Week 3, Task 2

Bulletin Board Systems 

Buletin Board Systems (BBS) are a computer operating software that allows users to connect their computers and share data between them. Actually these programs were in use long before the age of the internet dawned. The first BBS was created on February 19 1973 by two computer scientists Ward Christensen and Randy Suess and was called the “Computerised Bulletin Board System” (Ballas, J "Bulletin board systems: a nostalgic look back." Computers in Libraries 13.5, 1993). In the beginning these systems were largely used by universities and libraries, but by the late 1970s many private users had appeared. A  BBS worked by a central computer that connected the different members (System Operator/SYSOP) (Spencer, Bruce, “A brief history of the Internet “Aardsma, T L. Inside the Internet8. 8 Aug 2001) and sometimes this SysOp operated the BBS as a hobby and provided his service for free and sometimes charged hios members a fee for access to the BBS.

The 80s and early 90s were the heyday of the BBS culture with an estimated 1,56 million users in 1993 (http://www.livinginternet.com/u/ui_fidonet.htm). From a very basic system with white text on black background BBSes evolved into meeting places with sophisticated graphics (for its time). Early BBS were often a local phenomenon as people used their telephone lines to dial into the internet, later modems made it more widespread. Here people could come together to discuss everything from advanced physics to popular rock music. Only the rise of the internet as we know it today in the mid to late 1990s caused the BBS to decline in popularity, nonetheless it still exists to this day.

References:
Spencer, Bruce, “A brief history of the Internet “Aardsma, T L. Inside the Internet8. 8 Aug 2001

Ballas, J "Bulletin board systems: a nostalgic look back." Computers in Libraries 13.5, 1993
http://www.livinginternet.com/u/ui_fidonet.htm

Week 3 Task 1

1) Stockwell, S 1981 "Kuranda Police Shooting", Legal Service Bulletin, vol. 6 pp. 48-49

I used the Griffith Library Database


2) Governor Slugwell appeared "Flaming Carrot Camocis" he appeared in the issues  no. 7, 10, and 11. The earliest time he appeared was issue 7:

Burden, B. 1985 "Flaming Carrot Comics, no.7", Renegade Press.


3) According to Bowditch P. the wavelength of the energy emitted by mobile phones, and even by the towers needed for them, cannot destroy DNA or the cells that surround it. (2011, "Are Invisible Rays Frying Your Brain?",  Australasian Science 32.6, pp.44) 

4) Leon is not very pleased:

"Leon looks shocked, surprised. But the needles in the computer barely move. Holden goes for the inside of his coat. But big Leon is faster. His laser burns a hole the size of a nickel through Holden's stomach. Unlike a bullet, a laser causes no impact. It goes through Holden's shoulder and comes out of his back, clean as a whistle. Like a rag doll he falls back into the seat. Big slow Leon is already walking away, but he stops, turns, and with a little smile of satisfaction fires through the back of the seat." ( Fancher H., Peoples D., Kibbee, R., 1982 "Bladerunner (1982) Draft Script")


5)Accodring to Soukup, P. Walter Ong saw it strange that while 20th century society still developed and still uses a form of communication that relies on sound and not on sight, when it at the same time is so surrounded by diagrams and other visual information. (2004, "Walter J. Ong, S.J. A Retrospective" Communication Research Trends VOL.23 NR. 1)