Assignment: Who has the Staying Power?: Apple Versus Microsoft

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started the Apple Computer Company in 1976 when they released a personal computer called Apple I (Kimmel 1998). Since then the Apple Company has grown into a multi-billion dollar empire. After nearly forty years of steady competition with Microsoft, and a downward spiral in the market, Apple has developed new systems and software that have made them one of the most successful companies in the 21st century.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak came together with the idea of creating a personal computer (Kimmel 1998). Already on the market when they arrived on the scene, was the first Personal Computer (PC) called Altair (Bellis 2008). Bill Gates, the mastermind behind Microsoft, had previously written a language for the Altair called BASIC, the first real software development the world had experienced (Kimmel 1998). The two Steve's entered the market with their first product Apple I. It was aimed at hobbyists and computer geniuses, but Jobs and Wozniak wanted to develop something easier to use and more advanced (Bellis 2008). They went on to develop Apple II (Kimmel 1998), a much more user-friendly PC that was aimed at the everyday person (Wozniak 1977). It contained more memory, BASIC interpreter, colour video graphics, extended video software and came assembled in a plastic case (Wozniak 1977).

The Apple II was revolutionary. It included a program called VisiCalc. People used this to input data in a spreadsheet, similar to that of today's Microsoft Excel (Bricklin 1999). This program instantly drove sales of the Apple II higher; transforming the way people did business, and resulted in a higher turnover of business tasks (Stockwell & Muir 2008). It became an essential tool for businesses all over America. However, perhaps the most successful development in the Apple II was the GUI, which stands for Graphical User Interface. A GUI is "a program interface that takes advantage of the computer's graphics capabilities to make the program easier to use" (Graphical User Interface 2004). For example, GUI's specifically included things like a pointer on the screen, icons representing different programs on the desktop and the desktop itself is also a GUI (Graphical User Interface 2004). Windows and drop boxes are all things that make the use of a computer a much easier task and it was Apple that first made it available to consumers. GUI also became popular with Microsoft, competition remained rife between the two companies (Tuck 2001).

The Apple company began to lose its momentum in the early 80's, virtually straight after its first major success on the market (Kimmel 1998). Major management issues occurred, as the company grew in rapid proportions. Steve Jobs began to worry that his control of Apple would be taking away from him by shareholders. The staff employed by Apple were all being treated differently. Some received stock options while others did not, and salaried employees received far more benefits. This caused major rifts in the company, succeeded by a downfall in sales with Apple III and LISA (Kimmel 1998). Microsoft soared ahead with new operating systems like Microsoft Works, which was the starting point, for future operating systems Windows 95, 98, 2000 and XP (Microsoft Company Timeline 2008), while The Apple Company had to fight off a bad reputation and poor sales (Tuck 2001).

It is only now in the 21st Century, that Apple has truly made a comeback. With their quick-witted advertisements on television, savvy marketing ploys and innovative programs, Apple has re-remerged as strong money making machine (Goralnick 2006). Apple introduced a modern and easily identifiable design for each of their products by putting an 'i' in front of all their products. Things like iMac, iPod and iPhone. Apple is now doing better than ever. While Microsoft had by far the more successful run in the lead up to the 00's, Apple have proved a comeback making $5.41 billion in sales in the fiscal quarter ending June 30, 2007 (Dalrymple, Michaels & Snell 2007, pg. 18). They have made their systems much more user friendly, by including all the programs anyone would ever need on their computers. For example, iMacs come fully assembled with iTunes for your music, iPhoto for your pictures, iChat for networking, iDVD for watching movies and iCal for your to record your upcoming events (Apple 2008). Apple has also found a way for Microsoft Office (including Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Entourage) to work on their computers  by having Intel-Based Processors (Snell 2007, p. 9). This essentially means that Microsoft have acknowledged Apple's popularity and made an investment in them. This has put Apple on top of the game by allowing both Windows and Apple products to work on Macs (Snell 2007, p.  9).

One major piece of evidence that Microsoft is struggling is with their release of Windows Vista, which coincided with the release of Apple's new iPhone (Soat 2007, p. 12). While the iPhone was a massive hit with fans, with 50 000 of them turning up to hear Steve Jobs introduce the new product, Vista had nowhere near the same effect. With only 15 000 fans, Bill Gates failed to make as big impact an impact as Apple, if any at all. There was something that Steve Jobs said in his presentation"This is something Microsoft will never be able to rip off," (Soat 2007, p. 12). This statement sparked fury within Microsoft and started yet another unspoken battle between the two companies.

Already Vista has seen a lot of issues, especially when concerning compatibility between it and Apple Products like iTunes (Worldwide Product News, 2007, p. 1). Many of the Microsoft fan base have either downgraded back to XP or converted to Mac (Dubie 2007). Vista lacks any support for its users (Thomas 2007) and has been a disappointing addition to the Microsoft Corporation. While no one argues that Microsoft had the more successful run in the lead up to the 21st century, it is now being said that Apple could surpass any success by Microsoft within the next 5 years, should they continue their rising trend in the market (Apple News Media Reports, 2007).

In conclusion, The Apple Computer Company, now simply known as Apple have had a tumultuous ride in the market of PC's. With brilliant ideas in the beginning with Apple I and Apple II (Kimmel 1998), Apple have made a comeback with their modern design and savvy marketing skills (Goralnick 2006). Based on the evidence, Apple has learnt from their mistakes and now has the staying power while Microsoft, seems to be suffering a downfall of sorts. It is now after 40 years of PC's, a society has a much more competitive market, and finally gives consumers more choice about their PC's (Jobs 2007) and is becoming more and more apparent that consumers want Apple.

References

Anonymous, 'Graphical User Interface' http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/G/Graphical_User_Interface_GUI.html Accessed on 20th May 2008.

Anonymous 2007, 'Apple Advises iTines Users of Vista Compatibility Issues', Worldwide Computer Products News. (February), 1

Anonymous 2008, 'The Office Suite Smackdown', Macworld. Vol 25, Iss. 5 (May), 52

Anonymous 2008, 'Microsoft Company Timeline',  http://www.thocp.net/companies/microsoft/microsoft_company_part2.htm Accessed on 28th May 2008.

Apple News/Media Reports 2007, 'Apple to Surpass Microsoft Revenue in 5 years?', http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/01/29/apple.to.surpass.ms/ Accessed on 30th April 2008

Apple 2008, 'The Official Apple Website', http://www.apple.com/ Accessed on 20th May 2008

Bellis, Mary 2008, 'Inventors of the Modern Computer'. http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa121598.htm Accessed on 20th May 2008

Bricklin, Dan 1999, 'Was VisiCalc the First Spreadsheet?', http://www.bricklin.com/firstspreadsheetquestion.htm Accessed on 29th May 2008

Dalrymple, Jim; Michaels, Phillip; Snell, Jason 2007, 'Apple's Record Sales', Macworld. Vol. 24, Iss. 10 (October), 18

Dubie, Debbie 2007, 'Microsoft Struggling to Convince About Vista', http://www.computerworlduk.com/management/infrastructure/applications/

news/index.cfm?newsid=6258 Accessed on 30th May 2008

Goralnick, Jared 2006, 'Mac Advertising Envy: Why Can't Microsoft Respond?' 

http://www.technotheory.com/2006/05/macadvertising-envy-why-cant-microsoft- respond/ Accessed on 30th May 2008

Jobs, Steve 2007, 'Thoughts on Music', http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/ Accessed on 30th April 2008

Kimmel, Leigh 1998, 'Apple Computer, Inc: A History'. http://www.geocities.com/Athens/3682/applehistory.html Accessed on 20th May 2008

Snell, Jason 2007, 'The Post-Windows World', Macworld. Vol. 24, Iss. 5 (May), 9

Soat, John 2007, 'Microsoft Versus Apple: This Time, It's For Real', InformationWeek. Iss. 1121 (January), 12

Stockwell, Stephen; Muir, Adam 2008, 'Lecture 6: A Brief History of the Computer and Internet', Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, 23rd April 2008

Thomas, Andrew 2007, 'Dear Microsoft, Vista Doesn't Work Properly', http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2007/10/08/vista-rubbish Accessed on 30th May 2008

Tuck, Mike 2001, 'The Real History of GUI', http://www.sitepoint.com/print/real-history-gui Accessed on 28th May 2008

Wozniak, Steve 1977, 'The Apple II', BYTE. Vol. 2, Iss. 5 (May). http://www.geocities.com/

Athens/3682/applehistory.html Accessed on 20th May 2008.

Topic 12 - Electronic Civil Liberties/Creative Commons/Free and Open Source Software

Lecture

This weeks lecture related to last weeks in that it discussed peer-to-peer file sharing and also free software that is available online for consumers. We talked about all the different software that we use on a day-to-day basis. Things like MSN, Mac OS, iTunes and Windows are just a few. Adam discussed two different organisations, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Creative Commons. The EFF is an organisation that protects and promotes online civil liberties. Creative Commons is an organisation that allows artists to distribute their product to the public, but also allows them to assert some control over how it is done. The public are able to share remix or alter music made by an artist online for non-profit purposes and without the worry of breaching copyright laws.

Readings

We had a couple of readings this week. The first was Why Software Should Not Have Owners by Richard Stallman. This reading discusses copyright laws in relation to software programs. He talks about how certain companies will tally it as a loss each time someone downloads or copies their software for free, regardless of the fact that the person illegally downloading it probably would never actually buy it anyway. Stallman reacts negatively to copyright laws, suggesting all software should be free in order for everyone to get along. He seems to scoff at the idea of an illegal download as being detrimental to the company that made it.

The second reading this week was called FLOSS. It stands for Free Libre Open Source Software. The reading again discusses open source software and explains the particulars about it. That once an organisation decides to license a piece of software as free, then the public may download and distribute it as they please. They acknowledge that this is advantageous as it means there is more circulation of the software. The third reading, Creative Commons by Cory Doctorow. It again is very similar to the other readings, specifically focussing on Creative Commons and what was discussed in the lecture. Creative Commons is an organisation that allows you to download and distribute art without worrying about copyright penalties.

Tutorial

I used this time to focus on study for the exam, going over all the blogs for the subject that I had done over the semester.

Topic 11 - The Ethics of Peer-to-Peer File Sharing

Lecture

This week's lecture discussed Peer-to-Peer file sharing and whether or not it is ethical. We watched a movie called Steal This Film II, which talked about copyrighted material being distributed amongst members of the public. It discussed how the entertainment industry have had to take many different courses of action in order to stop piracy and that while they will never be able to fully eradicate it, law enforcement can make it as tedious as possible for the offenders and let them know that there are consequences for their actions. Peer-to-Peer file sharing can be considered immoral as it means people are receiving music without people paying for it and are essentially ripping off the artist who made the music/movie/tv show. It is stealing. However, in the grander scheme of things, it's such a miniscule issue. Generally people do it because they only want one song off an artist not the whole album. And a lot of the time, real fans of an artist will go out and buy the album in a store, to support the artist and have the artwork to prove it. In conclusion, I think Peer-to-Peer file sharing is okay in moderation. 

Readings

This week the reading was called When Pigs Fly: The Death of Oink, The Birth of Dissent, and A Brief History of Record Industry Suicide. It is written by Demonbaby, a blogger who works in the record industry. He starts off by noting the unbelievable amounts of money that are spent in the industry, superbly ridiculous amounts on dinners, alcohol and hotels. He then delves into the history of digital music, how before we came to use MP3's it was all about cassette tapes and then CD's and that any copies made were pretty scratchy and of poor quality. And then Napster was developed, a Peer-to-Peer File sharing system,  and suddenly people were able to copy and share music as they pleased. The record industry treated Napster and other programs like it as a threat. The record industry did not move with the times, did not supply digital music quickly enough for the masses and the public sought what they wanted by pirating and Peer-to-Peer File Sharing. Sure people would still buy CD's of the bands they liked in order to support them, but generally computer users had found a cheap and easy way to get music, and the record companies and artists began to lose money, since essentially the public was stealing from them. It is really only recently that the industry has tried to crack down on piracy. Most acknowledge that it will never fully be eradicated. The industry has turned more digitally friendly, with the release of MP3 players and online stores like iTunes offering competitive prices for music per song to scale down piracy and be more flexible for today's needs.

Topic 10 - Blade Runner

Lecture

In the this week we watched the movie Blade Runner. The film is set in the future, centres around the story of the human race on other planets creating another species of themselves, called replicates whose sole purpose is to be enslaved by those who made them. Typically, as always with these sorts of stories, the replicates rebel against the humans, using their own technology against them and the humans then have to fight them off and defend themselves against their own creations. The story sends a clear message; that in such a technologically advanced world, it is possible to have consequences and basically have our own creations slap us in the face. To rely too much on technology, is to possibly give away everything we have worked for and that advances in technology do not necessarily suggest positive influences.

Readings

The reading this week was called An Exploration of What It Means to be Human by T.J LeGrice. It's talks about the 1968 novel by Phillip K. Dick called Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep? The novel was later released as Blade Runner. The article dicusses the Voight-Kampff machine that features in his novel and in the movie Blade Runner, which measures a persons emotions and emotional capabilities and is able to detect whether a th subject is a real person or a replicant. The article offers an explanation as to what a 'Blade Runner is': human (a) 1: of or relating to people or humankind, 2: having the nature, qualities or characteristics of people or humankind and 3: of or relating to humankind as distinct from God or gods, animals or machines.

The article also goes on to compare androids and humans, and while humans acquire all the above qualities, androids only strive to and that is the biggest difference. You cannot build or invent human nature, it is innate. And no matter how advance technology will become, those human qualities can not be faked.

Tutorial

There was no set activity this week, we did more planning for our essay's.

Topic 9 - Cyberpunk

Lecture

The lecture this week discussed the term "Cyberpunk" and how it came into existence. Cyberpunk is a form of science ficiton genre. It relates to topics such as body modifications, genetics, computers and corporate developments. There are 5 different themes that fit under the heading of Cyberpunk. They are Technology & Mythology, Utopia & Dystopia, Cities as Machines, Technological Change and Modernism to Post Modernism. Each of these themes is a starting point for Cyberpunk stories or ideas and the stories evolve to represent one of these themes.

We then watched a screening of La Jetee which was a French New Wave movie made up entirely of still shots with narration over the top. The film was a post World War III look at Paris where the remaining survivors of the nuclear disaster attempt to go back in time to the pre-war era to perhaps prevent the war and gain more food and supplies. The films production was definitely different from anything I've ever seen before. I liked that it was different, but I found it dragged in some places. The narration was distracting since we had to read sub titles of the storyline, plus their actions. One pivotal part of the story, was when the woman looked into the camera longingly. It is the only shot with movement in it, and I thought it was interesting that the director decided to use it. To me it seemed to be the only real part of the movie, the only part that evoked any real emotion.

Readings

We read a chapter from a Cyberpunk novel called Burning Chrome by William Gibson. I found it almost impossible to read. It is filled with technical jargon that disrupted the flow of the book, but anyway I somehow managed to get through it. It was set sometime in the future, with computers being the controlling force throughout this fictional world. The story focusses on two hackers, who attempt to gain profits by hacking into systems and stealing whatever they can. I guess what the story was trying to portray was how dangerous computers can be, and that while today we have sought many good things from technology, it would not do to rely on it too much. There is always something or someone at the other end of your computer that could possibly steal your passwords, your bank account details or your identity.

The second reading was Plato's Allegory of the Cave. It explains social conditioning and how we accept things as we see them because we have been conditioned to do so, not because it's the way it is. Plato uses the example of prisoners being locked in a cave, in which they are seated with their backs to a fire. In front the fire is a walkway, where the captors move puppets along, so they create shadows on the walls that the prisoners can see. Plato suggests that if one prisoner was handed a book and a shadow moved across the wall at the same time and he said "Hey, a book," that he could be talking about the shadow on the wall and not the book in his hand. This is just an example of how things are not necessarily what they appear and that we are conditioned to believe things in a certain way.

Tutorial

In the tutorial this week, we were allowed to work on our Essay's. I have chosen to do my essay about why Apple computers are better than Microsoft and show examples of that. I have started with a short history of how each company came to be, but will mostly focus on the features of each operating system, highlighting the differences between them

Topic 8 - Are Games a Waste of Time?

Lecture

The lecture discussed the concept of video games studies and how people are now heading into careers where they study video games and become advisers for game companies. They look at different aspects of the games, such as the long term effects they have on players, the persistence of the effects, and looking at games as a cultural practise in our society. We examined the differences between Narratology and Ludology. Narratology is the study of video games from a literary perspective, full of story-telling elements and people think it can be examined like text. Ludology is different to Narratology in that it does not concern with the story telling element of the game, but rather the game-play elements. A big point in the discussion is why are people playing video games? The general consensus being that people do it to escape reality and live out their fantasies without dealing with the consequences.

Readings

This week the reading was called Trigger Happy, by Stephen Poole. He goes on to talk about how in video games, the impossible can happen. Physics, rules of logic go out the window in these games, so pretty much anything can happen. Video game companies do this to enhance entertainment value and make their games more popular. Regardless of what is real and what is not, the idea is to make the game more challenging for the players and perhaps the "fakeness" of it all does that. Poole does confirm that certain companies do consult mathematicians and scientists in order to make aspects of the game more realistic, however at the end of the day, video game companies just want to sell their product and the way to do that seems to be to make the game as exciting as possible. 

Tutorial

The tutorial task this week involved progressing our skills in Microsoft Word and Excel. The tasks were pretty easy, involving writing a letter, using different font styles and sizes, double spacing, bullet points and then more advanced skills such as track changes and mail merge. Then in Excel we had to input data, use formulas, make graphs and use macros. Word I found easier than Excel, simple because I use it more. The instructions were pretty straightforward, though I'm likely to forget them since I have no real use for Mail Merge. With Excel, I've used it before when having to present results for an assignment or something like that, but I rarely use it otherwise. I can see why Excel would be useful for me in a business setting, to input data and create rosters or something like that, but at the moment, I can get by without it. It's good to get the general gist now though, to help me later on.

The next task is to discuss the qualitative differences between Instant Messaging applications like MSN and 3D environments such as Second Life which we researched in week 1. The main obvious difference between the two is the fact that one is 3D and holds more visual images but there is more to it than that. 3D environments offer far more options for users. You can build an avatar to represent who you wish you were or want to be, and there are perhaps more exchanges between people rather than just conversation.  I guess 3D worlds add more quality since it sucks you in almost. MSN is just having a conversation with a computer, but 3D worlds offer a life, a setting where you can carry out any task you could do in the real world and in that respect they have more quality. 3D worlds have the danger of not allowing you to snap back to reality, people live through their computers. On MSN at the end of the day, it's easier to turn off the computer and stop chatting.

Topic 7 - Cronenberg: Cinema & Technology

Lecture

We watched the film eXistenZ. The movie was about a woman, Allegra, who had created a virtual reality game called eXistenZ. She is about to release her game to a focus group when she is attacked and her game is damaged. In order to inspect the damage she convinces her friend Ted, to accept a "game port" in his own body, so they can play the game together and find out what's damaged. After that the 2 are on a journey, unable to differentiate between what is virtual and what is reality, which is certainly the message that the director David Cronenberg is portraying. The movie really makes you think. What is reality? How do we know? And how to virtual gamers know the difference? It has now become that these days that virtual reality is so real, it is becoming impossible to tell the difference between that and actual reality. The danger of this is that there are no consequences in a virtual reality - it is just a game. You can kill, steal, perform any criminal act and nothing will come of it, you go on your way. For those who cannot differentiate between actual and virtual reality means there can be no consideration for the consequences.

Readings

A paper called The Military-Entertainment Complex: A New Facet of Information Warfare was our reading for this week. This paper gives evidence about how military and entertainment have always been interlinked. (For example, the military have always used songs and chants in their marching for entertainment value, and it works in reverse with organisations like the USO (United Services Organisation) providing entertainment for troops in war torn countries and Hollywood taking it on and using them as storylines in movies.) Currently, we are seeing the effects of this so called Information War, in relation to the Iraq war. The media are trying to develop an "us against them" attitude towards the war. They have set up the story like its a plot in a movie, amping us up to believe that we are winning, like it's a good-natured competition.

The article makes reference to the Dixie Chicks making a negative comment about the war in Iraq and consequently having their record sales drop. This demonstrated to critics of the war, that people are enjoying the "show" performed for them by the media and caused a massive silence of negative opinions in relation to the Iraq War. The danger of this is that if we don't hear different opinions and only pay attention to the song and dance the military/Hollywood combination are trying to spin us, then we lose our objectivity of these current events and are all but brainwashed into believing that war is the only way.

Tutorial

There was no tutorial class this week.

Topic 6 - The History of the Computer

Lecture

The lecture this week discussed the history of computers. The first computer was invented by Charles Babbage and since then the computer has become almoast a daily necessity for people. The first commercially produced computers available were manufactured by IBM in the 1950's, that were mainly for use in the military or government departments. Xerox PARC was then founded and produced the first PC called Altair. Shortly after Bill Gates founded Microsoft, after he wrote a language called BASIC for Altair. It was from here on that PC's became an industry in their own right.

Apple soon came on the scene, producing their own make of PC's that was more advanced than Altair and took over the market. IBM was still manufacturing computers meant for the workplace decided to break into the PC market by pairing up with Microsoft and building a new operating system to be used on PC's called Windows. Apple was unprepared for this market shift and soon their company began to slide, causing Microsoft to take over the industry. All this happened in the 1970's and 80's and it is only quite recently that Apple has made a comeback with their new imac range. There is still a healthy competition between Apple and Microsoft, yet as they are both popular operating systems, it seems they are doing all they can to make it easy for people to swap between the two.

Without delving too much more into the history of the computers, the lecture also dicussed the differences between the Internet and World Wide Web (WWW), that being that the internet is made up of lots of different applications including WWW and Email.

Readings

The reading this week is called "What's New About New Media?" Basically this article discusses how much digital media has progressed over time and how there is always new media available. For example, these days music is readily available to us. All we have to do is log onto iTunes and download the mp3 and its ours. However 50 years ago, the only way to hear music was on a record player, 20 years ago it was a cassette tape which morphed into a CD and now we have mp3's. It's pretty much revolutionised how we listen to music now. This is relevant to New Communication Technologies as the Internet is ever expanding and developing, becoming a form of new media.


Tutorial


This week we needed to find an article in Wikipedia on a topic that we were experts on. Now I had a hard time thinking of anything, since I don't think I'm that knowledgeable about any topics to call myself an expert. However I was watching FRIENDS on TV and realised I own the entire series on DVD and should at least be somewhat knowledgeable on the subject.


Is this article accurate?


The article was accurate, I found that most of the information about the television show FRIENDS was in fact correct and true. I didn't notice any outlandish statements or false rumours about the cast members that you so often find on the internet and in the tabloids


Does it cover all the basic facts that you'd need to understand the topic?


The article was pretty good, it included a lot of the information one needs to be able to understand what the TV series is about. My only problem with it is that it seems very rushed. I could see the article being confusing for people who didn't know the story or relationships between the characters. Even though it explained it, it was not written in a way that was easy to comprehend, it seemed more like it was trying to cram as much information as possible into a paragraph without any thought towards flow and language choices. Other than that though the article seemed accurate and informative.




Does the article cover Wikipedia guidelines for useful articles?


The article is useful, it has a lot of information on the show itself as well as information on each of the cast members other acting work. There are many references listed on the bottom of the Wikipedia page and all the edits that have been made to the information on the page appear to have been done with good intentions rather than to cause confusion.


Is this article fair and balanced or is it biased towards a particular side or argument?


It's hard to argue about a TV show. I don't think you can be necessarily biased one way or the other. The article was favourable about the television show as well as the actors and characters.


Changes I would make to the article would be maybe making the passages a little bit more coherent and maybe more detailed with the story line of the show. The article explains only the very basics of the relationships of the characters and their journeys. I would maybe just add more detail.

Topic 5 - Why I Hate Wikipedia

Lecture

In the lecture this week we discussed Wikipedia. Now I personally have nothing against Wikipedia. I think it's a great site for finding out the basics of a topic and sometimes the information can be very accurate. However, the fact that anybody can log in and change any information that's posted on there, is slightly disconcerting. I can't see why someone gets enjoyment out of putting up fake information, as it doesn't really benefit them and it's basically a big time waster. I think though, that most of us decided Wikipedia was a great starting point when trying to learn more about a new topic, however it is not a reliable academic resource.

Readings

The reading this week was a short story by Jorge Luis Borges titled Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius. The story was about how easily people can be manipulated into believing anything. Borges story has elements of facts and fiction in them which consequently, has raised discussion about what is real and what isn't. The story describes what happens so often in our society, people are so easily swayed into one opinion. When being informed by someone on a subject, as long as some of the facts are true, people will quite happily believe everything that that person tells them on the subject. This reading is relevant while examining Wikipedia. Since anyone can add anything on Wikipedia, when mixed with some truth, people will believe it.

Tutorial

How do the ideas from Walter Benjamin's "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" apply to contemporary digital media?

In today's society, it is very easy for people to replicate art, especially digital media. Movies and music are mass produced already and I think most people know how easy it is just to copy these yourself. Today digital media is more available to people and art can be made easily by anyone that owns a camera. To coincide with Benjamin's theory, digital media lacks unique existence. Because there are often so many copies, it's individuality and aura is gone. This is more of an issue now than in Benjamin's day, but the similarities are not unfounded.

There was a time when "Art" was made by artists who were skilled professionals. Now that anyone with a computer can create things digitally (music, images, videos, etc), what does that mean for "art"?

Now that people are able to create things digitally, I think it can impair those who want to create 'real' art. That is not to say that because something is created digitally it isn't art, but it brings about issues of plagiarism, of 'borrowing' or potentially stealing someone else's work, as it's harder to prove who exactly the author is. It also means that absolutely anyone can create art and does not need to be labelled an artist or be a skilled professional. I don't know whether this demeans artistic expression, if it makes art less special because absolutely anyone can do it but it certainly can change the definition of what art is and what it will become.

Is a photo shopped image "authentic"?

No I do not believe a photoshopped image is authentic. On the one hand it is a creative piece. Someone has chopped and changed an image around in order to suit their own needs and used it for whatever purpose. And yet, to photo shop something is to alter another piece of' 'art.' The base of something that is photo shopped is already a piece of art. That is the authentic image. When alterations are made and the piece is edited it then becomes another piece of art, but because it has come from something else I would argue that it is not authentic.

Do digital "things" have an "aura" (in Benjamin's terms)?

Benjamin believed that only the original piece of art, or authentic image had an aura and the more a piece was reproduced the less "aura" it had. Something that is made digitally is copied over and over again - it's mass produced. For example, when a movie is made and released on DVD, the copy that you have is not the original and therefore does not have the "aura" that comes with the original. That applies to most digital things. These products are so readily available to us, that when stocks run out, they just make more. In Benjamin's terms, the original piece of digital media certainly has an "aura." Any reproductions however, do not.

Topic 4 - Old Communication Technologies

Lecture

The lecture this week looked at many of the previous communication technologies that the human race have used in the past and how we have evolved to what we have now. Back in the old days, people obviously didn't have the ability or the equipment to write letters or send an email, so they resorted to other means. Things such as Rock Art - etching messages on walls- people did this to communicate with others and also to keep records. Since then, society has continued to bring out new and improved ways for us to communicate with each other. Things like the telegraph, phonograph, telephone, printing press, type writers, radio & television have all helped us communicate more often and with more accuracy so much so, that now in the age of computers, we are overloaded with information. Email, mobile phones, PDA's, mp3 players, digital cameras and if you're really lucky, you can get one gadget that has them all rolled into one.

Readings

This week the reading was by Walter Benjamin written in 1936. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction discusses and analyses the idea of art in different contexts and whether or not it can be defined as "art." It also looks at people reproducing someone else's artwork and why someone may replicate your work. People may be practising their skills, or looking to gain credit elsewhere, for something that is not theirs. Benjamin also goes on to discuss the concept of "aura," it being "that which withers in the age of reproduction is the aura of art work." I interpreted this as, the more replicas of a piece of art, the less valuable that piece becomes, whereas the original piece of art with always have the "aura" surrounding it, as it is a true piece of art. It also raises the question of whether or not someone creating a replica of someone else's artwork can be called a true artist.


Tutorial

Our exercises this week included using different search engines other than Google or Wikipedia to answer questions set by our tutor.


1. Who was the creator of the infamous "lovebug" computer virus?

Reomel Ramones created the "lovebug" virus - (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/740558.stm)

2. Who invented the paper clip?

John Vaaler a Norwegian Inventor invented the paperclip in 1899 (http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpaperclip.htm)

3. How did the Ebola virus get its name?

The Ebola virus is named after a river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/spb/mnpages/dispages/ebola/qa.htm)

4. What country had the largest recorded earthquake?

Southern Chile on the 22nd May 1960 (http://asc-india.org/lib/world10.htm)

5. In computer memory/storage terms, how many kilobytes in a terabyte?

1,073,741,824 kilobytes in a terabyte (http://www.t1shopper.com/tools/calculate/)

6. Who is the creator of email?

Ray Tomlinson invented email in 1971 (http://inventors.about.com/od/estartinventions/a/email.htm)

7. What is the storm worm, and how many computers are infected by it?

The storm worm in computer terms is a family of Trojans (a virus), that uses email to infect peoples computers. It does it in the form of spam and has infected as many as 5 million computers. (http://what-is-what.com/what_is/storm.html, http://antivirus.about.com/od/virusdescriptions/a/stormworm.htm)

8. If you wanted to contact the prime minister of Australia directly, what is the most efficient way?

To download a contact form and send it through to Kevin Rudd over the Internet. Or you can post a letter via Australia Post (http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/contacts.asp)

9. Which Brisbane-based punk band is Stephen Stockwell (Head of the School of Arts) a member of?

The Black Assassin (Courtesy of a student in 2005 doing this very assignment!) (http://www.users.on.net/~lenus/nct/2005/04/nct-week-6.html)

10. What does the term "Web 2.0" mean in your own words?

It is a new and improved version of the original interactive web program, that allows us to interact with different websites so much easier than we could 10 years ago.

Bonus Questions

How do search engines rank the stuff they find on the internet?

Search engines use automated software agents to explore websites and read the information. The agents then go on to index what they find and rank them in order of frequency of the keywords in each of the websites.

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 website that contains the key words that you use in your search over and over again is more likely to be at the top of the search results than websites that do not have them.

What are some of your favourite search engines? Why do you like more than others?

I like Google, because it's easy to read and understand and it usually provides the results I want. It also nearly always brings up Wikipedia as one of the first results which is not a great bibliographical source, but is awesome in giving you a basic information on a particular topic.

Topic 3 - Alphaville

Lecture

So this week was all about Alphaville and French New Wave Cinema. Alphaville. I hardly know where to start. A French Film Noir with a futuristic storyline set on another planet. It was oddly intriguing and the thing that struck me was that I actually enjoyed it! The film tells of a world of dystopia, a world taken over by a computer that controls everything in the fictional world of Alphaville. No one may display emotion or have any idea of individualism or ask 'why?' The whole movie was in French which I found to be more effective than had it been in English, though I'm not sure how much of a conscious decision that was by the filmmakers seeing as French was their first language. The film is definitely not for everyone especially these days with so many action-packed blockbusters around. However, I found it intriguing and really enjoyed the old school method of story telling.

Readings

The readings this week focussed on different film terms and information that had relevance to Alphaville. It particularly highlighted how this movie was one of the first of it's kind and was quite the evocative piece, breaking free from all stereotypes of the era and presenting new ideas about technology. It also discusses the release of French New Wave Cinema and the new filming techniques that came with it. Alphaville made quite the impact on audiences and the film industry alike and it's interesting to see modern day cinema try to emanate that.

Tutorial

The main task is to write about my use of New Communication Technologies in communicating with friends and family. I use my mobile phone everyday to text and call my friends - it's been like an extension of my arm since I was 12. I use the computer everyday and am obsessed with Facebook. As much as it's a somewhat unhealthy obsession to be on the computer everyday, I couldn't possibly talk to my friends in Canada and in the UK as much as I do without it. Privacy is an issue, and I make sure that my profile is private and I only ever add people I know. I never put my personal details anywhere on the Internet and use it purely for social means. Without these technologies, my life would be very different and to be honest, I like having all these things available to me.

Topic 2 - Is email dead?

Lecture

This week's lecture was called Is Email Dead? We discussed certain disadvantages regarding email- like spam (junk email.) Most of the class had received some sort of email about penis enlargements, competition entries to win the new Apple iphone and the ever-popular Nigerian money scam where con artists take you for all you've got. We then looked at the results of the survey we took in class and discovered that 65.5% off people said email has it's place and that 0% of people never used email. We decided that email was indeed not dead and despite all the junk sent to us, email definitely has a huge impact on our lives. We also watched an excerpt from Jon Stewart's The Daily Show that discussed Internet bloggers and whether or not they were real journalists. While funny, it made a good point which also tied in with our readings for the week.

Readings

When people blog they can say whatever they like and can have an opinion on anything. They are there to inform the masses of people on the Internet yet they are not necessarily bound by the ethical journalistic laws that the people in the "real" media are. The readings questioned whether or not bloggers should be recognised for their work. In my opinion, I prefer it when people just say what they want, when they want, rather than have something manipulated by editors and government officials. You get the real news from the people on the street, experiencing the things they write about, rather than have someone on the sideline trying to give an objective viewpoint to please the powers that be. As long as no one is inciting hate or falsely accusing people, I say go for it.

Tutorial

After discussing all this, it seems only right that we would set up a blog of our own. We logged on to blogger.com and set up accounts. Each week I'll post a summary of my lectures and tutorials, for assessments purposes (I obviously don't want to fail!) but also it's just a really good way of organising your work (as well as feelings, ideas and opinions). It's quick, easy and painless and while the content of my blog may not be as riveting as those writing about politics or celebrity gossip, it serves it's purpose. I'm informing the masses of people on the Internet all about New Communication Technologies. :)

Topic 1 - Second Life

In the first lecture the concept virtual games was discussed. Something called Second Life, which is a virtual reality game, is seemingly in the process of taking over the world! It basically involves people logging onto a site and creating avatars and the best thing is, you can choose everything about your virtual personality. Choose your own traits, hair colour and for the very particular, you can even choose your own genitalia. People are using this game to live a pretend life through a computer screen. You can buy and trade land, build houses and go to events thrown by other residents. Scarily, this is something that users are doing every single day instead of experiencing actual reality. It is just another reminder of how much technology is taking over in the 21st century.