Saturday, August 09, 2003

Peaceful coexistence...hmmm, i'll give it some thought. But you must understand, that i actually wish to gain something from this course, and if people just post whatever comes to mind - such as sunny remuera days, then ...well, quite frankly, i dont give a damn, my time would be better spent scratching my ass. Yes, this is cynical, and no, i dont expect you or others to change, my point is...my filter is on. And by 'it' being on, if that means i save myself from reading 45,000 words of crap, then all the better.

Kind Regards
Matt Metcalfe

PS 'street cred' is what you dont have
PPS This type of antagonistic banter at least tweaks my interest
posted by Matt at 9:30 PM

Hey Matt, I write what I want and I enjoy writing it. I am sorry that you don't share the same enthusiasm for my work. I do, however, like how you've established an elite poster squad - you surely are shining brightly in the FTVMS 203 blog.

You write what you want and I'll write what I want - isn't that the idea? I was not aware that all posts had to be "academic" and am surprised that you want to read, in addition to the text book, another 90,000 academic words. I'm just trying to lighten things up. I enjoy participating in this blog but not when my contributions are described as "chump entries". Let's just co-exist in harmony, eh?

Yours Sincerely,
Robert L O'Dowd

P.S "'street cred' academically wise" <---- Oh, come on Matt


posted by Anonymous at 7:27 PM

Hey people.
For my assessment this week, i went a little overboard and its really long. So to save the expense of long download times etc... i have instead uploaded it as a word file so that it doesnt occupy heaps of blog space, so click my nipples to have a look.

Aside from the assessment, i would like to make an observation.
If this class has say 60 people in it, each posting 150 words (at least), then on a weekly basis, we each have to read 9000 words. Over the course of 10 weeks, we will have to read 90,000 words, or the rough equivalant to 2 theses. This is in combination to the required readings from the book. Thats alot!!
So after thinking of that mountain of possible reading, ive had to devise my own filter...basically read only those people that have established some 'street cred' academically wise. So obviously, props to Dan, Ashley and Luke and a few others.
So, basically i wont waste my time reading chump entries like the one about sitting on a deck eating toast in the sun, or fanciful daydreams about owning mining companies...90,000 words is made even longer with shit like that ...
posted by Matt at 4:13 PM

____________

Friday, August 08, 2003

testing the link of the website...

iconsouthbeach
posted by Anonymous at 4:48 PM

http://www.iconsouthbeach.com

This website as I link above is not informative to us. However, I have found that this website is interestingly impressive and might work very well as a virtual showroom. Firstly, the same content about the building is divided into four parts. Each one consists of peculiar sounds and images depending on the title. These visual and sonic elements are well harmonized to give visitors curiosity and enjoyment when the users click on the links to move next. Secondly, this website provides enough information for buyers as well. The users are able to look around the site in remote area relatively clearly through ‘the virtual tour’ and its ‘foot plan’ made by PDF. Finally, in the first page, the website gives users three links to ‘macromedia’ for flash, ‘MS explore’ and ‘Netscape’ for web browser. This makes users avoid any further problems while they click into new image. I would say that this website is rather opaque and sticky site as we learnt in the lecture. Just click on the website and see how it works.
posted by Anonymous at 4:38 PM

Well fellow classmates at the risk of revealing how materialistic and superficial I am my favourite sites are sadly still http.//www.ebay.com au and http.//www.trademe.co.nz the internet provides me with a tool to fufill my desire to find old junky crap I neither need nor can fit in my house, to drag home.
As an older person FUCK THATS DEPRESSING TO SAY EVEN IN TEXT! I have other shit to do and so if the internet can save a flustering trip to the Uni libraries where I can't find what I want when I do I photocopy it because I can't afford to read on campus (time or parking), then i take it home where my 3yr old and 5yr old will draw on it or i'll be too busy to read it and it will join my sizable pile contributing to rainforrest destruction for no apparent reason.
posted by Anonymous at 4:31 AM

Hey everyone. I thought I’d use my first ‘official’ blog entry to tell you about one of my favourite websites which I think is quite unique and interesting. The site is for a Scottish video games developer called Rockstar North, who have produced two of the best selling games on the PlayStation 2 (and two of my personal favourites): Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

The Rockstar North website, which is aimed at gamers, is designed to be a lot like a video game -- in terms of not only aesthetics, but its interface. After loading the website’s homepage, the animation of a man walking -- a figure which deliberately looks like a character from one of the developer’s video games -- and the question “Where should we go?” prompts the user to select their ‘destination’ from what is basically a sophisticated dropdown menu. From there, a loading bar indicating the loading progress in terms of “distance to travel (km)” is further suggestive of the expansiveness associated with the Grand Theft Auto games. The most original and clearly game-inspired aspect of the Rockstar North site is the animated character that the user takes control of to navigate the various areas. The content contained in these areas is often not obvious, and so the user is encouraged to explore and discover it for themselves -- much like in a video game. Finally, one part of rockstarnorth.com that is consistent with the site’s overall high level of video-game-based interactivity, and something which I think is a nice touch, is the effect that happens when entering one area of the site, whereby the whole browser window shakes.

That’s all from me for now. Go to www.rockstarnorth.com and check out this cool website for yourself.
posted by Anonymous at 1:23 AM

____________

Thursday, August 07, 2003

Is anyone fooled by TV2's attempt to give the impression of viewer interaction in the form of their 'viewer's choice' nights? You know, where people can call or text or something to pick one of two movies to be played that weekend. It doesn't matter which film you vote for, they play the other one a week or two later anyway. Television is still a 'push' medium and this kind of marketing gimick doesn't change that. Does anyone disagree? Do you really care which movie plays, or are you busy downloading pirated films off the internet which won't be released here for months, if at all?
posted by Anonymous at 6:06 PM

Blogging - fluid and plural? nope.
the difference between face to face and online discussions is that some things just don't get discussed face to face.
ooh, Cyborg B-boy Samurai
Gothic (Afro-)Futurist Rammellzee in his battle gear.
Index of Blaxploitation MP3's
Downloading these is very illegal, so you know, just read the filenames :)
Deltron 3030
They just rule, ok?
Hypertext: the stupid circle

that subliminal kid,
- Dan
posted by Anonymous at 5:53 PM

hey, moring! everyone!

clik and move your mouse, and then see the difference!!:)
enjoy!
clik here1
clik here2
clik here3
clik here4
clik here5
clik here6
clik here7
not very complicated!






posted by Anonymous at 2:21 PM

well, Finally.. arrived... :)
Hmm.. what I'd like to say today... is...
Yeah, New Media can make heaps of money... surely...

For those flash Animations... one of character called
Mashimaro... (white Chubby rabbit character.. I'm quite sure most of
people seen this rabbit... many number of(especially) Asian girls like this
character and have dolls, etc) became very popular though flash animation.
In the very first stage its creator did not mean to do any commercial things
but now it makes millions of $...
here's the address official homepage of Mashimaro...

[Click]
Click English then go to the 'Episodes' it does not need any language knowledge...



posted by Anonymous at 7:27 AM

One more thing~ What happened to our FTVMS website? Now I can't access to other FTVMS courses website as it used to be! We used to click Arts Department from the main Auckland Uni website, and then click FTVMS department. After that we can enter the FTVMS website, which has all the FTVMS papers. Now it is gone! or re-located to a new place?

Hey.. Genevieve..It seems like we pretty much have the same idea for the new media.

Take care guys!
posted by Anonymous at 5:11 AM

How you guys doing out there?!
Here comes my first entry.. I want to talk about the new “media” stuff, the lectures we had last week.. I think that was a very interesting topic last week.
New media evolves around us these days. For example. We now use e-mail instead of letter writing, etc. It seems that every thing is digitalized, we are in a digital era now! Without a doubt, it is more convenient, efficient, and interesting.. It is an unavoidable revolution in our world, but I wouldn’t say it is better in every single way. Because it is less “human”! I mean there are still many things that cannot be replaced! For example, a digital cinema, people have been saying that now we can download a movie via the net, and watch it on our computer. They even predicted that digital cinema will take over the old cinema one day~Well.. When you go to see a movie in the cinema, I think it is more than just seeing a movie~ I personally find it is for socializing purposes as well. You take a new date to see a movie, you go out with your long time friends, or have a great time with your family. These are the things you cannot do with the digital cinema, it just doesn’t feel “right” that way., at least for me! Also due to the quality factors, people still go to see a movie in the cinema, because of a much bigger screen, and better sound quality..etc. Still, people still prefer to do something in old ways. Radio for example, you can just turn it on while you are driving. You can’t do it with a digital radio.

But two other things also limit our digital revolution; the technology and cost. How long would it take to download a movie with a 56k modem? It would take you FOREVER!! Even with ADSL, it still takes a while to download a two hours movie! No need to mention about watching a live show or listening an e-radio on the net! It feels like HELL! we could probably only do that with T1 or T3 with our current technology. (I mean to achieve good quality). BUT the costs are not bearable!! Not for us. Yes, now you could enjoy a home theatre in your private space with the same quality in the cinema, but how much would it cost you? By the way, do you guys know that NZ’s ADSL is two or three times slower than other countries, like Japan, Singapore and South Korea (or even worse!) But the cost of ADSL is like two or three times higher than these countries! I read that e-mail like two years ago. I don’t know if it still stands or not. It really blocks our digital revolution in NZ, not many people have access to ADSL around this country.

Cheers
Any comment is welcome.
Have a nice weekend!^_^
PS. How do we know we actually get mark for our entry on this website? And what is our mark for the entry?

You guys start doing your FTVMS 200 assignment?

posted by Anonymous at 4:52 AM

I have been putting this blog entry off for quite some time now..... everyone has written such wonderfully insightful blogs and raised some really interesting and unique points. I enjoy logging onto the technoculture and new media webpage and reading what the latest blogs have to say..... Its a refreshing act, especially before a lecture or tutorial.

I have been to all lectures and so far the one i found particularly interesting was the third lecture- Whats New About New Media? Well, it was the one that got me thinking the most:
I love technology and how it has revolutionised our ways of doing things, our ways of thinking, and the ease with which it is done..... I find it amazing how new media is created- just like that- and the next thing you know, more than half the people around you have been taken over by this new form of media. Luke's picture of the fans photographing David and Victoria Beckham -with their cell phones (predominantly) makes this notion vividly believable.
The fast pace and ever-changing nature of new media intrigues me- what will there be next? How can it make our lives easier...? Because that is what it does- new media has given us the option of doing something with the utmost ease imagineable. Today, while I riding home on the bus from six hours of lectures in a row (urgh), I was imagining what university would be like without the internet, without new media, without pretty much everything we have today. There would be no powepoint slides, no ndeva, no cecil, no blogs.......this paper would fall flat without those everyday functions that have become natural and second-nature to most of us students.

But on the other hand, I must admit, I have a soft spot for old media. The underdogs. I feel sorry for them in a way, as if they were people, they mean well......
And indeed they do.....there is something about a handwritten and posted letter that makes me feel extraordinarily special. In addition, for me, it has a feeling of history to it. It is the way I converse with my grandparents who live many many miles and oceans away. They still hang on to old media, such as letter writing, it is how they did it as they were growing up and how they will continue to do it.
Books are another form of old media that I can honestly say I will never become tired of. They are the most enriching form of information and indeed fulfillment.

And so my point being is that as new media are rapidly revolutionizing our way of life and in turn making every day tasks a lot less time consuming, there are some things that can never be replaced......And in fact it is the very history of those things that make their function unique and sentimental in the digital world of today.

Hope everyone has fabulous weekend, I can wait for friday morning lectures to be over !
See you next week xxx
posted by Anonymous at 4:27 AM

oops I read my post and I do know how to spell 'two'
posted by Anonymous at 3:38 AM

I have finally got my invite through the wonderful world of hotmail.com, why is it that I never receive anything from uni through my email address even though it is my primary address, anyway I dont have a clue what to write about so in the pursuit of getting marks I have now produced to lines of nothing for everyone to enjoy, when I have time to "surf" the net, which is doubtful being its my last semester at uni and I believe in a healthy social life! I will blog everyone interesting sites.
posted by Anonymous at 3:37 AM

Time to dive into the pool of blogness.

As I see it, the world of blogs & bloggers has a couple of main functions. Firstly & most obviously its the expression of ideas. No matter what your ideas are, they'll be heard. Not all will like them, but thats getting off topic(which seems pretty easy via blogs). The second point is looking at the web as a tool. The internet is just another tool at our fingertips, to share ideas & more importantly, a way to share information. I know I'm being blatantly obvious, but its good to keep things simple.

While people are able to express differing views in regards to pretty much anything from Art to politics to cinema to giant stuffed cats to star wars fan forums and to what kind of music you like. The site I'm gonna talk about is a good example of the everchanging way in which media is put together.

www.publicaddress.net.

The Main contributor to this site, media commentator Russell Brown, expresses his views on current events. As students of media, traditionally we are used to looking at media from an old fashioned point of view. Print,radio & TV journalism is where you would normally get your news, but thanks to the growth of the internet, thats all changed. Russell Browns Hard Word used to be played live to air on student radio 95bFM until relatively recently. The views of Mr Brown & his contemporaries originally started off in the form of print & radio, are now expressed electronically. When Hard news was being broadcast, the radio website would(who also were the pioneers in New Zealand when it came to streaming radio via the internet) promote the fact that hard news was on bfm, and consequentally you could sign up, on the site, to recieve weekly transcripts of Hard News itself. So, what can we learn from this? what is the point I'm meandering towards?

Through the development of the internet, different forms of media are being conglomerated to a point where you the actual user can have the most control over what you experience. I guess you could look at it as becoming more 'jacked-in' to the matrix of information that is out there.

I hope that makes some sense.




posted by Anonymous at 2:16 AM

Hello fellow students. This is an important notice which you all must heed!

Alas, I missed today's lecture (Thursday the 7th), and am sick with worry. Can someone please carefully type out their notes and e-mail them to me? They must be thorough, accurate and insightful. Please do not bother if you average below B+, I do not wish to embarass myself by reading the substandard scribblings of an inferior mind.

An apology must be made to Luke: You, Sir, do not deserve the inattendance of those for whom long hours of selfless toil have been painfully wrenched from your already weary bones.
But, I have a valid excuse! As the last surviving member of my family and heir to a huge boron extraction empire (my mother, father and sister having been tragically lost in 3 consecutive and unrelated canine attacks) I am frequently called overseas to oversee the fabrication of the extremely specialised mining apparati that my dear father commissioned before his untimely death. As the mining industry is extremely competetive I am not permitted by my conscience to divuldge any more information save to say that it is forseeable that the speed of boron extraction may be increased by as much as 7% in the next 2 decades.

Not only am I a scholar and a high flying business man but I am also extremely sensual and possess a remarkable dance talent. My preferred mode is modern interprative but I can quickly master almost any dance style. Below I have provided an image showing a brief moment from a routine choreographed and performed by myself. I call this dance "The Redemption of Emperor Commodus and the Bombardier's Indiscretion)".

____________

Wednesday, August 06, 2003

Interesting lecture yesterday about new media in postmodern society. Finally something I can relate too after feeling like an electronic illterate for 2 weeks.
One of the main tenets of Michel Foucalt's postmodern theory is that reality is individually determined. We are none of us subject to the same experiences or pressures and thus interpret the world in myriad different ways. This reminds me of last weeks lecture about 'deep sites' and the fact that no 2 users will see the site in the same way.When put like that Digi-media now seems frighteningly analogous to life, though I doubt one would say so out loud.
Though Foucalt also talks about dicourse shaping the world rather than the reverse I will leave that one for another time. What interests me is his assertion that out reality is historically relative insofar as that what has gone before determines to some extent what follows. While you could damn near write a thesis on this point alone, it struck me that Cyberfeminists saw digi-media as being a gendered entity(historical and discursive relativity in action).
And as feminists are prone to do they see digi- media/tech as male gendered, even phallocentric. The arguement of gendering has been used by feminists to theorise about many things, but the media in general have been targeted for a good ol' ass whippin' (I shouldn't need to elaborate but, Baywatch anyone?).
While I don't doubt the validity of such arguments, to a certain way of thinking (that is, the postmodern way) if dicourse determines our reality then digi-medai/tech are only as gendered as we allow them to be, only as pernicious as we allow them to be, and only as beneficial as we shall allow them to be.
They are the perfect blank page onto which we can project out thoughts, and fears however biased or egalitarian these may be.
I could go on for days but as Lincoln said " better to be called a fool than to speak unwisely and remove all doubt"
Peace.

posted by Anonymous at 6:47 PM

WAKEY WAKEY
posted by Anonymous at 5:03 PM

there is a site i went last year which made an impact on me... da design of it is really different to a 'normal' site would look like.. but in sayin tat wot does a 'normal' site look like anyway? there is not definition to wot it is... just a social understanding and individual's perception of the outlook of the site.... www.bacardi.com has a really unique design when u reach the main page... combination of flash and pictures mde easy to manuvour around the site..... there is an interestin page tat shows the realationship btwn the viewer and the site by showin pics of bacardi parties tat they have around da world.. n they even have games and recipes tat ppl share.. i think its a really cool site.. ive learn quite a few things when i went through the site for my film assignment last year... hope u guys enjoy it... its www.bacardi.com

kk
posted by Anonymous at 4:27 PM

Digital technology--

digital technology is based on quantization and binary number theory. Digital technology reduces all data to the most basic elements. Thanks to new digital technology, the languages which humans invented over the past few centuries for representing different aspects of reality are finally merging. Film is no longer distinct from print, books can include film, sound, and like to supporting websites, and publishing is theoreticially instantaneous. This process of synthesis is often referred to as multimedia or new media.

In 1926 and 1927, motion pictures were first altered with the introduction of sound in the short film DON JUAN and historically in the feature film THE JAZZ SINGER(Thompson & Bordwell, 1994). Nearly seventy-five years later, the movie industry has veered onto yet another technological course: that of the digital revolution. The computer graphics and computer animation were founded in film industry in the late 1960s, by following, the development of 3D graphics, motion capture and the blue-screen composite have proven to be a precursor to the digital era. Disney's Jurassic Park(1993) is a good example of in effect indirect users of computer graphics. This film did, in fact, feature a computer-generated actor portraying a human(Hill &Gibson,eds,1998).

Overall, the digital innovation has improved the color and sound far more than ever before in the film production. Also the digital images and digital editing have create significantly economic filmmaking but never reduce any of quality.

posted by Anonymous at 4:24 PM

Hey, all
assessment time
It seems that we have been in a digital era! Such as digital camera, digital audio broadcasting, digital video etc etc…..! but I am going to talk about the digital motion on the web! To begin with, I recommend one website to you all, click here
This is a website which design and produce the digital motion of different kinds of website for different companies such as SONY, X-BOX, NIKE, 7UP etc etc……..! The digital motion, and the link are interesting! Also you can see the samples of these companies website!
Personally, I think the aim of website is to catch people’s attention as a new media format, one of the important factors is whether the website is interesting or not? At first sight, this website can attract you by the digital motion. Therefore the design of the website is more important than the content of website to some extent. I think most people would like to watch some interesting website rather than the flat, boring one.
Although I am not familiar with any website works:(, I hope I can in future:)
Have a nice dream!
widegroup



posted by Anonymous at 5:11 AM

In reply to Belle Barber's post... Hey I think you are not the only DVD hoarder. I too was just looking at my DVD collection, its kind of the same thing. I have mountains of DVDs. And yes some I hardly have not even seen. I guess that sounds weird huh?

Here is where I purchase some of my DVDS
Click here to visit blackstar.co.uk

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

Anyway moving to something more insightful.. After todays lecture and tutorial I got thinking about the time digital technology came to be. Moving from the Analog world to the digital world.

My view is that Digital technologies certainly have evolved during this decade, both at the level of software and hardware. What we can do over the internet today, only a few years ago was only a dream. The quality and speed of modern technology has improved so much and so fast, that we tend to forget what it was like a few years back. When things change so fast, it is hard to have a sense of history of where we were just a few years ago.

Should I DARE venture and say that over this coming decade, I think there will be more and more transformations. As people become more familiar with digital technology and as the tools become more effortless to use, the presence of digital technology, such as voice and music, is going to become an ever more integral part of society. Also the delivery mechanisms are easier with each passing day, so that it will become a much smoother structure to deal with.

During Christmas on my way back from the states, I gave my grandmother something she thought was quite astonishing, at least to her eyes. I gave her a CD ROM, and told her, "I did not know what to give you as a good-bye present, so I just went to my computer and copied you almost all of our family pictures that I had there". When she opened the CD ROM, and found the most compelling array of imagery, there were pictures of baby cousins being cleaned of their poop, or being bathed, or fed, or crying, picnics with friends, dancing in nightclubs, family trips, close ups of objects, landscapes, portraits, snapshots, in short, all the most tender imagery one would find in any family album, even a lot of small videos. What I had given her, to me was for practical purposes, a copy of our family album. Something that no one could have done before. After all our family albums have always been unique pieces and some are not even possible to reproduce.
To my grandmother I had created something that was in her experience quite unique, she said I had literally reproduced our family album. Something that would have never been done during her time.

The way I see it, the coming decade, is obviously going to bring us untold new possibilities both in creating the images as well as in sharing them, I am sure that the excitement is only going to increase as the technologies become both more accessible and flexible. Still one thing will remain constant, the stories being told will be the same ones that have captivated our imagination over the ages, there will be stories of all sorts from fears, joy, sorrow, ageing, mortality, birth, health, pain, in short all that makes us human. The stories are the same, only that they will be re told in different new ways. I CAN'T WAIT....KEEP THEM COMING

HAVE A GREAT WEEK GUYS






posted by Anonymous at 3:54 AM

There is no moral dimension to technology, so abandon humanist critiques.
Instead, develop a new code of cybernetics.
'The Turntable' by Charles Mudede
The Revolutions Will be Live
In hip-hop the body destroys technological determinism.
The function of the turntable [hardware;subject] is to play records [software;object].
What hip-hop does is no mere repurposing of the turntable [artifact]. It does instead generate a new code for human interaction with technology [cybernetics].
As the Afrofuturists suggest, the pioneers of hip-hop have (rein-)forced a human imperative by taking their hand to the record and scratching, mixing and most importantly sampling.
Humans play the turntable.
The human is now the subject, the turntable the object.
Records are repurposed from artifact texts into the units of a new cybernetic linguistic order known as breakbeat science. Only some of this post is made up.

next week: Beatboxing - Approaching the Cyborg

Gang Starr has two "r's"
Gangster has one
Gangsta has none
- Dan the Automated
posted by Anonymous at 2:59 AM

My first blog!!
Its hard to wonder what we ever did before new media and technology (which surrounds us today) consumed many aspects of our lives. How did we possibly cope without cell-phones and text-messaging now, when it was only about 3 or 4 years ago that cell-phones were only a tool of business people and few others. Remember the old Telecom phones that weren’t even text capable. Today we can do almost anything with cell-phones – check emails, access the internet, find the nearest Coke machine, take digital photos and send them. As talked about in lectures the quick and easy communication tools of new media are bringing people closer geographically – it is as instant to text someone on the other side of the world as it is to text someone sitting right next to you.

But at what cost does all this come– do we avoid face-to-face conversations because it is easier to text (particularly when discussing something with strong emotions involved or when we are scared of someone’s reaction)?? What effect does this have on our communication skills/competence ?? The point Im trying to make is that new media and communication technologies etc. sure have their advantages, but as with most advantages there come disadvantages too.

posted by Anonymous at 2:12 AM

New Media and Societies
Today humans are leading the technology and are advancing with technology everyday. You can say that we are the driving seat of technology, and who would have thought that fifty years ago we would have had thing like Internet and World Wide Web where everybody can use? Since technology has been created it has always been regarded as feminine and been referred to as she because she gives life (this is also evident in the movie Metropolis). This also blurs the boundaries of what’s real and what is not, as the saying goes ‘don’t be seduced by technology’. Internet is seen as freedom of speech, a place you can source other people’s views and share ideas like this blog that we are currently doing where we all get to express our views. Through rationalism it embodies certain contradictions like public debate but it also encourages one-way communication. With this also issues arise like surveillance and its consequences of good and bad. Internet allows people to surveillance others, which at the same time takes away privacy from others. Lie government and hackers they access and view our information and invade our privacy.
We also live in a media saturated reality, which is also another form of surveillance, and where the boundaries of real and unreal are blurred. The distinction of public and private collapses. Take the celebrity status for example where their public and private life in constantly invaded by technology and the lens. The private matters are constantly public through technology and their image is often manipulated.

posted by Anonymous at 1:38 AM

In my opinion, new media technology is creating a kind of world, in which the existance of people's mind is far more important than the existance of physical body. wherever you go, your mind could be existing in the place where you want it to be. As talked in todays lecture, 'the end of the real'. if the arguement is about how threatening the new media technology could be to society, then i think the separation of physical body and people's mind is the worst threat. On the one hand, by the new technology, we seem to be more free and private. we will never be locked in the office where we have to be to work. We have more private time. also, the convenience brought by technology is unarguable. I absolutly agree that new media technology is radically transforming culture. It is the technology that determines people's demond. For instance, when the technology of film was advanced, the culture of the film was growing, Hollywood is the most distinct example. No growth of film technology, no hollywood. But on the other hand, we are losing our freedom. this lost is mainly on our mind, because we can go anywhere at any time, never be afraid of losing connection with others. So it means any one else can find you by mobile, email or whatever communication technologies. Escape seems to be impossible, because media technology is a part of our environment, not just something we can use it, if we don't need it anymore, then we can throw it away. it is a part of culture, furthermore, it is creating our new culture.
posted by Anonymous at 12:42 AM

____________

Tuesday, August 05, 2003

todays lecture on new media and society is so interesting to me because it interlinks with both my politics papers. Where we discuss how some critics see new media forms or technological advances as a threat to society. For example advertising being seen as a form of propaganda etc.....Also how the quality of news has diminished because people are more interested in visual aspects rather than content and if their is an amount of context it usually focusses of human interest stories like sex, scandal, accidents, crime and much more. The only time that current events ever takes presidency is usually in times of war or depression. I think that if you are interested in tabloid news, or how media is associated with people's opinions and propaganda then you should look at doing Politics 231 and 233.

Also the thing about living in a media saturated world is soooo true, everywhere we go or look there is some form of media presence, radio, billboards, television and much more. Technology is a major contributor to this phenomenon and i see this as both a positive and negative thing. For example technology does help make life easier, more convenient and relaxing but then again it can become such a huge factor in our life where it ends up controlling what we do. For example, my aunty has a mobile phone that is forever ringing due to the fact that she runs her own business and she loses her voice probably more than three times in just 2months. She just doesn't seem to know that an off switch exists...her excuse is that if she doesn't have it her business will diminish. i think this is so sad because now it effects not only her life but her families as well. I just hope that it doesn't get to the point where people become so reliant on technology where they won't be able to think or act for themselves anymore because they have a machine that can do these things. How will we as human beings be able to communicate and fulfill relationships with others if we spend all our time confined to our own personal space instead of going out to socialise. im probably over exaggerating but i do think we get lazier by the day...oh well i'm sure i've blabbed on so long that i'm beginning to make sense anymore...so i leave you decide on whether this is significant, useful or even interesting to you or anyone else you know.....:)
posted by Anonymous at 9:51 PM

Ehh yo!This is my very first entry... yeahhh im a little nervous/geeky about this. Woah what an ordeal - I swear I must be the last to log on this bloggy thing... Umm dont know what else to write about, as Im in a tutorial right now.Enjoy your day my fellow 203ers, keepin it gangstar amy*
posted by Anonymous at 9:38 PM

posted by Anonymous at 9:24 PM

Well bless me I'm here, my debut on the blogger! My day thus far: Looking back,.. it has been a technology filled morning. I was woken by my alarm which is hand-ily stored in my mob phone, have checked my mail (twice - but who's addicted), and played xBox. Somewhere in the midst of it all, I forgot to have breakfast.
Where can I get an e-breakfast?
I'm still waiting for the day when we all have those Star Trek holographic food-makers...
"Computer, I'll have Pancakes and Maple Syrup. Hot Chocolate. One Marshmallow".

All in good time...

Now onto my insightful comment for the week - Last week I mentioned that professors and others enjoy having mountains of books because it looks good when people walk into the room? Well, as I look towards my DVD collection, though I'm not a book hoarder, I realise i have become a DVD hoarder. It's kind of the same thing isnt it - I hardly watch them, ...but there's something nice about owning those little discs isn't there? ... they all have a nice cover... the disc is shiny... and I sort of see it as a tribute to the movie if I own it...

And it just wouldn't be the same if they were all tucked away on my hardrive.
I'd need a bigger hardrive first though.

See y'all in class then
posted by Anonymous at 5:27 PM

Wow, I finally made it onto the blog! Looks like my uni webmail address was actually useful after all! OK... I woke up the day before yesterday with tonsillitus and ear infections in both ears. My brain is only just starting to re-enter into usefulness now, so sorry if this entry is somewhat less than enlightening and intelligent. If my picture doesn't show up - i'll be the deaf person coughing in the back of the lecture, yeah, i'll just apologise in advance for that... I was just reading Sheila Nazari's August 5th entry about how some people prefer having difficult conversations through instant messaging rather than face to face, very interesting. I definately prefer "talking" to someone through instant messaging rather than on the phone, i'm not sure why, but it is convenient, as my flatmate is a total phone-b*tch who never lets anyone else near it. Anyway, I was thinking about the "old" media versus the new media lecture we had last Thursday, about "traditional" photography vs. digital technology. In the holidays back in Gisborne (where i'm from) I was co-erced into attending some photography club meetings with one of my friends. All these people were die-hard tradtionalist photographers, dead-set against digital technology. Although I like developing photos in a darkroom (the old-fashioned way), I also enjoy being able to alter digital photographs on a computer, as you have much more control and scope in manipulating the image. THere's an essay on this at:

http://www.santarosa.edu/~jwatrous/zonezero.pdf

if anyone's interested. Bye!
posted by Anonymous at 5:22 PM

My first entry into the blog, if it works I'll be feeling a little more computer literate. I've read the first chapter in the book, structured as quite user friendly. I,ll post more informative messages this week. Seriously I hope this works and I hope My picture doesnt come up.
posted by Anonymous at 4:43 PM

posted by Anonymous at 4:27 PM

I got up today and made a black cup of old "it ain't fresh" coffee and drank it while sitting in the sun that was pouring onto the back porch. Squinting in the brightness I browsed over the latest local news and opinion in the "East and Bays Courier". As the ancient light rushed, partially filtered, through the privileged trees of the Southern slopes of Remuera and splashed over my frail white body I thought "I could be a millionaire and this wouldn't feel any different".
I wish I could say something meaningful about my sunny morning experience but I posess neither the skill nor the clarity of thought to convey this through words. Perhaps all I want to say is: "Sit in the sun sometimes" and "old coffee don't taste so good".

Are my attempted high minded ramblings devalued somewhat by the unsettling fact that I spent vast amounts of time viewing ultra-hardcore pornography on the internet?

What do YOU think?


posted by Anonymous at 3:26 PM

Well well...what a big rush it is and a blurrrr too getting on the blogger for me!!
I think the name's pretty appropriate really. Is it just me, but isnt there anyone else out there who just finds that this blogger can really bogg u out...!
Well, maybe its just me, yeah....serves me right for leaving it till the last min before really venturing into the blog.
I guess, its out of intimidation.Yes, i'm on of those people who warms up rather slow to new technology & new media...a slow adopter you can say.
And thats one thing about this new age of updates every other tomorrow.
Its just the idea that, u've got to relearn, and re-acquiant urself to new practices, adjusting your normal habits.
But i'm not just talking about new technoligies per se. But even 'new' in the sense of this blog experience.
It was the just the same, when first coming here to Auckland(me being an exchange student here & all..) Though the systems seem a close replicas to each other, I still had to go through an initial stage of re-adjustment to the whole school/library systems.
To add to that, here i am on my exchange, equipped with a digital camera...again bogging me with new habits yet again..uploading and file sharing...the whole package!
Its tiring really...and it is something thats just gonna go on & on.One new update followed by another.another new idea by another.Of course its all in the process of progress.But its no longer just progress...its accelerated progress.
Apart from that, just want to comment abt something mentioned in class abt books vs data online...I am again one of those more into the real stuff rather than for the on screen thing. I absolutely CANNOt comprehend a world when whole books are read off from a screen somewhere even if its a palm data or anything like that.
Its just a sheeer strain and it just turns me off. I mean just scrolling through this blog turned me off high time....opppss is tt something good to expose??
But its just true, i think that age of internet n pcs have forced upon us adopt more & more skills of scanning & skiming of information. Which i believe in the long run may only make us become rather complacent with details and dare i say laid back....?
hei...apart from all of my personal word or two...glimpsed someone mentioning Buffy...!!
ahahaa...am a fan myself.But they don;t show that here do they?? Its so sad how i've had to fall out following the series upon coming here.
anyway, that is all i can manage right now..being bogged out n all... hahaa...
cheers
posted by Anonymous at 5:51 AM

Hey guys ready to start tomorrow's lecture?
posted by Anonymous at 3:44 AM

1. No one said you need to be profound or technical (which would be rich coming from me). Just showing that you're thinking about the new media you encounter / consume / use etc. and/or relevant stuff you read in articles (academic or not).

2. Six paragraphs?! Nah. Speaking very roughly, your ten (or more) entries shouldn't weigh in at much less than about 1500 words (hence 20% weighting for the paper). If you made just ten posts in the semester, that would average out at just 150 words. In reality, some will likely be shorter, some longer. But no need to think huge (in fact people are less likely to read excessively long posts). Hope that reassures somewhat. Please isolate and single me out in this week's lecture ;-) for clarification if needs be.

3. Try and get hold of a copy of the New Media: A Critical Introduction book (Lister et al). The other recommended titles can be accessed through the library and will be useful further reading sources. But New Media is the *required* reading.

Word count: 178

posted by Technoculture and New Media at 3:32 AM

I tried posting something last week but for some reason it didnt post so i'm trying again. I think that the discussion about new media and old media was interesting and it made me think of a paper that I had to do in one of my classes last semester. My group did research on whether or not college students prefer to have difficult or awkward conversations online through instant messenger rather than face to face. We were predicting that they would rather have them online because of the emotional distance that the internet offers. But through surveys we found that although they had all had difficult conversations online in the past they would prefer to have them face to face in the future. The most common reason cited for wanting to do it face to face was that it was easy to be misinterpreted online. Sarcasm is hard to detect since you can't hear the person's tone of voice. Plus you don't see any of the nonverbal cues that you'd see if you were talking face to face. While looking at past research we found that high school students would prefer to have difficult conversations online. We predicted that this whether because they were less emotionally mature so they preferred the emotional distnace of the internet or because they started using the internet at a younger age and therefore felt more comfortable using it in that type of situation.
posted by Anonymous at 2:41 AM

Nothing wrong with PS2...keeps you sharp. Its also aided my vocabulary, because now i can swear like a sailor (or Navy Seal).
Heres a website for those people who havent had enough of flash animations yet.... www.stickdeath.com ... some funny shit. (i cant be arsed making that a link).
posted by Matt at 2:31 AM

New media for this week: After two days of grenade throwing and sniping mercenaries in US Navy Seals on PS2, i've noticed an interesting point about the headset feature... As it is a GBR release the voice activation seems to have trouble recognising our good 'ol mumbling kiwi accent. In discovering this i decided to experiment a little with other people and other accents... An Australian friend seemed to have trouble with all the words that i had no trouble with! So after only 2 days of being in the third place i found myself talking like an English Gentleman... the funny thing is it actually worked! I guess its not such a bad thing, my pronunciation of Navy Seal commands is now very proper! Who would of thought computer games could improve your speech!

Ahhhhhh, the Bloggery of it all! Its interesting, as a person who up until quite recently spent very little time on the internet, on computers in fact, i find myself checking our blog quite regularly! I enjoy checking out every body elses favourite sites, which at times are pretty interesting ie afrofuturism was down right DOPE! If it wasnt for this class i would probably still be outside playing sport or getting some exercise, but hey, who needs that!

Computer personas: I think if you look closely at the way people write and punctuate in their blogs, you can make some assumptions of how they are face to face... BUT (thats a big butt), "assumptions are the mother of all f***ups", and it is easy to exaggerate stuff when you are anonymous. So i guess pictures are not such a bad thing. Or are they? Now that i have exposed myself with a picture in my first entry, im scared that i will be labelled a geek for playing 2 days of PS2 (i'm not actually scared!) Just letting everyone know my sarcastic nature!
posted by Anonymous at 1:41 AM

____________

Monday, August 04, 2003

{*Dont eat the yellow media*}
posted by Matt at 11:03 PM

Understanding the Internet
Internet and World Wide Web is not the same thing. World Wide Web is seen as surface communication where pages are scanned rather than read. Internet is a protocol where networks link computers and servers together. Internet and World Wide Web need to link together in order to make sense. Internet is defined by ways that computers can send and receive data and where computers can communicate between each other in order to bring ‘high level service’
The concept of open architecture
J.R.C Lickeider envisioned it in 1962, where the definition is intended to facilitate the flow and exchange of data. Like television and newspaper it could send information from a centre to periphery where there could be a circulation of information. Internet is very useful especially when in comes to things like e-mail, chat rooms and participate in Usenet, which is a topic based discussion site. This is why internet and world wide web work well together and it’s the reason why we can communicate with people from all over the world and at the same time send and receive data.

posted by Anonymous at 10:50 PM

{Or, you could "piss into the digital wind"}**
: )
posted by Anonymous at 10:49 PM

yeah, about that assesment stuff. does it have to be one specifically or can it be the cullmination of one-liners, the asides, the quips, etc... cause i don't know if i'm alone here or does anyone else feel that anything they have to write on a weekly basis start to become forced about six paragraphs into it. congratulations to the people who can write large amounts but i get urges of required feedback to make sure that i'm not being completely uninteresting. if i am alone on this i'm more then happy to write stories about what i ate or saw on tv last night, but you know, whatever?
posted by Anonymous at 9:30 PM

Personally this post is hopefully going to help me and anyone else who feels the same... For the first time in my whole entire time at university i am faced with deciding what text books to purchase. As i am a poor uni. student who find better use for my money, lol...but i do realise that some are absolutely essential and that you can use them later down the track. So i was wondering has any taken or purchased the recommended texts for FTVMS 203
1. Cybercultures Reader 2. Reading digital culture 3. New Media:A critical introdution
it would be really appreciated if i could get some feedback on this as i have 3 other books that i need to get and im running into the $400 dollar mark....i am asking out of desperation of my bank account....:P


posted by Anonymous at 9:27 PM

Arvid et al... It's normally clear which posts you intend to fulfil the assessment requirements. No real need to label them (unless you feel it necessary). But do also keep the other types of post coming as well - the one-liners, the asides, the quips etc. Assuming they don't offend anyone, they help keep the blog alive and contribute to the culture of online discussion.

A point about the blog archives... some of you may have noticed that the archive links are currently broken. I'm looking into this and hope to have it fixed soon (need to get my head round some Blogger FAQ files). Meanwhile, does this mean that any posts more than one week old are disappearing into the ether, never to be seen again? Fortunately not. Even if, in the worst case scenario, I can't recover the lost archives online, I have been taking the precaution of making an offline archive of the posts every day. Yes, I know, what a forward thinking individual I must be (or paranoid or something). So panic ye not. Oops, that's my second allusion to Frankie Howerd on this blog. Is that my desperate and deep-seated desire to assert my Englishness in this identity-dissolving medium? Is there something inherently camp about Blogging? Or do I need to get a shot of coffee and do something more important instead?
posted by Technoculture and New Media at 6:44 PM

Okay, here is one for the assesment. By the way, is everything we post on the blog taken into consideration, or do we need to specify that what we are posting is for the assesment??

Anyway, I too some times play Counter Strike. However not as much as the fellow Olivia mentioned, but I know people who go nearly as hard as that. People sometimes laught at others who choose to play computer games, or video games thinking it is either geeky or uncool or whatever. Particularly the older generation, who see them as nothing but a waste of time.

So It was quite a supprise, when a couple of months ago there was an article in New Zealand's "Listener" magazine, on computer and video games being beneficial to stroke victims, and other cases in need of muscle or visual rehabilitation. So I went online just now, to find some more sources on the matter. So here are a few links cbcnews and here and lastly here.

I hope these links work as these sites are pretty informative, the cbc site is probably the best though. So not only can old people go and take their opinionated views on computer games and stick 'em. They should play them themselves and maybe they'll be able to do more, and see more.
posted by Anonymous at 5:45 PM

Week Three, Day One-----> THIS is how long it has taken me to get this blog show on the road. I wish I could blame it on my lack of time management and keeping up with the work, but unfortunatly I owe my lateness to being 'internetally retarded'. Theres five minutes to go before 'The Office' starts so I just wanted to quickly say hello and hope everyone else is going to watch The Office- hilarious. xx
posted by Anonymous at 3:05 AM

____________

Sunday, August 03, 2003

HI i just want to see if this works..
posted by Anonymous at 10:43 PM

sup Matt? I mean M-Pyre, since you don't like your slave name and all.

I'm 'bout it, 'bout it, son you know how we do.
word, you ain't penetratious cuz you got some fire breathin' mo'fo' in your blizzog.
You pententiarous cuz u spell it "dragonne" with the extra "ne" an' shit.
It's not just the tone and expression G, it's the principle g - there's pricncipalities involved in this knam sane?.

this issue harder than Christopher Reeves doing the crip walk.
knamean?
- Danz

p.s. We all have access to the tools of...
italicisms and emboldenations
"quotation marks" and 'inverted commas'
*whatever these starry things are* and all this crap: < > ( ) [ ] { }
...to emote our text-based dialogue, so why not use them?
It's quite obvious by now we have a class of bright, enthusiastic students so let's juice a mother fucker and create our own expressive grammar based on the symbols above. Maybe we can get some tutorial time to work on it? Or, maybe we can scratch ourselves.
posted by Anonymous at 9:34 PM

Dear god, i hope my dragonne isnt pretentious! I dont think i could live with myself if other peoples opinions collided with my own sense of self worth ;)
Actually, a word about 'net-pretentiousness', like ashley said, its hard to express oneself with the correct tone and facial expression needed to convey often complicated and subtle ideas (try a little inuendo without sounding like youre hitting on someone :) ). I guess thats why some people utilize 'ascii hats', or budget emoticons...such as :p (for tounge out/drool etc) and :) (smiley face). People with hotmail and messenger will be familiar with them (though they are graphically superior). But back to the pretentious thing...without an adequete medium for such subtle inflection to the typed word, people struggle to adopt personality to their input into the medium, that is why, in my opinion, that people come across as pretentious because they adopt a hyper-persona, one that explicitly ties thier personality to thier text, in such a way that isnt natural in the spoken word, because personality is more naturally expressed, as Luke said, within a communication mix, which has body language as well.
And to come full circle...thats why i have adopted a generic graphic as my pretext signifier. To some, it is pretentious, to me its a statement about me. Though, i could put pictures of myself with various facial expressions as an elaborate form of emoticons...

Anyways....Word!
to dan...sup my homie? dis ma lexicon, pop a cap yo! watchoo be doin, me be chillin in da crib :) <--- note the jest y'all

slip the shadow...
Matt
posted by Matt at 8:32 PM

Hey, how many people here like horror movie? I'm a big fan. The best one that I think is The Ring. I watched two versions, American and Japanese. Compared these two, American version is better than another. The Ring, this website creats a horrable feeling by the first sight you see the introduction. The background sound seems to be taking you into a deep, dark, smelling, dirty and wet place. In the movie, this sound is also moving around you. But the difference is, while you are watching the movie, all the images and sound come to you, you have no choice. Now, you are discovering what it is, you can make a choice, which one you wanna click and what's gonna happen. You can get deeper into the dark space or just leave the site. From one choice to another, or following the steps to find out what's gonna happen in the next click. Interactivity hidden behind each of your click. The website want you to forget you are using a mouse and facing the PC screen, it wants you to be the witness or even the victim. New technology makes it come true.
posted by Anonymous at 8:30 PM

Hey everyone, lots of great posts going on here, hope that everyone has now figured out how to make their own entries. In case some people missed my details here they are again-

Room 306 in Arts
Office Hours 12-1 on Thursday (or by appointment)
Phone extension 87150
email: nfit@xtra.co.nz

Hopefully the problems with the Mac's at the back of the lab will be fixed before Wednesday so that there are no more connection problems. If anyone wants a smaller tutorial the Wednesday 11-12 session seemed to have the least people. That way I can pretty much be sure that you will have a working computer.
Finally as I said if people can read the first couple of chapters in the textbook, we'll discuss some of those issues as well as some of the posted blogs in the tutorials.

Have a nice start to your week,

nick
posted by Anonymous at 8:23 PM

"I have a friend" (yeh this is no substitute for me), who has gone from being one of New Zealand's top musicians to becoming a full time, dedicated and I'd say obsessive Counter Strike player. I ask-how does this happen?

Okay, his playing began as a hobby, occasionally and then frequently as he bought 'time' at various Internet zones all over the city. By now Counter Strike's advanced gaming technology and immersive interaction capabilities had 'seduced' him. Spending around $100 a week on this habit, he gradually became part of a crew, a fighting force that would eventually disturb his rhythm of daily life as he entered into CS virtual and social network.

From here, "they", him and his team members (founded through this virtual network and from social 'reality'), adopted a new identity, "a fantasy personae", for which they used when simultaneously 'talking' strategies online. They then began a website dedicated to their team, a restricted zone which requires the viewer to enter passwords in order to enter the greater depths of the site. This "zone" he says is merely for access purposes, "it's much easier to discuss strategies online, while playing online. However we do meet up outside cyberspace." So in this sense this virtual community exists both on and off-line, both in a real and virtual space.

The point of this post is to provide an example that technology, media, consumption, play, performance and relationships are all intertwined. As discussed in the chapter "New Media in everyday life" (see textbook), these new technologies do not end everyday life and relationships. Instead, "the communication vectors of the internet and the dynamic spaces of videogames", fit in and transform everyday realities.

-cool that's me for the week
catch you guys in class.
posted by Anonymous at 7:45 PM

So this also my first attempt at the serious to be graded upon Blog entry. I must say so impressed and a little intimidated by everyone’s interesting discussions. So here goes ……..

In the first season of “Buffy the vampire slayer” ( yes I am a big fan ) there is a an episode entitled “ I Robot You Jane” in which one character makes the comment that “The written word is obsolete.” That if you are not jacked up and logged on then you are out of touch with society. What is interesting to me is that this was first aired on television all around the world in 1997, and how far the Internet has come since then.

There are several reasons why I find the argument for and against “whether the written word is obsolete” so interesting.

Firstly I work for a small music/ record company and in the past we have printed music books of the albums that are being released. It has become an economical issue because in the past they have not really been profitable as not enough are being sold to make it worth while. We have then turned to technology “new media” for the solution, so that for a new album being released in September, if you want to purchase the music for it you go to our website, and download the sheet music straight to your own computer. While this solves our problems a new issue arises. What happens to those who have bought our music books in the past and who do not have access to a computer or who maybe do not have the knowledge to use the internet – are they then excluded from been able to play our music anymore?

Secondly, one of my dreams is to write a novel one day, so by the time I get my act together and actually do it, I wonder will I be able to get it printed in actual book form or will it go straight to digital format. Now I realise this idea seems far fetched – you can’t exactly crawl up in bed with a computer to read your favourite book, but who knows you might be able to download novels into your palm pilot or something like it one day – imagination’s can never be limited. But building upon Suzannah’s blog about websites that share and celebrate old media, it is encouraging to see that not yet have we given up on the hard copy. That even with the dematerialisation of text there is still a use for the written word in today’s world that is not just for propping up the broken coffee table.

So I will finish off by quoting Mr Giles “the thing I don’t like about computers is that they don’t smell, books smell, and therefore the information you get from them has greater texture”. I don’t know if I totally agree with him, but I definitely think there is room for both – at least in my world.

And for any other Buffy fans ( a link - I hope it works!)


here
posted by Anonymous at 6:38 PM

Sorry I had to squash your cat a bit, Robert - for the sake of those with small screens or a pathological fear of oversize felines, you understand. Nevertheless, he is still MASSIVE and a valuable contribution to our blog: exactly what the Web was made for, you might say!

So much interesting, thoughtful and entertaining posting going on here. (Don't know whether to feel impressed or guilty at the ungodly hours of some of the posts - Sunday as well!!) Glad that people are referencing each other's posts rather than just (as a Wired editorial once put it) 'pissing into the digital wind'. As (self-appointed?) moderator/censor of the blog, I'm unsure how legitimate my views on the merits and pitfalls of this form of online communication actually are. But I would like to get beyond the recognition that this - like any mode of communication, whether face-to-face in the pub, the lecture or the tutorial, or via a txt message or Morse code - falls far short of perfect, because simply by virtue of being different to all those established modes, I think it adds to the 'communication mix' and therefore brings something positive with it? Or maybe I'm bound to say that...?
posted by Technoculture and New Media at 5:05 PM

posted by Anonymous at 6:14 AM

BLOGGERY, is my new word! Try using it in a sentence... "Like man thats a bloggery cool computer!" Anyway, heres my attempt at a bloggery assessment! I don't use a PC much at all, except to occasionally check my university stuff and on the odd occasion to check on sports scores around the world, (and of course the ocassional bet!). Of course i wouldnt bother if there was a better sports program on TV. I'm old fashioned i would rather NOT use a computer, I hardly even e-mail. However despite my anti WWW attitude, I do have a couple of favourite sites.

www.espn.com is one of my favourite sites. It caters to my insatiable craze for American sport. Dont get me wrong I love my kiwi sports but the US of A buzz has always caught my eye! I'm a regular watcher of ESPN sportscenter and crave sports trivia on a daily basis. So on the internet my first choice for up to the date sports news and trivia is this site. As well as providing news it has an online radio station, wicked in-game updates, game highlights, player statistics, and links to many of the other major sites specific to the site ie www.nba.com
The only downside i guess for this site is that it doesnt mention any sports not played outside of the US except golf! But, hey, dont worry All Black fans there are plenty other kiwi sport sites on the web!

I guess I encounter one particular new media on a regular basis, and that is the 3rd place.... my PS2! I spend a bit of time conquering worlds, tournaments, and race tracks on a regular basis. One of the latest games to hit the market is Socoms US Navy Seals... man it kicks ass. The main feature of this game is a headset which helps the gamer to control soldiers via voice commands thus allowing you to be sucked deeper into the 3rd place!

Anyway enough bloggery for one nite!
PS Luke is this anywhere in the ballpark for an entry?
PPS Word up Dan, afrofuturism is definetly a dope website, ive already spent too much time on it! Peace out!
PPPS Ashley I wish we had Monster truck shows like that in NZ!

posted by Anonymous at 4:27 AM

Talk about leaving things to the last minute but i have finally figured out how to use this.

Well in using my computer and the internet i basically only go on-line for the means of emailing and research for assignments etc. because I tend to use books more because of their crediable nature, that provides me with what i think is more researched and relevant information. Because of this I have never really come across any websites that have been particularly note worthy for their design and useability, except for sites such as the nike site shown in the lecture that like probably most of you I encountered in 204. So my brother who is a keen web design student pushed me in direction of a site called the best designs (www.thebestdesigns.com - i had trouble accessing the site directly so its best to go through google search to get to the proper site). This site is particularly interesting not so much for its design itself but because it is dedicated to websites that it considers to be of a high standard in their design. People can submit theirs, or others, sites for review, access resources for web design and view what they consider to be masters- true talents of the design world. The best designs houses over 150 sites that are dynamic in their use of flash and other resources to create sites that are visually creative, highly interactive and which are mostly "deep sites". I definatly reccomend visiting this site.

The computer labs are a new adventure for me because I have never had the oppourtunity before to use apple imacs and being so used to microsoft windows i can tell that computer labs are going to be a very slow learning experiance for me.
And for those of you who haven't yet got the reader it is very useful with most of the information falling in line with our lecture topics. Today I read the article on page 18 which addressess the problems of emails and how it compares to letters. It runs along the points that were brought up in the lecture showing that we were all pretty on to it, however it provides a more indepth and clarified argument on the topic-definatly worth a quick read for review of the lecture.
posted by Anonymous at 2:52 AM

____________