Scavenger Hunt

The task for this week includes finding the answers to various questions without using Google or Wikipedia. The questions and answers follow:

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

Onel de Guzman, Spyder, null_spyder@hotmail.com

http://www.computerbytesman.com/lovebug/index.htm, http://archives.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/06/29/philippines.lovebug.02/index.html http://www.Yahoo.com

2. Who invented the paper clip?

The modern paper clip was patented on November 9, 1899 to William D. Middlebrook of Waterbury, Connecticut.

http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/paperclip.htm

http://www.Ask.com

3. How did the Ebola virus get its name?

Ebola was first recognized in 1976, and since then it has appeared sporadically. The virus gets its name from a river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it was first recognized.

http://ebola.emedtv.com/ebola-virus/from-what-place-did-the-ebola-virus-get-its-name.html

http://www.ask.com

4. What country had the largest recorded earthquake?

Chile, 1960

http://www.extremescience.com/GreatestEarthquake.htm

http://www.altavista.com

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

1073741824 KB in a TB.

http://www.sonoma.edu/users/c/carusor/web219/hardware_terms.htm

http://www.yahoo.com

6. Who is the creator of email?

Vinton Cerf in 1988 created commercial email, however Ray Tomlinson developed the first email application in late 1971.

http://www.livinginternet.com/e/ei.htm

http://www.Ask.com

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

Internet Virus/Trojan – Unknown how many are infected, was estimated at 1.7 million in 2007.

http://www.heise-online.co.uk/security/Storm-worm-botnet-with-over-1-7-million-drones--/news/94040

http://www.altavista.com

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

Address:

The Hon Kevin Rudd MP
Prime Minister
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600

Also a web form at: http://www.pm.gov.au/contact/index.cfm

http://www.pm.gov.au/contact/index.cfm

http://www.yahoo.com.au

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

Stephen played keyboard for Brisbane punk band, the Black Assassins

http://www.griffith.edu.au/school/art/staff/stockwell.htm

http://www.yahoo.com.au

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

After reading a couple of different websites, “Web 2.0” means, in my understanding, the more recent trend of internet applications to be more user-oriented, that is, able to be changed, altered, and influenced not only by the host, but also by the people that utilise them. For example, Wikipedia, P2P transfer programmes (Napster, Limewire, etc).

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/web2report/chapter/web20_report_excerpt.pdf

http://www.paulgraham.com/web20.html

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html

http://www.yahoo.com

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

• “One of the main rules in a ranking algorithm involves the location and frequency of keywords on a web page.
• Pages with the search terms appearing in the HTML title tag are often assumed to be more relevant than others to the topic.
• Search engines will also check to see if the search keywords appear near the top of a web page, such as in the headline or in the first few paragraphs of text. They assume that any page relevant to the topic will mention those words right from the beginning.
• Frequency is the other major factor in how search engines determine relevancy. A search engine will analyze how often keywords appear in relation to other words in a web page. Those with a higher frequency are often deemed more relevant than other web pages.”

http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2167961

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?

• The general reason that the higher page will usually be more relevant is to do with the way websites like Google will find them, as listed above. Frequency of the search term, and where it appears in the page, will often be a key factor in how relevant the website is to your interests.

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

• I generally prefer to use Google, because it tends to have the most accurate and in-depth answers to what I am looking for. I also use Yahoo at times for a similar reason. www.Ask.com is a good source of answers to specific questions.

Following the completion of these tasks, optional google-ish things were suggested; Googling one's own name, and playing 'Guess the Google'.

When googling my name, I found very few matches (3) but one was rather interesting. Apparently someone has written a short story using my name, in which I am a "gun-happy, no-nonsense guy who just happens to be extremely hot." I can live with that.

So far I have played "Guess the Google" twice, with the following stats:

First time:

Total time: 1.28

Average time: 0.08

Total guesses: 37

Average guesses: 3.7

Final Score: 252

Second:

Total time: 0.57

Average time: 0.05

Total Guesses: 26

Average guesses: 2.6

Final Score: 323