Scavenger Hunt

Before I start allow me to explain what I thought of this week's task: I found this week's task rather boring and must say that Iam still a fan of Google or Dogpile ( which I believe would have found me the answers to these questions a lot faster). Either way I do this, I still needed to double check the answers by cross-referencing different sources, so as to come up with an accurate and reliable answer(so why not use a fast and known to me, search engine to begin with). I tried out all of the search engines included on the resources list but I stand firmly with good old google.....because its not as frustrating, as some of these other search engines often didn't bring up anything even remotely resembling what i was searching for. Google or Dogpile are definately top search engines for a reason....the millions of people who use them each day are proof of their advantages over other smaller and obscure search engines like the ones we were using for this scavenger hunt. I did eventually find the answers through them, though I believe it took a lot longer than it would have if id been using a meta search engine like dogpile. My resulting answers are: (Their reliability was ensured by cross-checking answers from a range of different sources and by evaluating the reliability of the sources themselves. eg. an .edu site is more reliable than a .com site)

1. Who was the creator of the infamous "lovebug" computer virus?
Onel de Guzman, a 24yr old computer student ( http://www.a9.com/)

2. Who invented the paper clip?
This had a bit of a complicated answer. Johan Vaaler was the inventor of the first simple paper clip -a piece of wire bent into a "rectangular, triangular, or otherwise shaped hoop". Around the same time, Cornelius J. Brosnan from Springfield, Massachusetts, was issued a U.S. patent for a similar device called the Konaclip. It wasn't until 1901 that William Middlebrook patented a paper-clip making machine for the Gem Manufacturing company in England. The design of the clip( which most resembles our modern version) wasn't actually patented, the patent only covered the machine. ( ask.yahoo.com/20031120.html) (yahoo search engine)

3. How did the Ebola virus get its name?
It is named after the Ebola River in Zaire, Africa, nearwhere the first outbreak was noted by Dr. Ngoy Mushola in 1976 after a significant outbreak of the disease. (http://www.crystalinks.com/ebola.html) (hot bot search engine)

4. What country had the largest recorded earthquake?
The largest recorded earthquake was in Chile in 1960. There may have been larger unrecorded earthquakes but the 1960 Chile earthquake earned the title because scientisits were able to measure, record and verify its ground motion strength. It meausured 9.5 on the richter scale.( http://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question63269.html) (ask.com)

5. In computer memory/storage terms, how many kilobytes in a terabyte?
1 terabyte = 1 073 741 824 kilobytes. (http://www.ask.com/web?qsrc=2417&o=0&l=dir&q=how+many+kilobytes+in+a+terabyte) (ask.com)

6. Who is the creator of email?
Ray Tomlinson. (http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/entdev/article.php/1408411)

7. What is the storm worm, and how many computers are infected by it?
It is a virus that installs a Trojan horse onto the message recipients computer. Anywhere between 250,000 and 10 million computers may have been infected by it, exact statistics are not known. (http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/storm.asp )

8. If you wanted to contact the prime minister of australia directly, what is the most efficient way? Post a letter. This is the prefered method as email is not a secure way of transfering information. (pm.gov.au)

9. Which Brisbane-based punk band is Stephen Stockwell (Head of the School of Arts) a member of? Black assains (I couldn't find this answer online, source: classmates general knowledge)

10. What does the term "Web 2.0" mean in your own words?
Web 2.0 is a marketing term to describe all the elements of the internet where the main purpose is sharing, connectivity, and interaction between users. eg. Wikipedia. The main difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, is that Web 2.0 has made using the net simpler and therefore more accessable to a wider range of people, allowing users to come together and net communities to be created. It has increased the prominence of the internet within our everyday lives, as html skills are no longer a necessity when posting information onto the internet.