alan Turing and a small group of analysts who went on to become the world’s first computer experts and began the expansion of computing after the war (White 2005, p.138). Today, the lessons learned from cryptographers on the Enigma machine, have become significant to businesses and science and remain a valuable tool to mathematicians, strategists and the government. Things such as using a bank card, withdrawing money at the ATM and safely buying goods off the internet all involve the use of codes. Scientists use codes to explain genetics and to acquire a better understanding of how genes work and can therefore formulate effective medications and work to conquer diseases.

This Enigma machine was a technological advancement that changed the face of the Second World War and the future of technology. It proved to be an enormously complicated machine and its codes were seemingly impossible to crack, however the British cryptologists of Bletchley Park conquered the unachievable. The Enigma machine is possibly the most famous code story of today. It’s presence during the war helped to save thousands of casualties and has contributed greatly to today’s military communication. It has benefited various communal departments and has proven to be a successful device as it has been used as a backbone for the fabrication of further technological developments. The horror of military conflict is forever among us. The military will always require superior communication technology in order for it to operate lucratively and the Enigma is an example of this.


LINKS

http://www.euronet.nl/users/wilfried/ww2/secret.htm

http://www.enigmahistory.org/enigma.html


REFERANCES

Chorlton, W. 2002. 20th Century Perspectives: Weapons and Technology of World War II, Heinemann: Oxford, p.30.

Cross, R. 1994. Era of the Second World War: Technology of War: Steeds Dezelfde Vuano 1673, 1943, Wayland: England, p.28, 30.

Dabrowa, A. Lobodzinski, R. 2002. Breaking the Enigma Code: Polish Contribution to Victory, http://www.avoca.ndirect.co.uk/enigma/index.html.

Flichy, P. 1995. Dynamics of Modern Communication: The Shaping and Impact of New Communication Technologies, Sage Publications: London, p.138.

Kozaczuk, W. The Origins of the Enigma/ultra operation, http://www.enigmahistory.org/text.html#1.

Reuvers, P. 2006. Enigma, http://www.xat.nl/enigma/index.htm.

Sale, T. 2002. Codes and Ciphers in the Second World War, http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/.

Stanley, P. 1987. Australians at War: Air Battle Europe 1939-1945, Time-Life Books: Sydney, p.59.

Stripp, A. 2000. Decoding Nazi Secrets: How the Enigma Works, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/decoding/enigma.html.

White, M. 2005. The Fruits of War, Simon and Shuster: Sydney, p.138.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Tutorial - Week 8

I HATE HABBO HOTEL
Habbo hotel is a virtual world where you can choose what you want to look like. It's a big hotel made up of heaps of rooms, including clubs and bars etc. You walk around and you can talk to different people and make friends. It's like a 3D meeting space. Sound pretty cool? well it's not haha.

So I went onto the site thinking it should be pretty fun... maybe it would have been if I could have signed up and logged in. Signing up is free which is always good but trying to find a name for myself was a dilemma. Every name under the sun was taken... even mine, Jenniline. I mean c'mon who has that name lol. So I tried Jlin.. taken.. J-lin, -Jenniline-, Jlin, Jenni, -Jenni- and many others but to my dismay they were all taken. I ended up with J-e-n-n-i which was ok. So after all that I got to choose a character... you didnt get to choose what it wore you just had to pick from random images. I sat there clicking for the next image for ages trying to find one... whilst waiting for it to load ARRRGGG. I had one page left to complete of like the 5 steps. Suprise! it didnt load! so i went back to the home page and tried to log in anyway. No luck. I did the process all over again... and again. Until it finally logged me on. Then it said I had to install software to run it, some ActiveX or something. Loading it reset the whole computer and as a result I wasnt able to log into other sites for some reason and my S key on the keyboard stopped working. So I changed computers. I thought ok now I will be able to log in and do this. But no it didn't work. In the end I decided to just give up. I had Habbo along time ago so I knew what it was like anyway. But when I signed up last time I didn't have so much trouble. But I will stop complaining now and actually do the tutorial task.

I think 3D worlds aren't as good as something simple like MSN. This is becuase with 3D worlds everything takes ages to load and it harder to have a conversation. You don't know who these people in Habbo land are and for all you know they could turn out to be crazy stalkers or something haha it happens guys. As you have read it is alot harder to get into and becuase there is so much to load so there is more chance of errors with your computer. With Msn it is simple, there are no dramas to sign up... none that I have found anyway, and you know who you are talking to... most of the time. It is much more private and it is easier to have a conversation because of the way it is set out. 3D worlds are cool in the way you can be an actual person and walk around but MSN has web cam so you can actually see the real person. I think 3D worlds discourage people to go out into the real world and socialize.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007



This is my popular pic! I just took a group photo of my friends and added really big and colourful words to it... hehe at first I didn't really know what I was doing but hey it turned out ok :)

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Happy Easter everyone! We all know what that means... HOLIDAYS wooohooo! can't wait. So this is my next creation with photo shop! I think I will make it my Australain picture! I'm pretty proud of it actually :o) This is my older brother... he's an aeronautical engineer in the Royal Australian Air Force. This is a photo of him when he was in training at the Australian Defence Force Academy. He's like the star child of the family. I'm the so called 'naughty middle child'... and you will kno what i'm talking about all you middle childeren out there. lol. I don't think i'm that bad. I always told my brother that when he was rich that i would live of him in a granny flat in his backyard HAHA. But look where I am now UNIVERSITY. So know i can live in my own grannyflat hehe.

Anywho I was playing around with the colour of the photo and I was making it look a little yellowish to make it look old... and then i was like hey, it would be pretty cool to make it look like a postage stamp. Yes my brother is only worth 50c lol no it just looked cooler than having $1.00 on there. But I think it looks pretty good compared to like my last one which looked like something out of space invaders... and no i havn't seen that movie... there is a movie called space invaders right? haha. Well I think my stamp is cool and I would definetly put it on my envelope.

By the way... if you're wondering what that thingo is on the left side of my page, it's just something I added to my blog. It's the latest news articles and stuff. I though some of the articles were relevant to the subject because they were related to new technologies etc. So if you want to check them out go for it! Have a good one guys!

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Blab

Wow it’s already week six, how fast did that go! I thought uni was going to be all work but it’s turned out to be awesome! I’m really getting used to this whole blog thing too. It’s interesting to read about other people’s experiences at uni. Reading some of your blogs has really helped me to understand the subject more. Like I totally didn’t get some parts in last week’s lecture (like the movie) but now I’m a little more confident. Um this blog was really meant for week four, but since we had that scavenger hunt thingo I didn’t get to post it, so I thought I would post it today.

Since I blabbed on the other week about the readings, I thought I might talk about the lecture this time. I found the lecture really interesting! I’m particularly fascinated by the way communication technology worked during the war. The ‘enigma’ was another invention which I never knew existed! The German’s gained so much power through having it, so much so the Polish practically went into hiding. The codes were made so complicated that it would take a team of geniuses (including Alan Turnin) to crack it. It was like a mission impossible for the Polish... they had 48 hours to crack each code and they couldn’t make one mistake!
This ‘enigma’ eventually led to the creation of smarter bombs which leads me back to what I was saying in my other blog (about technology not always being a good thing). Although, it was brought to my attention the other day that communication technology did help heaps of people as well? I will have to do some research on it and get back to ya! Chow

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Tutorial 4

Heya! Well how bout this photo shop guys? I’m so used to doing it at home... I don’t know which version this is but let me tell you, the one I have is waaay easier. On this one, all the tools are hiding and you can’t get them to do what you want. Like there’s this doo wacky I use at home to like sorta blur the edge of the photo but when I go to blur it in this one, it insists on blurring the photos to the point where my friends and I look like something out of a horror movie... but hey maybe some people like that kind of look WHO KNOWS. So I’m having a little trouble, I just want to make it look cool. So if any of you guys have some helpful hints or have found anything worth sharing, please don’t hesitate.

So this is my first photo... it’s a little bit blue... and we look a little bit scary... haha stop looking at it. I couldn’t find anything to do to it that wouldn’t deform it lol. I started getting frustrated towards the end huh. And the sucky thing is that you can only undo a certain amount... so if you go crazy with it and forget to undo it at a certain point, you’re stuck with it and have to start all over again. ARRRGGG not cool guys. I had to start again like 5 times! You think I would have learned my lesson the first time... (-_-‘) That’s me annoyed with a little bit of sweat on my forehead lol. I’m going to try and make a cool one next lesson... it will probably be pink this time haha. byebye

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Tutorial 3

Hey hey. how much stuff did we have to do for this weeks tutorial task! I don't even the internet at home at the moment so here i am devoting my spare time to writing this blog in the library. hehe.

So with the library search i found around five books which i think are relevant to my topic - which is technologies of war. I found books on hitler, the enigma and on cryptology. I had a little bit of a hard time finding any journal articles in the database but when i got the hang of how to use it i did find one on 'The Science of Secret Codes and Ciphers'. The article talks about how to decipher the codes on the enigma and other devices. It discsses how we can use a pen and paper to break the codes of the machines.... which i don't think i could ever do. It then goes on to talk about the introduction of the computer - how they can make or break more complex codes. This information might come in handy when i'm discussing the enigma in my assignment but it might not.... we shall see.

I found the weirdest sites in the scavenger hunt! for that pumpkin question i found a great recipe for pumpkin pie.. lol the biggest pumpkin weighed like 1337.60 pound which is like around 6ookg i think??? That's crazy! I also discovered Grant Hackett has a live journal and email WOW so if any of you guys want to go to that it's at granthackettonline.com lol... and did you know that stephen stockwell played for a brisbane punk band called "The Black"? you do now! I didn't find answers to questions 8 and 9 did you guys????...

Okay last part! We had to discuss what a search engine is. I found that it is an information retreival system designed to help us find information stored on a computer system - such as the world wide web... Just like we had to use a search engine to find all the answers to our scavenger hunt by using key words and phrases. The contents of a web page is anaylyzed to determine how it should be indexed with words, headings, titles or specific fields. The order in which the web page comes up can highly depend on how much money it has payed to be in a certain position otherwise it's usually based on relevance. Google, yahoo and wikapedia are usually what i use - google mostly because i usually find whatever i'm looking for straight away. There are news articles you can find on www.topix.net which tell you all the latest goss like how google is the biggest web spammer and how wikapedia is losing credibility.

I also found a mailing list that keeps you up to date on new technologies - couriermail.com.au has a mailing list and a section on new technology ranging from computers to cameras. I wasn't really sure what a mailing list was so i had trouble finding more but if i do i will let ya kno! cya

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Tutorial 2

Hey guys, how is everyone? I'm half asleep, 8:00 in the morning is too early for me (-_-)zz. But hey how did everyone go in the lecture? That movie was deep man. What about the readings? Only one chapter this time! yay. I found this chapter a bit easier to understand aswell so it wasn't so bad. It was just a very elaborate look at histories communication machines.

The history of technology and the way in which it evolved was actually pretty interesting. (Nerd) hehe. I had no idea that the abacus was an invention that sparked the future of communication technology. Another creation, The 'figura universalis' was a creation which was made up of a series of discs that rotated to assemble equations. Although it wasn't a computer or calculator, it did contribute to new developments especially to the future of mathematics. It's pretty cool how things like this led to something like the computer.

There were heaps of inventions that evolved technology. The development of hole punching cards, the silicon chip and machines which assisted the armed forces. This shows me that some inventions may not have led to good things. The technologies of war led to major destruction but on the other hand led to a raise in the economy. Dosn't mean to say that it was right.

The development of communication technology has ultimately enabled certain people to become more powerful and create bigger and more intelligent weapons of mass destruction. Not to say the technology was all bad... after all it did bring us the computer.

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Tutorial 1

I just like to start by saying, hello to all my fellow uni students! How's life on Campus been treating you? I have to admit, being in my first year, I'm a little bit scared. But hey we are all here to have fun... and also study hard ofcourse.

Well let's get down to it. Three words, New communication Technology... yes those three very words, which seem so simple, i have found aren't so simple to me anymore. I was like yeah ok it's going to be all about the new technology which helps us communicate with the rest of the world (mobile phones, internet etc.) Blah Blah Easy! But i have now come to realize there is definetly more to this subject (ofcourese there always is!).

In the first lecture i listened in content, hoping i could wrap my head around the subject. I learned that we have so many new technologies, some that i havn't even heard of before... like virtual agents? I also dicovered that the subject has huge backround in the way in which the world functions. The way in which old technology has evolved to new technology is pretty amazing and at times... well most of the time you can't keep up! Do any of you remember your parents old mobiles? they were like the size of a brick! haha. You wouldn't be caught dead with that today. When i bought my mobile it was pretty expensive and know its advertising for less than half that price! Don't you hate that!

After the lecture i wasn't yet feeling the subject so i went home to do the readings. Are you serious... four chapters!? that's huge... well it was to me anyway. So i sat myself down and got straight into it. So confusing! there were so many words which i never new existed like, hegemon, dialectic, commodification... and the list goes on. So by the end of this subject i hope i can 'think dialectically'. But other than those confusing words i did find that technology has a huge impact on our economy and culture. I began to learn about communication and narrowcasting and also about how communication teachnology was derived. Then the pages became blank... i was reading but it's like the words weren't there anymore. So i stopped before my brain exploded.

But all in all i can't say i am a total whizz at the subject now... far from it actually (i'm sure many of us are in the same boat). But then again it's only the second week and uni is a whole new world for me... so oh well i will get it soon enough.