Tutorial Three - Scavenger Hunt

1.) What did Alan Turing wear while riding his bike around the Bletchley Park?

He wore a gas mask to avoid hay fever. (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-turing)

Yahoo

2.) On what date did two computers first communicate with each other? Where were they? On Oct. 20, 1969, the refrigerator-sized Interface Message Processor, which worked as the world's first packet-switching router, communicated with a computer at UCLA, seven weeks after they were first connected. (http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-5842105.html)

Yahoo

3.) What is Bill Gates’ birthday and what age was he when he sold his first software?

Oct. 28, 1955. (http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/billg/bio.mspx). 'Bill Gates... sold his first software program at the age of 17.' (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/harvard-dropout-to-billionaire-gates-to-retire-from-microsoft-404266.html)

Yahoo

4.) Where was the World Wide Web invented?

29/09/2004 at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research ), in Switzerland. (http://www.boutell.com/newfaq/history/inventedwebwhere.html)

Yahoo

5.) How does the power of the computer you are working on now compare with the power of a personal computer from 30 years ago?

The first electronic digital computer was called "ENIAC" built in 1945 in Philadelphia. It used so much electricity that lights in the nearby town dimmed every time it was used! (http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/9-25-2004-59721.asp). A computer in 1979 had an 8088 8-bit processor. A computer in 2009 has a 2.60GHz, 800FSB, 2MB processor. (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/pa-microhist.html)

AltaVista

6.) What is the weight of the largest parsnip ever grown?

A PARSNIP weighing 2.3 kilograms and measuring about 35 centimetres long was picked from the garden of Port Lincoln man Ken Holden. (http://www.portlincolntimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/holden-growing-more-giant-vegetables/1570577.aspx?src=rss)

AltaVista

7.)When did Queensland become a state and why is the Tweed River in New South Wales?

Queen Victoria gave her approval for the State of Queensland on June 6 1859. (http://www.queenslandhistory.org.au/QueenslandDay.pdf) I was unable to find the information on why the Tweed River is in NSW.

AltaVista

8.) What was the weather like in south-east Queensland on 17 November 1954?

I found that SE Qld had cyclones in 1954 but was unable to find out the weather on the 17 November 1954. (http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/cyclone/about/cyclones-eastern.shtml)

AltaVista

9.) Why is is Lord Byron still remembered in Venice?

Because he swam from the Lido to the Rialto Bridges in Venice, Italy. (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0126406/bio)

AltaVista

What band did Sirhan Chapman play in and what is his real name? The Black Assassins, keyboards and lead vocals. http://www.blackassassins.net/CourierMailReview.html. If he had a different name I couldn't find it.

Ujiko

Part Two: Answers the following questions:

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

All search engines use robots — also known as bots or spiders — to scan websites and catalog information. These bots index pages by reading text and following HTML tags.

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 person who rights the html should ensure they use correct 'Title' and 'Headers" when designing page. Title and header tags are very important tags and should always contain your most popular key phrases in order for your page to 'come up' in searches.

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

I prefer Google (I know) because I think it returns more hits than the others.