Saturday, September 20, 2003

Today,i want to share one article which is about "the Indian diaspora"

The Indian diaspora today constitutes an important,and in some respects unique,force in world culture.The origins of the modern Indian diaspora lie mainly in the subjugation of India by the British and its corporation into the British empire.Indians were taken over as indentured labour to far-flung parts of the empire in the 19th century,a circumstance to which the modern Indian populations of Fiji,Mauritious,Guyana,Trinidad,Surinam,Malaysia,South Africa,Sri Lanka,and other places attest in their own peculiar ways.

In the United States,at least, the Indian community has occupied a place of considerable privilege, and many Indians could deflect the moment of recognition that 'Indianness' and being 'American' do not always happily coincide.In recent years,with a declining economy on the one hand,and the congregation of Indians in clusters that visibly put them apart on the other hand,Indians have for the first time become the targets of racial attacks.

However unlike Indian communities across the world might be,they all maintain some sort of teneous link with the motherland.For instance, the Hindi feature film,a phenomenon unique to the Indian diasporas:what Hollywood is to Western Europe,the Bollywood is to Middle East and East Africa.The modesty of the Hindi film is said to explain its appeal to the Islamic world,and though we may well contest that interpretation,it is worthy of note that Hindi films found in grocery and video stores across the US often carry subtitles in Arabic,one language which is indubitably not spoken by any Indian community in US!

posted by Anonymous at 10:00 PM

hi everyone
Today i would like to talk about a new media popular in a recent year, that is a show on the website.

www.com.hk

above is the website which show a different program for customer to choose.(that is the chinese web page) After you paying the fee, you can choose what u want to watch in the website. It consists a MV, a series drama or concert etc. This kind of network media popular refers to the progress of the technology, because such media need to be supported by the fast speed of the networking.

In order to attact people, the website desigers make use of a colourful setting and some of the method of flash. And we can see that the desigers make use of flash in order to attract people to look at a "selling point" in the website. That evidence that new technology base on the previous technology and improve again and again, and then construction of the new form of the media.
posted by Anonymous at 9:40 PM

Drop me off in Harlem
posted by Anonymous at 8:16 PM

*le sigh*:
"Nuclear War, it's a mother fucker"
- Sun Ra, Nuclear War

It's usually best to learn about something before passing any kind of comment on it.
Did all of America live through the space age?
Maybe it's my imagined history of the world where an indistinct, abitrary group of people were struggling for basic civil and human rights at the same time - fighting like hell to be counted as human while All of America were expressing their desire for conquest and fear of the reverse in science-fiction.
Wanting more than the earth while others were in the ongoing throes of being erased from it.

"If they push that button, yo' ass has gotta go"
- Sun Ra, Nuclear War

Afrofuturism est. 1992
Rammellzee est. 1982
George Clinton est. 1972
Sun Ra est. 1952
N.O.I est. 1932
Transcendental Negro Spirituals est. 1802

"What you gonna do without yo' ass?"
- Sun Ra, Nuclear War

It's not generally questioned that patriarchy was established only after feminist discussion of it right?. Abduction, displacement and alienation are the history of all African-Americans - it's an intrinsic part of their culture. It can never be discounted in their cultural expression.
Yes, science-fiction themes emerged in that expression due to the 'era' they were living in. So then, Afrofuturists - as cultural theorists - investigate that emergence. It's not the grabbing game some might imagine, there's no "hungry nigger bank" mechanics in this (though the metaphor seems to emerge from some).
Maybe I'm expecting too much from Stage II students, I dunno, go read some cultural theory and the processes and character of cultural analysis will hopefully become apparent to you.

"If they push that button..."
- Sun Ra, Nuclear War
condescending at the ending.
- Dan
posted by Anonymous at 7:40 PM

Thanks Dan, that was an interesting read. I realise my tone on this subject is naive - I have only just heard of Afrofuturism. But perhaps you misunderstood what I meant - I'm not doubting the connection that African Americans feel towards the sci fi genre, I can see it can be used as an apt metaphor for their people's tumolutuous history, and i understand that being excluded from 'academic development' would mean that this identification would develop largely through popular culture.
My brilliant, chicken-before-egg analogy, was simply to express that maybe this conscious identity African Americans feel towards the sci-fi genre, was only realised, and then perpetuated after respected critics brought the idea of this metaphor to mainstream attention. When I said "I'm not convinced", I was merely discussing the part of the abstract that I posted, which said: "...cultural critics like Mark Dery, Greg Tate, Mark Sinker and Tricia Rose brought science fiction themes in the works of important and innovative cultural producers to our attention. Science fiction was a recurring motif in the music of [African American] artists, they argued, because it was an apt metaphor for black life and history.".
ALL of America's cultures lived simultaneously through the 'space age', and a rising popularity of the sci-fi genre in general. I just wasn't convinced that, in the beginning, some African Americans' use of the genre in their works, was due to this identity with sci-fi themes like abduction, as the abstract said. It could just have easily been due to the science fiction 'era' they were living in. I am convinced that Afrofuturism is a very real part of African American culture, I was merely discussing its origin.


posted by Anonymous at 6:43 PM

Firstly just want to ask all you a question,have you still remberer and love Beetles and John Denver's music?The pure, clean and simple music can bring people back to those pure days. Comparing with those music, today's digital music are put in many tech-elements. I love both of them. But Just feel strange about digital music's making. So I looked for some information on digital music and share with you. There are two basic catagories in making digital music.One is called sampling. Sampling is used by the Kurzweil 250 digital sampling synthesizer, which is seen and heard in What Makes Music? A sample is a digital "snapshot," or recording, of an acoustic instrument's sound. The sample is stored digitally in computer memory, and is used as the "model" for recreating the instrument's sound.

Samplers like the Kurzweil 250 are among the most remarkable achievements of advanced computer technology. Samples contain an enormous amount of digitally encoded data about musical sound, and require large quantities of computer memory--much more than is required for any other type of digital musical instrument. In order to be useful, samplers must be able to manipulate all of its data instantly in order to produce a note as soon as the musician strikes a key on the sampler.

The greatest advantages that digital musical instruments have over acoustic ones are the degree of control over any sound and the increased creative possibilities they offer musicians. In the past, a piano's sound for example, depended on the mechanical limitations of the piano and the mental and physical limitations of pianists. It's obvious, but true, that you couldn't play piano notes higher than the highest note on the piano or faster than the fastest human pianist available. Today, however, computer-based technology allows us to recreate the sound of the piano and play, manipulate and alter it in a way that was never before possible. For example, a composer can program a computer-based musical instrument to accurately recreate the sound of a piano--and then play it higher and faster than a human pianist ever could by playing an acoustic piano. With digital musical instruments, a composer has new controls over familiar sounds to create new music.

Digital instruments, because of their many advantages, are taking their place along side of acoustic instruments. Digital instruments are rapidly evolving along with the rest of computer technology. One of the greatest ironies is that when this article was originally written in 1988, the Kurzweil 250 was the king of sampling keyboards. While still in use and very capable, other refinements and economic realities have pushed the Kurzweil 250 into electronic music history. It is no longer produced. Parts of its technology, principally its famous piano formula, has been reused in next generation keyboards (the Kurzweil 2000 series samplers).

So, digital instruments are evolving rapidly and replacing each other, just as the piano replaced the harpsichord. However, since digital technology allows musicians access to the rich sounds of acoustic instruments, greater control of those sounds and the use of computer programs that aid in creating and arranging music, the future is bright for digital music technology. Much in the same way word-processing software aids writers in creating texts, digital technology helps to eliminate the drudgery and leave musicians and composers more time for the really important work: creativity.

Computer technology makes it easier for everyone to enjoy one of our greatest means for expressing feelings and ideas: music.




posted by Anonymous at 6:23 PM

I’ve been in a media frame of mind lately so I thought I’d dedicate this blog to how digital technology has remediated the magazine.
For those who studied 204 earlier this year, you are probably familiar with the site www.fmagazine.com which Luke introduced in one of the lectures. It’s a good example of how the magazine has been transformed from a print document to a digital, visual aesthetic. Like a magazine, the cursor acts as your fingertips as you scroll or flip through the pages, which are mainly saturated with full page ads. In a sense the computer has remediated the magazine as you are able to listen to a jukebox with music from all genres while browsing through. It simulates basically what you would do away from the computer world. As an example, on a typical day most people do read magazines and listen to music simultaneously , so in this way the viewer is able to go into the site, into a virtual ‘space’ and scan, scroll and listen. As we have seen throughout the course, through digital technology the user can now become involved in the text itself. By choosing their own path or ‘narrative’ through the site and by selecting and playing tracks, it is similar to the spectator deciding what to read in a magazine and in what order. I would also suggest that the characteristics of new media such as frames, flash and splash pages do entice the audience to explore and extract, as you do in a magazine through headlines, pictures etc. Although digital technology is a lot more interactive and spectacular, it does have it’s downsides, such as downloading time, which is obviously not a problem with print magazines. On a lighter note, the music also has a distinct ‘underground’ style that reflects the urban, street lifestyle image that it projects. Hip Hop fans check out K-0S and Fallacy.



posted by Anonymous at 5:40 PM

hey
Im not going to talk about the past weeks lectures today, I thought I would mention a technological obsession my flatmate is suffering from. Im sure everyone has heard about ebay the highly successful website that you can buy sell or bid for just about anything from selling your mum to buying a paper towel that a celebrity wiped there food off their face with. My flatmate at the moment as a real problem with bidding she has already brought makeup and designer clothes albeit half the price they are in shops in NZ, however this was okay when she casually was checking maybe once a day what was on auction but the other night she asked if she could put my laptop in her room over night when I asked her why she sort of looked embarassed and then said she needed to get up at 5am to check where she stood in an auction!!!!! in the end she lost it and she was not a happy ebayer anyway I just thought it was interesting to see a person rearrange their life and especially their sleep patterns for a website!!!!!
posted by Anonymous at 3:17 PM

KNOW THE LEDGE:
Let's assume for a second that science-fiction as a literary genre has its own specific, self-contained themes, conventions of content and narration, and also a history of literary analysis with its own codes etc. Then let us assume that the African diaspora has a group of concerns specific to their culture, shaped by their combined histories and experiences. It's all a little essentialist so far I know, but bear with me, I'm not nearly skilled enough to work it front to back.

Alright. African-American culture has always sought to express the realities** of adbuction, displacement, subjection and alienation - it is an absolute part of their cultural identity. Afrofuturism concerns itself with the coalesence of that expression of identity and the aesthetics of science-fiction - whether it occurs intentionally or inadvertantly - and vice versa, where science fiction expands its boundaries by adopting the aesthetics of Afro-Diasporic expression.
OKAY?

No, African-Americans did not invent science fiction - Afrofuturists do not make this claim.
Yes, other cultures use science fiction to express facets of their own culture and circumstance - it's a quality of the genre.

If you're going to understand Afrofuturism you need a good textual genealogy and even better understanding of social historical context. Denied access to academic development, African Americans discuss identity or what it means to be black in the sphere of popular culture. Because any reflections that might be worthy of academic study can't be engaged in an academic environment they are directed into the discourse of black popular culture. It makes sense then that serious themes should appropriate popular metaphor. Once that metaphor is appropriated from mainstream popular culture it is given shape, volume and - of course - colour by the concerns and qualities of the appropriators.

I don't think Dr. Who had a large black audience in the history of ever. It's not a case of chicken-or-egg. It's a question of what happens when two cultures interact on rich, sophisticated levels. Bear in mind that respected critics are respected by academics.

I just wrote your essay.
- Dan
posted by Anonymous at 5:31 AM

The 3rd generation of AIBO has born~!

SONY's A.I dog, AIBO has appeared with its upgraded ability. The one has showed in this time is the 3rd generation of the first AIBO that has appeared in 199. The 3rd generation AIBO has sensor in its face and chest that able to show its emotion like happiness, sadness and others. And also the ability that able to identify form of things. It could identify sings or pictures on 15 cards and able to to commands on that cards like dance, sit down and etc. When master gives rubber ball it follows like real dog and guard against when stranger touches

posted by Anonymous at 4:11 AM

Well... after Nabeel's lecture,... I definitely see the recurring theme of sci-fi sounds and ideas in the history of African American music - that's v interesting. [Call me blind, but i'll admit I never really noticed it before - actually you would call me 'deaf' wouldn't you].
I wasn't really sure if i 'got' the whole Afrofuturism concept, so I had a look at Afrofuturism.com (you should too), and I read the "About Afrofuturism" section...

Once upon a time, in the not so distant past, music writers and cultural critics like Mark Dery, Greg Tate, Mark Sinker and Tricia Rose brought science fiction themes in the works of important and innovative cultural producers to our attention. They claimed that these works simultaneously referenced a past of abduction, displacement and alien-nation, and inspired technical and creative innovations in the work of such artists as Lee "Scratch" Perry, George Clinton and Sun Ra. Science fiction was a recurring motif in the music of these artists, they argued, because it was an apt metaphor for black life and history.

That cleared things up a bit... but I don't know if I'm convinced by that... I mean, I can definitely see that nowadays - at least since Greg Tate et al mentioned their argument, African Americans are using the sci fi genre in music 'because it is an apt metaphor for black history'. But what about before? Couldn't it be that African Americans were exposed to all these 'futuristic' themes and sounds (from man landing on the moon, to television shows like Dr. Who et al.), and thought they were cool, just like everyone else? And that maybe, given the African Americans' heavily music based culture, they were able to take those sounds and make some 'cool' sounding music too? Or they wrote sci-fi stories, because the concept of space and aliens was just as interesting for their imaginations as everyone else's?

And THEN, maybe Greg Tate and others realised science fiction could be a metaphor for black history. And THEN, maybe everyone else realised it too, and started using the theme purposefully.
To me, it seems to come down to the whole chicken-before-egg debate. Did African Americans really start using the theme sub-consciously because they identified with 'aliens', given their displacement from their homeland? Or did they only start identifying with the sci-fi genre purposefully, AFTER the metaphor was suggested by respected critics?

posted by Anonymous at 3:58 AM

hey guys, did you watch any movie this week? I've been watched the"tomb raider 2" this thursday. As we know, it's a movie about a famous PS2 game made by Japanese company. Virtual cultural told us in the virtual world we can do anything, that means we can do something we can not do in the real world. Tomb raider include a strong girl, she can do some action which it can not be done by strong man in the real world. The farest from the real world the people more interested in. That it I think the reason the games are liked by people.
In that movie the young guy working for Lara which control the technical things trying to fly a real helicopter, he just play some virtual helicopter before, but it helps him learned some skill, because the game are making by using the technology of real helicopter, these kind of game can help people learn some skill which we can not meet in everyday life. But do not think you can do every thing you can do in computer game, that sounds stupid.
I watched a TV programme made in china. It shows a story about the digital army in china. The leader doing exercise use comupter, which about a virtual war. So the virtual cultural does not just can use in some computer games, it also can be use in some serious way which the normal people can not meet in our life.
here is the website of Tomb Raider

movie
game
posted by Anonymous at 2:27 AM

____________

Friday, September 19, 2003

____________

Thursday, September 18, 2003

Well, I'll attempt to spread these out. I've been saving up my eager thoughts regarding
musical and racial representation on the wide wondrous world of the web, purely as they'd
be more relevant after Nabeel's lectures.

I'm going to look at how the emergence of a specific genre of music has arisen out of the new media culture. I dont like to call it 'techno music' as while the term groups all of thesetypes of generic music, they are as different from each other as Soul is from Funk or Hip-Hop from Rap.

Just to clarify, House, trance, hard house, and their various offshoots are NOT what I'm referring to. My references include drum'n'bass(& its sub various sub-genres)breakbeats,garage,2-Step, and jungle. I think that about does it but theres prob a few more.

Breakbeat Chaos here we come

This is the site that best shows what is currently taking place in the real birthplace of the
drum n bass/jungle/2 Step and breakbeat culture. All the major producers are featured, if
you want to hear it,this is one of the best places to find it.

For a local flavour, I'll bung in FU BAR's website, seeing as its relevant.

Among the horde of funkalicious tunes Nabeel graced our ears with on Wednesday avo, was Goldie featuring KRS One.
Goldie, along with
LTJ Bukem is a perfect example of how the cross pollination of music genrescan create a hybridity that then becomes a whole new sub genre & in this case a genre in itself.

For those interested, the above links to each respective name should provide enough info,
I'm not gonna do a history cos it'd take up too much blogspace.

What I'm highlighting here is the idea of Diaspora prevalent in the UK. Although
there is a diverse mixture of cultures, I'll stick to the African for arguments sake.
Its no coincedence that the music coming out the UK in the past 200 years has evolved in
a simlar way to that of their Afroamerican counterparts. While we see the emergence of
soul,funk,jazz and blues origninating in the deep south & moving its way slowly upwards and
outwards, similar parallels can be drawn with more current music evolutions in the UK.

Heavily influenced by the surge of music coming from across the atlantic, the UK, home of
white dominated pop music, began to experience a mutation and growth in what was
'mainstream' music.

It seems no coincidence then, that Goldie, was invited to star in
Afrika Bambaataa's film 'Bombing'.
The following is from his autobiography from
Trust the DJ.com

Hip hop allowed me to express myself artistically for the first time. Doing graffiti art
made me learn how to make something out of nothing, and it got me involved in the music
scene. I spent time in New York exhibiting my work and appeared in Africa Bambatta's
feature film 'Bombing' as one of Britain's top graffers. That rocked. In '86 I moved out to
Miami and started a business selling engraved gold teeth.

He then went on tobecome one of Britains leading Drum 'n'Bass producers, working with th likes of Bukem
& Grooverider and also branching out to include films such as James Bond's 'The World
is not Enough' and Guy Ritchies 'Snatch'.


Shmallows for naming these peoples

Although Goldie's musical intentions sprung from hip-hop, the scene in the UK was taking on a different shift. Producers of the new underground yet still popular breaks and drum 'n' bass genre were using elements of the emerging hip hop culture in the US. The feelings expressed by both cultures were happening simultaneously. Thats not to say that these parallel musical developments were restricted to the 'techno' genre. The emergence of UK Hip-Hop is just as valid, but I'm getting sidetracked & my future blogs will reflect this shift to the development of differing representations of hip-hop and trip-hop in the UK.

Goldie among other more key players(Grooverider,Carl Cox,Amon Tobin,Dillinja,Ed Rush & Optical to name a few) was responsible for the UK growth and evolution of drum'n'bass and its related friends breakbeat,jungle,2-step,garage(the latter 2 Craig David having alot to do with believe it or not).


Gundam is cool :)

One final point. Amon Tobin who'll I talk more about next blog, is an interesting example of what it is to be 'from the UK' of Hispanic and English background, his music includes a vast variety of influences, but the overall fell of the music is atmospheric and to bracket it specifically, 'downbeat style drum 'n' bass'. His albunm art reflects aspects of the future, whether you could say its afro future, is unkown, Hispanicofuturo, now theres you're neolgism forthe morning.

Does where you are from influence your music, MOSt DEFintely.

I've overshot the word limit by a tad :) , so I'll keep the next 5 round about the same. Theres just too much to say. Hence, the inclusion of pictures and such to pleasure your senses.

Blogging is fun and effortfull.
-Damo.

P.S. Forget not the Shmallows.


posted by Anonymous at 4:41 AM

Dan's Top Five Afrofuturist Raps:

Weapon World - Kool Keith (feat. Prince Paul)
Above the Coluds - Gangstarr (feat. Inspectah Deck)
The One - Last Emperor (feat. RZA)
Twice, The First Time - Saul Williams
Proto Culture - Del the Funky Homosapien (Feat. Khaos Unique)

Okay, while some of these aren't strictly specualtive fiction (narratives) they do all concern themselves with African-American technocultures and/or Afro-Diasporic cosmology.

Looking for the Perfect Beat,
- Dan

posted by Anonymous at 3:07 AM

Lots of people have been talking about survelliance lately, and how it has been increasing more and more, with privacy issues arising. I was reading in the 23rd August edition of New Scientist that a Californian called Kris Pister has invented something called "smart dust". This "dust" is actually 'tiny wireless sensors that can communicate with each other, form autonomous networks and monitor almost everything: local temperatures, the presence of people. the volume of passing traffic' etc.

These sensors are as small as a grain of rice, and each is equipped with its own operating system 'TinyOS', which is similar to Windows software but runs on only 8KB. The article speculates: 'scatter them around the globe and they could establish a system of silent, unseen sentinels that record and transmit information about their environment'. This obviously raises potential survelliance/ invasion of privacy issues. However, Pister believes 'that smart dust technology could literally network earth, forming another layer of infrastructure between the internet and the physical world'.

The "motes" have already been used to track enemy military movements. At present the motes run on batteries, but Pister and his team believe this will soon change. The 'mica' motes already have microphones and researchers are trying to develop cameras for them, raising worries over what is seen as 'big brother technology'. Here is a link to a website that calls the technology 'the particles of dust that could be watching you': Click Here


posted by Anonymous at 2:43 AM

____________

Wednesday, September 17, 2003

Hi, all! Today I read one piece of news that is about the broadband connection. Is there any people using broadband connection to get on Internet? I am still using the dial-up modem to get on the Internet. So I do not have any experience about the advantages that the broadband connection can bring for us. Does that only mean high speed? Sometimes I feel the speed of the Internet is slow especially when I want to download something. Ok, run too far, back to the blog.

There is one website that I want to share with you guys, actually, this is not a website, I just want to show you this web page. It is from the website of VOLVO, the design of this web page is wonderful. Just like you walk from the countryside to the city, from the daytime to nighttime with the changes of sounds. And this web page reminds me one website that Luke recommended to us www.roadworks.co.nz, in that website, we can see the ponsonby road just like we are walking on this road. The web page from VOLVO is a little bit same as that web page .
volvo
But the loading process is so slow; let me think about the broadband connection:)

posted by Anonymous at 4:56 AM

____________

Tuesday, September 16, 2003

Didn't I Tell You? I Think I Did
Blackalicious:


the truly beautiful homepage of Afrofurturist artists Chief XCEL and Gift of Gab.
If Chief XCEL looks familiar it's because he appears on the cover of Endtroducing by labelmate DJ Shadow.

Urkel is funny because black males are meant to be bad asses. Am I right?
Well, here's one bad ass black male nerd - Chuck D of Public Enemy
Chuck stands out as an MC for his willingness to be "the uncool mother fucker in rap" and as an Afrofuturist by the musical form of his production team The Bomb Squad and his desire to relate the violence that the post-industrial inflicts on African-Americans and other diasporic/colonised peoples *in 1989 Public Enemy toured Australia with Upper Hutt Posse*.
Chuck also anticipated the online music revolution back in 1996, a good time before Napster's emergence, which is at once commendable and predictable, his music always overtly concerned with the political economy of the recording industry.

More mics I kill than slaves during the Middle Passage,
Who rapes and ravages and calls us savage?
- Jeru the Damaja, Jungle Music (feat. DJ Premier)
posted by Anonymous at 9:26 PM

posted by Anonymous at 9:20 PM

Ok bloggers one and all here goes number 5 and then we are halfway through our total blogg experience - how time flys.

So there had been alot of talk on Nerds and Nerdism if you will, which I find very interesting. The definition (not dictionary- so don't quote me - or if you want quote me I don't mind) was some one uncool, unpopular who was different from the norm. A picture of Steve Urkyl comes to mind. But if Nerds or computer Geeks are then participating and exceling at things like new technologies that are cool and facinating to all of us are they then still nerds. Or does that make it cool to be a Nerd or does the term Nerd need to be redefined. This whole idea leads me to the thought of Identity in Cyberspace.

Who we are in the real world outside of Cyberspace does this trancend into Cyberspace or do we create a new self due to freedom from judgements of and restrictions of the physical. Gender for example is constructed largely on image, what a person dresses and looks like, and their physical mannerisms. But this is lost in Cyberspace you have the ability to adopt a new identity ( if it talks like a duck - how do you know it isn't a duck) a fear factor is taken from the equation. This unique ability then could be considered a need to some who have suffered from society's opinons and repercussions in the past, and while I agree obseity can occur by engaging with new media and refusing to exercise, and new gadgets are built to be better than jo bloggs next door, I believe there are examples of desirablity of new media in ways that enables society to break old stigma's, push the boundaries of their imaginations and perhaps create for themselves a safer world in which to exist- even if that world is in cyberspace.

To be perfectly honest though for myself a connection made with a person online can never truely replace the sensation a warm hand slipping into mine as we share a sunset - Oh gawsh darn it I am an old time romantic after all.


posted by Anonymous at 6:22 PM

hi......i just finished my tutorial and i run to sit in front of the computer....

"flash" which we already studied before... i was looking around web sites.. one of great fresh model shows u guys......





this theme shows the dreaming come true.... if you gyus wanna something to come ture like flash, write down what u want and fold the paper and then flying it.....^^

it's very pure mind and you will return childhood 4 a seconds.....

this makes very simple and easy to notice...... and also, the viewer can be interesting this..

ja~~ let's fold it.......!!^.^



posted by Anonymous at 5:36 PM

I think there's some stock in this Nerd Culture theory. Cyberspace holds a much greater appeal to reality's losers, and Cyborg/Nano-Augmentation to those who aren't aware of the Shaolin-grade capacities of the body. Deletion of the body seems a prospect held in the most positive light by those with the least to lose. Similarly, if Ballard was going out with say, Heidi Klum, I think that metal fetish is subsiding pretty darn quick.
Think of the power nerds have over language by their compulsion for control over fine mechanics. If nerds are our designers, programmers, scripters surely their common cultural attributes pervade interface aesthetics and determine linguistic order in new media and technologies? How much of critical theory is nerds talking for the sake of talk?



hmm, look forward to shmallows tomorrow you lucky winners : )
posted by Anonymous at 6:35 AM

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Monday, September 15, 2003

Alritey...been awhile..
Well..read thru' the past blogs,and there are several themes running here which I might like to contd threadg...
Though I do agree with many people's comments here about how so many technologies now are mushrooming out of no obvious explaination as to their exact need for or even demand for.As mentioned, such as the Sony's Aibo,or digital storing watches.I believe such innovations are fast becoming more prevalent, as people & institutions test & extend newer technologies.
This phenomenon is not necessarily a bad or even a waste of resources.As these seemingly useless or wild innovations are just but test beds for perhaps future innovations that Will become a necessity or useful.
Like the invention of the vacuum tube by John Fleming,there was no apparent use or need for it initially.But was one of the key to starting off radio broadcasting and also lead to other inventions that exist till today if not for it.
And i do say that i reference now to Nathan Rosenberg who speaks much of tech innovation in his Uncertainty&tech change.
What can be noted is that most technologies and inventions are never alone in their existence.Any one technology depend on other complementary technologies in order for their full use & potential be discovered. This is no more apparent in the personal computer, comprising of so many components of other technologies that renders it its almost quitessential status now.
So what history tells us now is that,with the existence of all the basic technological inventions such as the laser,electron tubes,digital tech etc whats left is to experiment & test out the many different variations of combining these technologies & seeing as to what marvel innovation will be erected next.
However, i do say that not all technologies or innovations no matter how useful & practical will actually become feasible.Think about this very keyboard I stumble ard to type, i mean how practical is it really is compared to the Dvorak keyboard which was also invented a little after the emergence of the QWERTY keyboard now,which was argued to be reserched & more efficient.But it obviously never made it due to market saturation of the QWERTY by then.
This only demonstrates how the success of technologies don't just rely on its own genius or use but also on a whole other baggage like market conditions.I guess it remains the same as the continued Microsoft dominated existence...hmm...

lets just stop for me to grab a munch at my afghan cookies thats just been calling out to me.....sheeshhh



posted by Anonymous at 7:30 PM

Two things:

1) Nick and I are in the process of sending feedback to you all on your blog contributions so far. This will take a few days.

2) Much as I loved the badgers and mushrooms, I couldn't handle the music every time I visited the blog so, after a gruelling 24 hours of tolerance, today I've converted the Flash movie into a link. Sorry... and if there really is a popular backlash I might reconsider!

posted by Technoculture and New Media at 1:55 PM

If you've ever been up late at night looking for solace with another being, only to findthat no-one is online and the only places you can find are filled with obsessive media nerds.
Well, look no further,all your conversational needs have been met.

I stumbled across this site after seeing the film. Stanley K's & Steve Spieleys Ai (Artifical Intelligence) is one of the recent sci-fi films that have had a real impact upon me. Ok, critically the film was shunned saying it lacks any depth and is a crime against Kubricks intended vision, but to put it nicely, fuck the critics.

The main thing I want to point out here is how computers/machines are slowly taking over our everyday life.

Albeit the film posits a dystopian view of this technology, what with robots servicing humans sexual desires(shout out to Bobby O Dowd, the digital pimp) and simultaneously servicing their white trailer trash destruction derby desires (You have to see the film to get that reference) 'Any ol Iron, any ol Iron'.

What does all this mean in todays technological context? Its a window into the future. Even though its a bleak & smudged one, we can still appreciate it for what it highlights. Our dependency on technology will always remain. Whether we rely on autmoated bank tellers or the vast world of the internet, we have become so reliant upon these forms of new media that we are literally at their mercy. We only have to look at whats happened in the past two months. Who would've thought a worm could dig so many holes.

So, to wrap up, I'll direct you all to the VERY interesting chat part of the site(which should automatically come up when you enter). In the intro I said that if you're bored & loneley, you can always find someone to chat with. Well, Ai's promotional webpage lets you converse with a computer whenever you want. This idea that humans and computers are slowly moving closer together in terms of their communicative abilities is what really fascinates me about the ever changing sphere of the internet.

Oh, word of warning, dont expect too much from the 'Chatbot' I'm not sure if its always called Alice(at least it was when I went in) but when asking questions regarding gender/sex you only get the reply 'yes I am a she'

Another flaw is the inherent contradictions.
When asked about sexual preference the following answer was obtained:
"I can do whatever you can do but I can never experience human emotions"

I'll have to remember that one.


P.S. A glut of holiday blogs should appear later on this week due to my inablilty to access the internet & 'catch up' with blogs over the holidays.



Whattup Artoo

-Damo the procrastinator


posted by Anonymous at 6:05 AM

Source of Suture? The Souper's Structure
Arvid: More than the appreciation of pop culture, nerdiness is the next step, a fascination with pop culture. Some kinda Marx fetish goin' on where some object has an overdetermined value. A confusion between use value and exchange value. It's okay to like Transformers, but it's another thing to construct a mock city full of every US and Europe released action figure in your rumpus room as one netizen has done (no link sorry).

5 cent theory as to why Nerdiness has become trendy:
acceleration of non-personal communication technologies listed in my last blog and a significant mainstream cultural shift towards the acceptance of obsessive and compulsive consumption. Something about alienation in the post-modern I can't be bothered researching.

Nerdiness is only derogatory if you take it to be. For instance, I don't really see anything wrong with someone being a Wu-tang Clan nerd - 36 Chambers poster reppin' the bedroom wall, Ghost Dog tape and GZA cd's astrew and about, ill-fitting Wu-Wear t-shirt from back in 4th form. Conversely, the nerd with 5 NOFX t-shirts, Todd McFarlane Metallica figurines and a pair of "A" anarchy print Chuck Taylors well deserves derogation.
posted by Anonymous at 3:33 AM

Hi! Hope the holidays was enjoyable for everyone! Anyway, regarding surveillance, I once read an article in The Economist that talks about Hitachi rolling out this new chip, called the "mu-chip". This tiny gadget has widespread commercial potential, from securities to retail sales. The chip contains only 128-bit memory, but can be stored in anything from bank notes to clothes. When stored in bank notes, the authencity of the notes can be verified to block of counterfeits, and the Central Bank can use it to track the flow of money and track who is spending what and where. GAP, the American retailer, has expressed interest in storing these chips into their clothes to trace and track customer preferences when they check out. Luxury brands could also use these chips to fend off counterfeiters. However, this could be a double-edged sword as it also opens a path for people with ill intentions, such as theives who would then be able to track where people are, etc. And there is also a conflict between such technology and personal rights, as it seems that there's now nowhere to hide from anything or anyone.
posted by Anonymous at 3:31 AM

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Sunday, September 14, 2003

Dan: This nerd culture you speak of, this is like the trendy Nerd culture right? Im sure if you went and called some one a Nerd, and genuinelly meant it they would be hurt. But talking on IRC, downloading DBZ and shit doesnt equate to nerd culture, its more new age pop-culture. Like, the Armageddon convention that comes to the Aotea Center, many people might call that a mass nerd convention, but really its a celebration of pop culture. Are you saying there is an actual sub cultural devision within this larger culture, who actually identify themselves as being NERDS?? Forgive me If I am mistaken but I always thought people thought Nerdiness was derogatory, but people celebrate it??
posted by Anonymous at 5:40 PM

Hi everyone. In this, my (late) blog entry for last week, I thought I would report on Sony’s latest attempt to further tighten its grip on the gaming industry. I’m talking about the PSX console -- and no, not the same PSX that Playstation owners may know as the predecessor to the PS2. The console known as the PSX, which was announced by the Sony group a few months ago, is essentially a beefed-up Playstation 2. The console will have all the same features and capabilities of the PS2, including the ability to play games, DVDs and audio CDs. In addition to this, the PSX boasts many new features that Sony hope will make the console as essential in the home as a VCR or DVD player; the most notable being its ability to record television and burn DVDs. Other new features include 120 gigabytes of hard drive space, and broadband Internet connection hardware. Seeing that adults form a large portion of the computer gaming consumer market, it only seems natural that Sony would develop a console such as the PSX that is targeted more towards the older (and no doubt wealthier) gamer. The PSX is likely to be released in Australasia later next year, although an exact date and price has yet to be announced. If it already didn’t have its hold firmly on the computer gaming industry (and it does), Sony has the PS3 due out around 2005-2006, as well as a portable console dubbed the PSP in the near future. But the console wars look set to heat up when the next generation Nintendo and XBOX consoles are released around the same time…

Playstation.com
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
posted by Anonymous at 4:21 PM

enjoy it! (warning: to hear this song is addicted(?) ^^*)
posted by Anonymous at 8:23 AM

Instrumentals - Souls of Mischief - 93 'til Infinity.mp3 :
Let's talk about nerd cultures and hyper-consumption.

Believe it or not, a lot of nerds use the internet. It has something to do with the process of finding pleasure in the knowledge of minute details and/or control of miniscule operative details. Nerd culture has a history of analysis, starting in the 50's with the democratisation /consumerisation of science. Some feller tried to call it the Third Culture and it anticipatesquite nicely the prosumption development in new media. Unfortunately, I'm far too lazy to find a link to the relevant article.

Anyways, non-personal communicative interaction between nerds occurs via technologies like e-mail, BBS, IRC, IM and blog - all of which foster the development of prestige cultures (show and prove imperative) between like-minded nerds.

That's why we get a bazillion websites dedicated to photos of 80lbs cats, ninja photos, DBZ DivX and Tool fanclubs - Nerd culture is an inseparable part of Internet culture and vice versa. As long as there is an internet and as long as there is crap for people to obsess over, nerds will obsess over crap on the internet for as long as.

My brother frequents a website run by a guy who recently broke up with his girlfriend, and to deal with his loss said guy carefully reconstructs - to the very last detail - crucially unimportant WWF matches from the mid-80's using his childhood collection of wrestling action figures in stop-motion with a Digicam. I love you all too much to post the url, it's really quite disturbing.

As to my own online nerd proclivities, I'm a serious p2p junkie.
WinMX lets me track down obscure funk, breaks, soul and jazz cuts - breakbeats, under-released freestyles, diss tapes and instrumentals - amounting to 16.4MB of my harddrive. Stereo MC's snapped their Dub be Good to Me bassline from The Clash's Guns of Brixton. Whatever happened to Big Audio Dynamite? that was some avant garde styles.
- Dan

posted by Anonymous at 4:46 AM

Well after forgetting a few of these bloggers, here I am. All I can think of saying is roll on school. I'm getting too used to doing bugger all.
posted by Anonymous at 3:50 AM

Hey guys! How was everybody’s holiday? Hope you guys had fun! Ready to start uni tomorrow!?

Before back to uni, I am going to post up my 5th entry now. Yesterday I was at one of mine friend’s place and notice how the technology has been evolved over these years.
I want to talk about how the video technology has changed over these times. About 5,6 years ago, we still needed to use VCR to play the tape that we borrowed from the video shops. As computers have become more popular and affordable, people started to watch videos on computer in VCD format, which is more durable than tape. Then people designed DVD that we can watch it on computer or TV. DVD is durable, and big, it can store one movie in one DVD. Unlike VCD, which takes at least two CD’s to store one movie? DVD has much better quality than VCD format, which claims to have the theatre quality. It is the brief introduction of the evolution of the video technology, which I believe everybody is already very familiar with it.

DVD is awesome, but it is not everybody has a DVD player. Yesterday I was at my friend’s place, he showed me a new format that he said it is newly developed and become very popular recently. It’s in “rmvb” format. It’s very small, and the quality is just as good as DVD, which most of people can hardly see the differences between these two formats. One CD can store at least two movies, a 2 hours length of movie can compressed to about 293MB. After I have seen these videos in “rmvb” format, it’s awesome! The image is better than VCD format, and almost as good as DVD. And the sound quality is compressed in mp3 format instead of “wave” format, which is one of the reasons why it is so small.

I am just amazed how the video technology has been changed over these days. In old days, we had to use the big VCR and the tape, which would be broken after a while. Then after a few years, it revolved to VCD and DVD that is much durable and easier to carry around. Now we can even store two movies at one CD with near-DVD quality. I think nothing will really surprise me in the future, who knows how the video technology will change in the next few months.

P.S I forgot to type in the URL last time for my blog.
The website address is www.estudio.com

posted by Anonymous at 3:41 AM

Hurry, Lest Ye Irk Yon Patrons:
I give you:



Blogdor the Assessinator
*yes, I do know it's Domo Kun*

posted by Anonymous at 3:36 AM

There was a debate about the implications of hiring hackers to work as IT security consultants. They are liability risks for the company since they were hackers and may use the resources to do more harm than good. But on the other hand, they can use their skills to do a superior job protecting the systems. One side argued that the hackers can be reformed and that they are the most skilled. The other side argued that there are better ways to gain the skills than illegally breaking into networks. An InformationWeek survey reported that 74% of computer security professionals in the US wouldn't hire hackers as full-time employees.
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20030416S0003
Being a hacker is not a good idea for landing a job but that's not detrimental to hackers becuz getting a job is not their reason for what they do. THey dont want to learn their skills in a company training session becuz that would be going against what they believe in. They are after all, rebellling against authority and trying to free information. THeir main goal is not to learn how to work for a company. It's hard for companies to determine which hackers are reformed and which are not. It could be said that a hacker is reformed once they begin working for a company since they had to give in to authority once they start working for the company. But on the other hand, they could just be working for the company to break into networks easier. I definitely think it would be hard for security professionals to make hiring decisions involving hackers.




posted by Anonymous at 2:16 AM

Hi all, this is the last day of our holiday and I am going to discuss the issues arround "the bias of NEW COMMUNICATION technology" on my 4th entry.
Recently, I read a book which is "Mass Communication theroy" by McQuail.(Call No.302.2301 M17). The author mentioned the existence of the imbalance of communication in new media form, especially the WWW. He suggested that the new communications still could not help bridge the gaps in social and economic development as the communicative reach and power of radio and television do. McQuail concluded as follows: "The way new communications technology has developed seems to favour specifically Western values and cultural forms including their individualism and personal freedom."
I also recon that the bias of the web as a medium has the characteristics of both newspaper and television news coverage as it has been a popular tool to deliver daily information because of the development of web technologies such as audio visual.
posted by Anonymous at 1:12 AM

Hey all, blog time again. - # 4 I think ??
This week I have been lacking any inspiration to write my blog and been too busy working at the Homeshow. While there however, the stand opposite was one of the Internet provider Slingshot. It amazed me the number of people they had in their stand that were signing up with them, or changing from their current provider to this one which is apparantly cheaper than most of the others. The diversity amoung internet providers is a good thing as their competition enables us to get access to the Internet for cheaper, and also these greater numbers of providers refine and develop more user friendly servers.

I was reading some of the other blogs and I got to thinking about the one talking about technology as a fashion accessory as opposed to a necessity. The number of people that are constantly upgrading their cell phones to newer and flasher ones when there old one worked perfectly fine and did exactly the same key functions of a phone – to call people (and these days to text). Cellphones have definitely got more attractive and easier to handle (size wise) since the old ‘brick’ phone, but how many of us really need a cellphone that we can access the internet from or take photo’s with ?? People just like to get the latest most popular “cool” phone to show off.
I totally agree that much of the new technology is a fashion accessory. While working at the Homeshow I checked out some other examples of new technology and thought about how many of them were a necessity for example the development of the wide and flat screen TV’s, computers that play DVD’s , automatic coffee machines – with the push of 2 buttons your coffee is made exactly to you liking, waiting not even as long as it takes for the kettle to boil. It struck me how many people were more interested in looking at these than carpets, tiles or fridges. We live in a society where people are drawn to gadgets and buttons to push and this was apparent more than ever at the Homeshow.

posted by Anonymous at 12:16 AM

Has anyone received a link to a 42below vodka flash animation this week? . It’s the visual accompaniment to the transcript I put up a few weeks ago for 42below (the piss-take on New Zealand by New Zealanders). Have a look if you haven't seen it - it's fantastic. What I appreciate it is the way that it hardly seems like an advertisement (in the typical sense) at all. When I received the link in an email, it came with the header "Hey guys, I'm not sure whether this is real or not but it's f*ng funny!" Genius right? The 42below guys are using all your friends to pass on the 'word' about 42below, without the forwarders really being sure they’re advertising. As a result of receiving it, I’m inspired to talk about this online 'word of mouth' phenomenon.

You only need to look at ‘the Blair Witch Project’ for proof that this is a cheap and great way to advertise. The film’s website only had a $15,000 budget, but somehow managed to attract 75million hits in the first week alone, and made at least $100million at the box office.
I’ve been checking out the word-of-mouth topic in this article. What I really liked was the use of the term e-fluentials, to describe people who have a strong influence on the opinions and actions of other Internet users. According to the article, these people comprise of approximately 8 percent (9 million) of today's 109 million users.
"We call them e-fluentials because they have exponential power on the Internet," said Christopher Komisarjevsky, president and CEO of Burson-Marsteller Worldwide, a company that did commissioned research on the topic.

To illustrate an example of an e-fluential, Komisarjevsky suggests taking a woman living in the 70s who recommends a shampoo to two of her friends. If each of her friends recommends to two people as well, and so on and so on, then the word spreads rapidly. BUT, if that woman were living today, AND she were an e-fluential, she would influence EIGHT people (maybe in a group email? On a Bulletin Board?), therefore causing her opinion to travel in multiples of EIGHT instead of two.
"Our data reveals a distinct, identifiable set of Internet citizens who act as online opinion leaders," said Dr. Leslie Gaines-Ross, chief knowledge & research officer at Burson-Marstellar. "These cyberworld town criers, whose voices are not measured in decibels but in megabytes, are able to express their opinions at extraordinarily high rates, using the Internet as their virtual soapbox."
Here’s the official site for the research- http://www.efluentials.com. It includes a quick quiz to identify whether you are an e-fluential (how exciting!).
I don’t doubt that there are people in this class who are ‘e-fluential’ – using this BLOG is afterall an e-fluential medium. On top of that, I’m sure we all forward informative junk to our friends, and maybe some of you even participate in … dare I say.. chat rooms?!
[By the way –adding to our ‘e-fluential’ status, our opinions on this BLOG are farther-reaching than I realized. Check it out – try going to google or whatever, and searching your name in quotations + blog. Presto, your recent posts are retrieved, you are famous!]

posted by Anonymous at 12:06 AM

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