Saturday, September 27, 2003

Well,we studied the new media&everyday life on last Wednesday's lecture.Today,i read one online article referring to our topic,so i would like to share these useful views with everybody^_^

Approaching media and communication technologies from the individual's point of view,our aim is to produce an in-depth description of the role of media and new technogies in the everyday life of different kinds of people.Everyday life is viewed as a context which defines how and for what purposes media and technologies are used.Different types of media and technology do not constitute an autonomous and isolated sphere in people's daily lives,but their meanings are always derived from concrete processes of action.

"Media technologies are integrated as part of the home and the context of home defines the process in which new media technologies establish or settle in people's everyday life".Sounds interesting,isn't it?^_^ When technology and new media
arrive in people's homes and settle there,these processes are interpreted in the frame of interpretation of the home.In other words,home is not only a physical place into which new technology is brought and where media technologies are used,it is also a place where they are interpreted through the framework of home.

posted by Anonymous at 7:33 PM

Hello all, recomend a great computer about cyberspace and our life--PRADVDA.Ru.That's about virtual intifada is conquring the world.Everyday life has found its place in the virtual world. The conflict between Palestine and Israel is not an exception in this respect: the real war found its continuation in cyberspace. Arab and Israeli hackers hack each other-s sites, there are tons of discrediting material on the net and so long and so forth. The virtual world is not sitting on its hands, it is developing very quickly. The affect on its audience is getting keener.

The BBC informed that Arab fans of computer games can imagine themselves a Palestinian young man during the first months of the intifada. It starts with the scene, when a Palestinian teenager named Ahmad throws stones in Israeli soldiers. The guy grows up, he becomes a real warrior against Zionists (Israelis), shooting people around and tearing the Israeli flag into pieces. Then he saves wounded Palestinians and at the end of the day he joins guerrillas in the south of Lebanon. The BBC mentioned that if Ahmad starts shooting civilians, then the game was over. The final victory over the enemy is not stipulated either.

A spokesmen for the company, which produced the game, said that the game was the continuation of the history: ?We have not found the way to settle the conflict down, so there is no final victory in the game either.¦

Israelis cannot boast of something like that, but time will show. But they understood it very quickly across the ocean that computer games could be a very good way for American lifestyle propaganda. The American army will soon produce two free games, which are going to be used for that purpose among young American people.

Pentagon-s new propaganda idea v the free series of America-s Army computer games was presented at the major world exhibition of electronics Electronic Entertainment Expo. The American army has been constantly working on its image since the time of the Vietnam war. They used to fund movies about the army - Soldier Jane, for example, but now Americans use the methods of the twenty-first century.

posted by Anonymous at 7:14 PM

Past week's lectures were great.An interesting passing mentionby Luke was cultural enclosure, and thats certainly whats happening online.Though there may lie arguments that new technologies esp so referring to the internet,that one has the world at his fingertips and that one will be opened to discovering about the many others outside of your realm.But the truth of it is..many online activities that a person indulges in center a great deal around the same if not more enclosed part of your being.Online communities, forums,mailing lists or groups revolve around a creation of like interests.People search out their own particular interests and divulge around things they are only looking out for.
One view i keep having of the internet esp, is the paradox of it being the 'world wide web' where the world converges and links....but with sooo much information being in it, sooo many sites on it and sooo many voices in it....is anybody listening at all?? Its been heralded as the space of voice for oppressed and unheard activists or the place for you to get yourselve 'heard'.....and i'm sure there's many of you who already have your personal homepages etc....but have you ever wondered are you really getting any more heard?
WHo Is really listening out there..?? Or is everyone just merely trying to speak out all at the same time...and i believe thats why thus far,in spite of the great early proponents of opinions of the internet being the tool that will emancipate mankind(as ambitious as it sounds)....the internet and the 'wired' world has yet to really bring big movements as envisioned by activisists and scholars. Though, on the flip of that argument is that, great changes has indeed happened but changes that is not somuch as coming From the internet but chnges that has come Out of it.Which is of course the way it has changed modern life and communications etc etc..
Thats just how i sometimes view the online world..
Another is the idea of multiple identities.Yes the online/virtual-ness allows individuals to create separate and different parts of themselves they would otherwise not be able to in real life. But if you're not doing that, i believe you can instead get an even more enhanced sense of your identity.I say this because, just take the example of having online/virtual chats or conversations.The limitedness of expression to only textual and maybe sometimes pictorial sense...you get a sense of trying to differentiate yourselve from other millions of 'text-ed people' you are 'conversing' with.And those who create personal homepages or any pages for that matter, there is no doubt a great sense of wanting or finding that special sense of 'yourself' to project.So you delve more into cultivating your Own identity/your OWn opinion or views. I don't know about the rest of you, but i unconsciously find that i a lot more indivualizing everything about my 'online' self.And i would say that, this is not a case of a multiple version of myself..but that i greatly accentuate my own sense of identity more than i would usually do.And this i think spills onto your 'real life'.
Well, this might all be fine...but it can raise the thought that are we getting too involved in our own selves rather than to the greater 'community' or others.So thus also extension to the cultural enclosure that can happen...that we all get lost from the 'bigger picture'.....?
posted by Anonymous at 6:54 PM

...i had a novel thouhgt about new media and technology....if another prick with a cell phone cuts me off in my car again, i will make that new media a part of his virtual arsehole
posted by Matt at 3:02 PM

____________

Friday, September 26, 2003

After I went to the lectrue on Thursday, I really wanna talk about HongKong Cinema and the New media have benn used in the films. The western countries always pay attention on the action film of HongKong, but actually there are many other kinds of good film in HongKong. In these two years the most successful kind of film was about the policemen and the gangsters in HongKong. There was a popular HongKong film shown in the period of the international film festerval in Auckland two months ago. It was about a vary realationship between policemen and gangsters. This film also been chosen by Hollywood, and some news said Blad Peter will act in it. There is one scene about one person use police system to select a samll area and then send message to all the cell phone in this area.
And their system also can count the using cell phone at one moment in a certain area, then discover which one might be used by the gansters. So in my opinion more powerful for the new media the human can be controlled more easier. Anyway HongKong cinema prefer the events which may happen in our everyday life, they used the new technologies which were already appeared. It can make sence by most people. But the most successful movies in Hollywood in these years are the science movies, they showed too many unreal things, although audiences could seen many exciting scenes, they could not get exactly what the film want to tell. I do not prefer this kind of films in personally.

And also I wanna point out the new media appeared in HongKong and other eastern countries were much more fast and various, that was not just because the new things got more function could be chosen, and also because the good looking about they prefer "new" things. That was the most important reason the technology companies pay most attention on renew their staff in the eastern market but not the western market. For example, the mobile phone companies always designed new mobile phones with new functions and looking for the eastern market and sale them in very cheap price, because the people their prefer to pay less money for a new staff and then when a newer staff appear they change again. So if they sale them too expersive the customers may not buy.
posted by Anonymous at 10:06 PM

Shut 'Em Down
The Public Intellectuals Forum kicked much ass.
Germaine Greer's lecture wasn't what I was expecting. While a portion of the lecture concerned revision of the 70's feminist movement, the most of the lecture was spent on post-colonial theory, Aboriginal material conditions and the Australian national psyche.
The universal relevance of hip-hop was again proven as I listened to Public Enemy before the lecture began.

I testified, my mama cried
Black people died when the Other man lied
- Chuck D of Public Enemy, Shut 'Em Down
posted by Anonymous at 8:58 PM

Well...I think it is my 7th entry now..anyway I want to say something about the lecture on Thursday..
I think it is great that we can have some well-known lecture from other country, which gives us a different perspective on the new media.. And we also saw some video clips from Hong Kong cinema..It must be very new to most of people, in our media, TV and film lectures, we haven't covered many Eastern flims. However, I think it will be great if we could explore more films in eastern cinema..under the different culture, we can see how the each culture approaches the new media..

Take mobile phone for example, in some eastern countries, mobile phone is more than a communication purpose. Furthermore, they tend to purchase a new mobile because of its look and other functions, e.g digital camera. ..
We can even see the conflict between old and new media in the Hong Kong action film..and it has a huge influence on Hollywood..
I think it is fun to see how the eastern and western treat the new media evolution so differently, and eventually how it emerges together.. and probably becomes another culture in the future..
posted by Anonymous at 7:49 PM

While debate and opinions continue to fly for Microsoft’s decision to close its chat room, I’ll like to raise a new issue that Luke introduced in his lecture on “New media & Everyday Life”. I find the notion of ‘Individualization’, and the resulting relationship between notions of ‘customization’ and marketing, enabled by a host of media technologies particularly fascinating, being primarily a Business student myself. A wealth of business and technology literature has mostly applauded the notion of ‘customization’, and how power seems to have been put back into the hands of consumers. We choose what we want to see, hear, and read; and not only that but when, and even to a large extent where.

Marketers of commercial technologies have embodied notions of ‘individualization’ into their advertising efforts, portraying the user who is ‘in control’ at every juncture. Examples include the Sony Vega commercial that Luke showed us; the ubiquitous Palm machines, etc. Digital media has also allowed marketers to map consumer preference by inserting ‘cookies’ to profile the consumer. (Palmer, 2003) All of a sudden, with the advent of such arguably ostensible empowering technologies, the consumer becomes truly the “king”, at the epitome of customization and living Ulrich Beck’s theory of “Individualization”, a process in which an increasing differentiation of possible ‘life-paths’ is combined with an expansion of the number of instances in which individuals have to make decisions. (Palmer, 2003)

However, Daniel Palmer, at the University of Melbourne, suggests that a paradox exists, which I find interesting. He argues that, “The paradox of user control, in fact, becomes that of the illusion of choice within which the user is offered up for a form of soft domination.” During Henry Ford’s period, where mass production was seen as the epitome of efficiency and when consumer choice was a novel fling, consumers/users mainly consumed what producers offered. Not much complex mapping went into the identification or profiling of the consumer. Today, customization, and more often, “mass” customization” has held many a marketer fixated and obsessed. Consumers think they now have the power in their hands because they can now make choices, where in fact they might actually not, in a sense that, arguably, it is the marketers who have steered them into this direction, creating the “illusion” of choice, for their very own reasons of more effective, targeted marketing (and hence, advertising), and ultimately profit-making motives.

In addition, I think the issue of ‘true’ customization is questionable for certain products. For example, in the fragrance industry, a participant called BCBG Max Azria, launched 4 fragrances simultaneously with different scents to suit different “personalities” of its users. The ad said “a fragrance collection as individual as you are – nature, star, metro, sexy – which bcbgirl are you today?” To an individual woman, suddenly, there’s a fragrance made for who she thinks she wants to be, or who she thinks she is. But as we all know, every individual is different, although we may exhibit similar characteristics. So a fragrance collection with 4 different scents seems to then suggest that the marketer is trying to ‘categorize’ us into just 4 different personalities, where in fact we may not quite be one of those 4 personalities, or we may be a mix of those 4. So instead of ‘tailored’ customization, we have something attuned to ‘mass’ customization, where at best, there is a choice we can make that most closely maps to our personality or taste, but thousands of other women could be making the same choices simultaneously, eliminating the “individualistic” fantasy that marketers aim to create.

On the other hand, it may be well be the case that regardless of whether the paradox does exist, consumers do benefit to a certain extent to such a relationship. When companies are more aware of our needs, our desires, and even go as far as attempt to meet our ‘unknown’ needs, we benefit in terms of the product choices that are available for our consumption, each to suit our lifestyle.

posted by Anonymous at 7:47 PM

Hi, guys! Terrible weather A:-(
Well, today I want to talk about New Media and the advanced wireless technology “ Bluetooth”
Nowadays, different kinds of new media occupy significant and various positions in our daily life. I think most of uni students have mobile phone. Mobile phone is very notable example to illustrate how new media influence our daily life, make our life hugely convenient. Moreover, mobile phone becomes a multi-functional medium, it isn’t a simple phone anyway, we can listen to the music, take photos, check e-mail and read the updated news (of course, it will charge you more money). Huge benefits, looks perfect:)So do computers and Internet. People are far away in distance but are so close by using new media.
“Bluetooth® technology is a cutting-edge open specification that enables short-range wireless connections between desktop and notebook computers, personal digital assistants, mobile phones, camera phones, printers, digital cameras, keyboards and even a computer mouse.” (Source: Apple website)
It is called “ unwire your life”, I am sure most of you guys use the USB connection to upload files to your computer such as your digital photos, or download the music file to your MP3 player or MD. Now you can connect your mobile phone, digital camera or whatever to your computer by using bluetooth technology so that you can send files or browse devices more simply and quickly.
Very convenient A:-)
The reasons why I choose this topic is to illustrate how new media influence our daily life. With the development of advanced technology, new media can interact each other more easily, and bring huge benefits to our everyday life.
The pictures are from Apple website, available at bluetooth

posted by Anonymous at 6:23 PM

I just read an article about how a cat which had had an ID microchip put under his skin was recently returned to his owner. This cat had been missing for ten years. The chip had been installed around 1990.
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/TECH/ptech/09/26/cat.returns.ap/index.html
This was interesting because it deals with computer becoming a part of an animal. There's not really a good chance for an animal that's been missing for that long to be returned to its owner. Of course, animals have had chips put in them for tracking purposes and scientific purposes for a long time now. Animals have been associated with the wild and nature so a paradox exists when they have a chip installed. Especially the animals that are being studied and then are released back in the wild. They are in nature which is their habitat but they also have this chip installed in them by humans. They are a part of technology while being out in nature.
posted by Anonymous at 5:26 PM

Apple iPod

Apple computer always is with great designed and grips people’s eyeballs. For example, Apple IPod has come into its third generation, it is not only beautiful but also it is super-slim. The new iPod gives you a maximum 40GB hard drive and you can save nearly 12,000 songs at the same time. There are many advantages of iPod. Apple iPod is easy to use and offers exceptional battery life. It has a very readable, well-lit display, excellent shock protection with its 32MB of RAM, speedy transfers with its 1394 Firewire interface, good sound on both the high end and the low end, and, maybe best of all, it comes in a small and very sexy package. It also has some funny games like “bricks” and “solitaire”. Its battery life can as long as 14 hours-play.

Apple iPod, music and computer:
The music and the data can be synchronized effortlessly and flies between the iPod and the computer can be transferred without having to tweak setting each time. In fact, the iPod’s Auto-Sync feature more than lives up to Apple’s reputation for plug and play ease of use. Auto-Sync makes transferring and updating music from the computer to the iPod fast and simple. Just plug the iPod into the Mac or Windows PC, and the music syncs automatically. For example, to add new music or rearrange the playlists in iTunes or MUSICMATCH Jukebox, everything gets automatically updated on the iPod the next time to the user connects it to the computer. The user can also sync the iPod with contacts, calendars and to-do lists (Mac-only).
posted by Anonymous at 4:29 PM

After the great lecture on Thursday and reading Arvid’s post, it also brought back memories of my first pirated film experience of The Lion King. One minute was all it took to discover that my father had been ripped off. I don’t know what annoyed me more..the fact that I heard speaking, people munching on candy corn or the bad footage? -yes it was an illegal copy, taken from some remote movie theatre, probably in the Philippines or somewhere in east Asia. It was so bad, that I actually thought it
was going to wreck my VCR, so I turned it off. But along with the bad, as Arvid expressed, there are always the good experiences. I recently got Ferris Bueller’s day off on vcd from HMV. It cost me $10 and although the picture is in wide screen, it’s perfectly fine for the occasional watch. For me, cheaper formats are so convenient, as to spend $40-50 on a dvd is a nuisance as they get scratched or not really worth it if I’m only wanting to watch them once or twice. I think the most I have ever spent on a dvd is $55 and that was for the Tribe video anthology, because you can’t get it on vcd or video. So in some cases you have to keep up with technology to get the things you
want or for the mere matter of better quality. Actually though, overall I think, I still am a fan of old media or as professor Morris put it, these “dying technologies”. Even though I have a cd burner, I still mostly record onto tape and I still occasionally write things on paper before entering them later into my computer. But as she also explained later in the lecture, media doesn’t die, but fades, is manipulated etc. -and I still use these updated technologies but under different circumstances. So I guess, no matter what technology you use, old or new skool, it mostly all has the same underlying purpose. Although obviously some technology is created, or updated to fulfill or cater for new technological needs eg. when dl music, you need a cd burner (new technology) or mp3 player (nt) if you are wanting to play the music ‘outside’ the computer.

Anyways time for work. Have a good weekend guys.
posted by Anonymous at 1:34 AM

Music
Music has become very powerful in society today. With more and more artists emerging everyday sometimes it is very hard to keep up. But while we enjoy listening to their music on radios not everybody is willing to pay $35 for 12 songs on a CD. That’s why people turn to computers to burn their songs that they like at a fraction of the cost. This is where a major problem emerges. By burning songs the record companies are loosing out on record sales, and profit that’s why there has been such a large problem associated with it. If someone asked me would I burn a CD I would tell them depending on a artist, if it were Justin Timberlake or Britney I would say yes because they are very well establishes and known. If it was a new artist and I like their music I would buy it because you’re helping them do what they want to do

posted by Anonymous at 12:37 AM

____________

Thursday, September 25, 2003

Well, today I want to talk about the web designing group on the Internet.
It is very easy to find that most products (the companies) have their own websites, and this kind of websites provide customers with a place to know more information about products, meanwhile it can also give the company one more medium, one more chance to sell their products or advertise their products. Sounds good, because they do not need to pay the expensive advertising fees by running a website on the internet.
Therefore, most companies are seeking specialists to design the website for them. Because of this demand, the web designing group is very popular nowadays on the internet. Here are some websites
dreamsurgery.com
baung.com
code77.com
urbansub.com
If you look at web designing company’s websites, most of them are very modern and very cool so that they can show their professional designing skills, ideas in order to attract the clients. Also, most people who want to learn and improve their skill of making flash are very interested in this kind of websites. I like flash, although I have no idea how to make it:)
Have a good weekend:-)

posted by Anonymous at 10:31 PM

Right, I want to start by telling you a story of mine. About ten years ago, I casted about getting a PC on my desk for 'playing the games'. I said to my parents:'can you buy me a PC so that I can use it to learn English, do homework ect.' Finally, I got one. However, they never see me studying with it...
This brings up an issue of different people encounter new media technology in various different ways for very differents reasons. It seems to be widely ed by many researchers. There is a research runs by the University of Tampere(Dept of Sociology and Social Psychology, Journalism and Mass Communication) named as "Media and everyday life".(Refer to http://www.uta.fi/laitokset/sosio/project/media/media_and_everyday_life.htm) The project overview pionted out 'People in different positions and different situations use media and technology in different ways, and the same technical device or communication service may have different meanings to various people.' Just like ten years ago, I used the PC for the purpose of entertainment, and now, I use it to assist my study i.e. posting the blog. As technology is advancing at breakneck pace, 'new media' has become more diverse rather than localising on like PC only. It is important to think about where exactly the technology is heading as the research project highlighted.
posted by Anonymous at 7:11 PM

OKay, so yesterdays lecture was awesome! I am a huge fan of cinema, and have a bit of a soft spot for action movies. It was great to see that someone can see action movies for what they are: aesthetic peices of pure excapism at its best. What the gues lecturer said really hit home to me, that action movies do serve a purpose and the context to which they should be viewed is different to that of cinematic masterpieces, or epic dramas etc... It was also interesting that she mentioned that film makers and producers often dont have the foresight to see what effect their movies might have beyond the cinema screen and video. Luke actually raised a pretty good question about VCD and DVD format and the use of a pause button etc.. When I was at boarding school (*sarcasm*yeah, lucky me*sarcasm*) one of the ways in which we pased time was by watching pirated VCDs from China. One of my mates lived there, and whenever the holidays finished he came back to school with about 40 or 50 burnt VCD movies, often ones that had yet to be released in our country. There is definately something enjoyable about watching a sketchy copy of a copy of a pirated film with its pixilation and English subtitles, on a laptop screen hooked up to a stereo in a darkened room. It is hard to explain but there is a definate sense of enjoyment experienced viewing a movie in this way, rather than by going for the full cinema expereince. Maybe its because your seeing the movie first, before anyone else in the country- not only that your seeing it for free, ripping off the distributors- who knows.

Anyway, I just wanted to post my opinion on that.... action movies are fucking great.
posted by Anonymous at 5:38 PM

Well, i'm gonna talk something about pornography. Like some people said, 'human beings existing, condom industry existing.' All right, sex industry as well. Internet communication expanded the border of the industry. Pornography on internet...ye...nice! Never pay $15 or $20 to buy a magazine, just click, everything's in front of your eyes. also, updating frequently.

So easy to access...problems come out, children are exposed in such an environment. Like Nur Azkiya quoted in his post, 16 percent of visitors to adult-oriented sites in February 2002 were under the age of 18. Then people are looking for some technologies to protect children from this. Interesting...people invented internet, made it work better and better, involue all kinds of industries and expanded the border of different industries, even made these industries interact with each other, which couldn't happen in the past. Technologies made imaginations and magic come true. Then, gradually, people find the new technologies are not so good as they expected. The new technologies are doing something bad, destroying our regulations and culture. So another technology are invented to prevent. Well, no one think it's too late, even there is already 16 percent of visitors under the age of 18, children. Just like for economic benefits, our development hardly damaged environment, now we began to look for a way to treat green house, pollution, population. Unfortunately, we have to make an excuse, that is the cost of the development..ha..

posted by Anonymous at 2:38 AM

So I was reading the paper today, getting my fill of the “essence” within turning the pages, getting the print on my hands and amazingly somehow my face as well, when I noticed this article. Someone in the blog already beat me too it, but I am gonna draw attention to Microsoft’s future attempt to shut down their supported chat rooms anyways. If you didn’t get your fill of goose bumps from Wednesday’s sprinkling of online pedophilia, this article has a few more horror stories for you. Personally, I find issues such as child pornography on the net, the easy access to the plethora of anarchist’s cookbooks that school children are increasingly appealing to, as well as these chat rooms which enable networking for child solicitation as instances which emphasize how this theme of “power to the people” may have bestowed us too much liberty and authority (or maybe just too universally?). This alludes to what some theorists call the Frankenstein factor where we create technologies with all the best intentions only to find that they are not only more powerful than the creator but that also, as they meet our planned desires, they can exceed these desires and be transformed for ill means as on the flip side. Though wonderful that there exists a forum with such freedom, when it comes to abusing children in the respects previously noted, my enthusiasm for empowerment starts to falter. For these reasons, I am happy to see someone attempting the mount the allusive web of the Internet and simply shut down what is universally considered (I hope) inappropriate. I know this gets into issues of free speech and expression, but can we not draw the line here? As the web is seemingly impossible to mediate, I think some standards, though not enforceable, are a good starting point.
On a different note, but still relating to the article, I would like to discuss the manner in which the author presents the relevant information as she is presented with addressing the mass public and their digital divide. This article is mainstream news meant for the people in the country without computers let alone broadband, those who have secretary’s do their computing work, and those who just never quite caught the train, all the while, catering also to those that are in the know thus approaching the digital divide. Then, As Prof. Meaghan Morris said in her lecture today, it is interesting to see how an older technology will interact with newer technology and vice versa. This article illustrates this point as the newspaper attempts to make an issue that is relevant to the Internet, communicable to the masses, which as we know, aren’t entirely in the Internet age. She is faced with this conflict while still carrying the task of providing the relevant information to those who are active Internet participants. The newspaper is in a position to acknowledge it’s status as a medium and technology and then evaluate how it will address issues of the newer technology to the haves and the have-nots and communicate to them both in the same blurb. Quite a paradox hum? ( as I scratch my chin) The author has a difficult time with this I think, but I will let you all decide. It seems to me as if she is updating tech heads while introducing the issue to those on the other side of the divide. This paradox leaves the author with two presentations of information, one, a comically simple introduction as it contains phrases like: “A chatroom is a website for instant online conversation between a number of people,” and one that is relevant to people like you reading this, and me on the flipside. Whatever, here is the article… off to read The Da Vinci Code, has anyone here read this book? It’s a killer for the procrastinator.

*NZ Herald*
posted by Anonymous at 2:35 AM

hi everyone......~~~

you guys are at home now???? you guys like your house?????
is that house cozy??????? good????
^^
i just wanna introduce one of space model...

there are many kinds of space like we learned on wed's lecture, chat room, inside of computer space.... but i 'll show u another space which calls cyber space with 3D apartment design.

here's....


it can be one of model of everyday life in cyber space.
the features of daily existence is disembodied and exhilarating, new worlds , new frontiers, new identities, real sorld. justapose the everyday and ordinary with the revolutionary and unsetting new media are embedded in every life.

it's one of expressing for the culture and media and space through which people make sense of the cozy world...

posted by Anonymous at 2:25 AM

____________

Wednesday, September 24, 2003

Ok, you may have heard that you learn something new every day. Well this is what I learnt yesterday, in my 1960s American History class, as it happens...

Do you know what the majority ethnic group in America is??

Apparently it is German-Americans.

That's all, just thought it was interesting.
posted by Anonymous at 4:43 PM

...Luke...yes, i too am often incapactiated with laziness, and the extent of my dinner preperation is to disconnect the internet and dial up some delivery service. However, i have found that one cannot exist on a diet of pizza hut and the greasy as fuck KFC, so i have had to source some alternatives. I now have a sizable number of flyers from small resturaunts in my area that deliver. Most notable of which are the indian and thai deliveries because they offer vegetables prominantly on thier menus, which means that i can actually exist on delivery alone...sweet!, though i have yet to find a place that will deliver kebabs.

...Ashley...this disparity of time between the real and the virtual you speak of rouses in my mind a form of double conciousness. This double conciousness exists between your real world self, your default and comfortable conciousness...and your virtual, or projected conciousness, that is inherently distrustful of any given medium to translate your real self acturately. Thus, any disparity of time between these two is generated by the ability of your real world conciousness to acknowledge and accept your virtual conciousness and the comfort it experiences within any virtual environ. The more comfortable one feels within a medium (say the class blog) then the more accepting you will be of the passage of time within that medium, and likewise, the more accepting you are of the disjointed nature (when compared to the real world) of the flow of ideas and concepts expressed by others.

...dial up food for thought...
posted by Matt at 4:17 PM

Someone just asked me exactly which edition of Wired did that quotation in one of the essay questions come from? Valid question, although - wonders of new technology - typing some distinctive part of it (complete with quote marks) into Google (e.g. "great wired babble" or "pissing into the digital wind") would take you straight to the article and give you some relevant other stuff. (This is the simplest and most effective plagiarism detection technique used by lecturers and tutors, by the way!)

Anyroad, the article is at: http://www.wired.com/wired/5.04/netizen.html

There is more on it at: http://hotwired.wired.com/special/citizen/

Remember, though, that this will give you an idea of the context (e.g. US, mid-90s politics, the Wired readership etc.) which is good, but you shouldn't get too bogged down in that context because the question asks you to comment on the relevance of those questions beyond that specific context.

In response to Alamein's post, I would rate PH pizzas as mediocre, rather than terrible. But they deliver and given that I'm too lazy to go and fetch the darned thing myself, can anyone suggest a better alternative? In the event of wanting to combine pizza consumption with moderate limb movement, I can heartily recommend Blitza Pizza in Birkenhead if you're ever in that vicinity.
posted by Technoculture and New Media at 3:56 PM

ohhh yes, on a side note, just do like to pipe on in and join the grouses abt automated voice call machines..
i experienced the worst of those too when i called in a bank for information.i spent sucha lenghty time going thru' the damn many number sequences i got dizzy..the worst of it all, was only to get cut off in midst of just getting there..the thought to want to go thru' all thtat suffering again...totally puked me out!
whoever thought them number sequences thru anyways...?
add to that, once i also called the airport ticket counter or something or other..Singapore's Changi airport btw, and here was a combination of number/button press calls and a voice recognition type of thing.Whereby, u are asked to speak outloud to the phone the name of the place/airline u are inquiring info on, and the machine will process that and connect relevant information thru'. All fine...but imagine this, what happened was, being the multi-tasking female i am, i was at the same time conversing to my parents who were pesking me in the background.And so , if u can guessed, what happened was that i ended up speaking extra gibberish into the voice recorder and got an error..."sorry your last entry was not accepted.."!
and what ensued was only an even longer and exasperating time spent, and i ended up pressing the button to get real 'customer service officer' help to really speak to..!
so i called in..went thru so many number and voice automation machines-supposed to make it convenient and brainless....only to end up speaking to a human after all...ahahaaa
ahh well..so much for my grouses...
posted by Anonymous at 4:26 AM

Well well...alas the rise of the topic of pornography...not that i've been waiting around for it...haahaa
But its one of them hot issues that comes with the internet.
And indeed..the internet pornography industry is the one only continued successful form of e-commerce online.And what more the adult online entertainment industry, generates about $1 billion a year in revenue from paid customers.But what is disturbing is it is found that 16 percent of visitors to adult-oriented sites in February 2002 were under the age of 18, according to Nielsen/Net Ratings.And it is not just this sites thats out there, its the other non commercial areas such as p2p and whats constantly in great worry, web chatrooms.
And because of this constant worry and danger to children, there exists monitoring tools and filter technologies present to act as a way to 'protect'. But they are not fool proof or even serves well.Because, for example, monitoring technologies dont even exactly stop access, but rather like the name suggests merely allows parents to track usage.
There's then "Age verification technologies (AVTs) that differentiates between adults and children in an online environment. For example, Web sites can request a valid credit card number before granting users access to the site.
However, they are likely to become less effective as credit-card-like payments become more popular among children."
Though Why parents would allow credit cards to become popular among children totally escapes me .
The argument can thread on for ages..and like the recent news, the closing down of chatrooms is just not going to count much as a way to tackle the problem. Cause there's soo many other sources and chatrooms out there..as 'noble' as it is that microsoft is tryg to send off tt message, but what so are we just gonna be shutting down everyone of them now?
its just that,the thing is what has happened with the internet is tt technology seem to be forerunning us ahead.things have and is still proliferating soo fast in the technological realm that the 'human' or ethical realms gets left behind to catch up. things get 'latched onto' the internet vehicle like pronography and phedophiles etc and things just spin out. And the rest of us are just left trying to cope and fight it.
there is soo much gap lacking in the social and educational elemetns and awareness surrounding the internet and its a gap thats just becoming a chasm really.
and in terms of policies and regulations, its another great problematic issue.there was an attempt i think in US,1996 which is the Communications Decency Act (CDA), which made it illegal to put adult content on the Internet where kids could find it. but the Supreme Court declared the act unconstitutional as it infringe on the rights of adults to access such material.
in other thoughts, another way i believe is through having the ISPs take part of this responsibility though i do not know how far this can actually or have been taken.

well..i really don't know just how coherent i am right now..
just spilling down a few thoughts.
hope it works towards blog credits though... :>

posted by Anonymous at 4:07 AM

Firstly, id like to take this opportunity to thank those who corrected the MASSIVE mistake I made in my last blog. Who could be so stupid to get the name of the inventor of traffic signals wrong- sheesh. Moving right a long, as we do in these blogs, Nick Reminks most recent blog was a great read for me this evening. haha.Thanks nick. After reading Alamein's very lengthy blog about todays lecture, i can agree with her on several points. Especially preference to talk to a person rather than a machine. I find this most important when ringing IRD about something..... Has anyone ever rung up the IRD and actually get lost in their "For blah blah blah press 3" and " If you want to return to blah blah blah press 6". By the time you have pressed enough digits to ring a cell phone number in Russia you are in the Business tax section for non-witholding tax items slash end of financial year figures radiradiraaaaa. And all you want to do is request a summary of earnings.

With regards to Alamein's mention of finding out whats on at the movies, (eg at hoyts)- phoning their information line is a big mistake. why not visit their website instead, that way you can see all the movies, all their corresponding times, and all their cinema locations. you can also sign up to the site whereby they send you an email every week with the movie list and a link to the session times. (if youre a avid movie watcher that is)

Going way back to one of the much earlier lectures in the course- i saw a movie the other day and it reminded me how much EASIER computers are in comparison to typewriters. The movie is called the Secretary and theres this lawyer who delights in telling his secretary off for being bad/naughty/what have you. anyways, this lawyer doesnt want computers in his office, he only supplies his secretary with a typewriter and everytime she makes a typo he makes her type the whole page out over again. and again. and again. The whole way through that part of the movie i was thinking Oh my God why doesnt he just get her a computer. But that was essential to the plot line......
i guess that story sounded way more exciting in my head, now that ive typed it out it really has no validity or point to this discussion!

anyways ive spent the whole night finishing my marketing assignment on Sony, I feel its time for me to sleep- my brain is clogged with new technology.

xxx
posted by Anonymous at 3:47 AM

Firstly, Nick - dont worry, there are plenty of other chatrooms for sad old men that will get popular after microsoft closes down. And if that dont work, ring 09-5556969 for Auckland Masonic Lodge where you`ll find likeminded people for companionship. Keep your head up.
So I was walking to Uni to meet some friends in the student commons building. I text them to ask which level they were on. With the reply I knew to which floor I was going to go to. Thus using the 'mediated world' was sort of able to know what I was gonna do in the 'real world'. So at times you may use to your advantage and have control of the 2 different times. (which is only if you think there is 2 diff times).
More on texting: a new language has been created in a way with all the abreviations used. Also with pxting, though I have not done this yet, a sub language is created. With text you are able to have time to think up your reply, or no reply.

posted by Anonymous at 3:43 AM

Anyone catch the news tonight? i did. saw something pertinant to the lecture today. unfortunately from october 14th microsoft will be closing their chatrooms in the interest of children safety. i find this unfair and disapointing. where else are older men meant to find the love of a young boy or girl if not on the internet? god knows we have enough constraits put upon us in society when trying to meet like minded individuals, even if they are half, a third, or if your lucky, a quarter of your age. i guess its all just technical evolution and like the greek days of old, the bath houses of the naughties must close. i feel sexual deviants are a huge market and maybe we need to stop judging and look at it from their point of view. perhaps start working on technology like the "virtual rest-stop" or "big public-toilet brother". a light hearted approach of some kind any way. after all, love makes the world go round, and who's in more need of love then sad old men?
posted by Anonymous at 1:14 AM

____________

Tuesday, September 23, 2003

Today i found it very interesting how Luke discussed how nowadays companies use the computer generated voice message to communicate with people, and how he used the 'pizza hutt' example. The reasons he pointed out for why this now occurs are valid, but the reason i thought they might decide to use this method is so that the worker could be used more efficiently in another department say for example they could make the pizza's instead of taking orders over the phone. Not just because they sound rude over the phone because their overworked and underpaid.

Personally for me i wouldn't know about the new technology that 'pizza hutt' uses when you place your orders over the phone as i feel their pizzas suck...ever since i had pizza from 'la porchetta', which is situated behind Denny's on Hobson street in town. Basically the issue is technology versus personal contact with another person. For me i prefer to talk to a person than a machine!!! It seems so impersonal when i talk to a machine, they say machines are less hassle and more efficient and less likely to make a mistake, but to me machines still break down or something technical within the program could still stuff up...so either way there are pros and cons to everything. For example, who hates answer machines or blimming voice mails? ME, why because it cost me a 0.99cents as soon as the voice message was activated when i call someone on their mobile. I hate it especially when i need to get hold of that person and its urgent..plus just because they got the message doesn't mean they'll reply. These gadgets may mean that the person will receive your message eventually, but waiting for a reply may take forever.
Another thing for me with devices that are meant to save you time, like shopping online with foodtown or buying your tickets online. To me it probably would save me time...but the whole thing about putting my credit card details online totally scare me. I'm so afraid that hackers will use it and spend my money. It's a safety issue for me and half the time machines just hack me off. You can't ask them questions, all they give me is options about which number to press and then i hope i'm going to the right department that can help me.
Another way i've used the phone to find out information is when i rang village cinemas to find out session times...the bore is how i have to listen to every movie time until i get to the one i actually want to view and you can go thru ten before you get to the one you wanted, since they're read out in alphabetical order. Even with the whole technology craze of trying to make life easier, less stress free so that you have more time to do the things you want doesn't make me feel more willing to talk to a machine than an actual person. I would rather call back an airline and say my agents name is Richard Smith and he did the following than be told please enter your access number, then hash....now can you please enter your pin...now please choose from the following five options...by the time i get to Richard i would feel as if it hasn't saved me time, but caused me to have to keep records of all these letters and digits just to get to the final destination. Our world is getting more like this everyday...but going back to the example about 'pizza hutt' and 'la porchetta' i like la porchetta not because their pizza's are cheaper but because they taste better, i don't get served by a machine but a person and because i can go and sit in the restaurant with friends in an intimate but homely environment. La porchetta is situated in a isolated spot that almost seems non-existent because of all the large buildings surrounding it. To me i value personal contact over machine generated services. How will we learn to communicate with people in person or on an emotional basis if technology takes over...if that did happen i think it would be very sad.
Technology is not bad...but where do we draw the line is a question i ask myself on a daily basis.. DO YOU????
posted by Anonymous at 9:17 PM

posted by Anonymous at 9:16 PM

I know that the contentious issue of P2P file sharing has been yabbered about non-stop for ages, but I want to say something about it.

Did anyone see Lars Ulrich (drummer from Metallica) on the news recently? At least I think it was the news, it might have been in a 203 lecture. Anyway, he was whining about how people keep stealing his bands music. You all know the story, so I won't bother repeating it. However, what he did say that caught my attention was this: "If a car mechanic downloads my music for free, then I expect him to fix my car for free."
This seems reasonable enough, except when you look at the view over his shoulder as he makes the above comment. He is seated in a magnificent courtyard high above a pristine Mediteranean vista. He is also wearing expensive sunglasses, designer labels etc. Is this where Ulrich lives, or is he just on holiday?

Now I know that he has a right NOT to have his music stolen but to compare himself to a car mechanic is both condescending and idiotic. If they are both just doing their job why is one working 9-5 every day and the other sunning himself in exotic locations? Why does the mechanic, who probably works as hard as Ulrich does, only make $50,000 per year?
Even with P2P, the big name stars are still going to be making big bucks - I reckon they should just be happy that they are making a living doing what they love. He should donate some of his spare cash to some sort of Mechanic Charity. Think of all the artists who have died in poverty.

Got to go,
meeting a gentleman that I met in a chat room, sounds really nice.




posted by Anonymous at 9:12 PM

The exchange between Ashley and Ryan on 'time zones' raises some really interesting issues, I think. I may really have 'missed the moment' by trying to give a topic a third life, but I'll put my two cents in anyway. One of the problems of the blog is that is doesn't 'thread' discussion topics together like a 'traditional' online forum. This makes it more likely that ideas will tail off into the ether. At the same time, I think it makes more space for people to define the agenda for themselves and, by extension, to speak on their own terms.

Maybe in the digital divide that Ashley suggests, it's those who have not (yet) been totally subsumed by 'hypertime' that retain the upper hand??
posted by Technoculture and New Media at 9:10 PM

Better get busy on the blogging. I will blame my un-involvment on the matter of not yet recieving my course reader. Apparently they had one but sold it to one of you other lucky technoculturefiles.

Interesting that in the age where I am increasingly imeresed in cyberspace daily, that I seem to rely more and more on ye old mail service to bring me stuff. Thanks to amazon and ebay I arrive home most days with intrepedation about the arrival of a new record or book from the states.

This is the first lot of blogs I have read and am quite impressed. The porn blog is good, if very PC for the naughties (more detail man, at least to the Sex & the City standard. Although their are probably rules about content on this blog).

Has anyone seen that film about Motown at Rialto? It might be good for discussion about Afrofuturism and an example of black people exploiting other black people. From what i've learned about Motown, the studio trained their acts soldiers and sent them out to battle in the white mainstream or something metaphorical like that. This is evident in the hip-hop acts of today too but is a heavily guarded practice which only academics ever analyse. So is the Negro way of business, as guerrillas or something us Europeans have enforced upon others?
Hope this stimulates some thought or rection, bye.
posted by We're Not Floating at 6:18 PM

Afro-futurism is interesting topic, it shows black people cultures via music, also visiting the past and talk about slavery and other trauma after being taken from their motherland and shipped to somewhere else. Different interpretations used according to music genres and text. The reggae legend Bob Marley had many songs talk about the freedom and slavery, one of them had the line say something about brought from the mainland to heart of the Caribbean, other genre like hip hop, techno and gangsta rap are as well give the history and mainly expressing how they the feel about the slave trade. Click the term AFRO-FUTURISM for more information.
posted by Anonymous at 1:42 PM

____________

Monday, September 22, 2003

While others struggle to juggle tricky metaphors,
I explore more, to expose the core
- Guru of Gangstarr, Moment of Truth
I'm also a walking Oxford Dictionary, Film encyclopedia, and increasingly a hip-hop thesaurus. But mainly a bullshit almanac.
No one told you about Benjamin Banneker,
A brilliant black man that invented the almanac
- Boogie Down Productions, You Must Learn

btw: Ashley, those colored fonts look garish and unseemly.
and unseemingly garish.
posted by Anonymous at 10:31 PM

Hey again bloggsters,

For number 6 blog I though I would jump ahead of lectures to Cyborgs. In the late 90's hybrids were often talked about in sci-fi stories whether it be with those pesky aliens for the scully and mulder fans or with machines - stark trekkies and the evil borgs. Either way they are half human and half not. The idea of this seems foreign but also seems like if it becomes a reality it will be years in the future. But reading an interview with Anne Balsamo called "Technologies of the gendered body:Reading Cyborg Women" she makes the valid point that for years we have been replacing parts of our body with machines. Pacemakers, artificial tendons and of course the highly publizied Jarvik 7 artificial heart. So are we already turning ourselves into part machine, a hybrid, are we well on our way to becoming cyborgs?

I think with the exploration of sci fi fiction in the last decade or more we see an emergence of machines who pose as humans (terminator) or who want to be human (number 5 from short circuit), and then there is the cyborg who is half machine and half human. all are received with fear, fear of the unknown, but I think with the cyborg it invades our humanity, crosses an invisible line that suggests to us that we will all be run by machines one day. Our bodies and our minds will no longer be our own.

I think what is interesting is that back in the 70's the cyborg was looked on more favourably. Do we remember the six million dollar man also known as the bionic man.



He was half man and half machine - invincible and a superhero. He always saved the day. So what did happen to our views on this? What made us turn on the cyborg?
posted by Anonymous at 10:30 PM

Much like Matt, Im still very much in holiday mode! And would actually like to remain that way, but as university would have it there are assignments which need attending to! BUGGER! Is anyone else as amazed as i am at our very own walking, talking hip hop dictionary The Big Taipua? Damn hes good! Hope to see everyone at the up and coming Hip Hop Summit as well as at J5 and Roots concerts!

This week im a little preoccupied by things other than my university so this blog is unfortunately gonna be brief (big sigh by everybody!) This week i thought id talk i little about a form of interactivity on the web, VIRTUAL SPORT. As a massive jock, i thought id give it a go. One of my mates has sent me an invitation to the Virtual World Cup XV (Rugby for all those not on planet earth!). Although the Warriors are at the top of my priorty list of sports watching at da mo (Stacey J is da MAN!) Virtual sports or Fantasy sport as it is most commonly named by the Yanks, is where the user signs at the beginning of a season or comp. and selects players from various teams which will perform admirably during the comp. Users gain points each week according to their players achievements. There are rankings so you can see how well you are doing against everybody as well as certain people such as famous sports people. As with sports betting it allows spectators to get more involved and often a bit more excited and passionate about results! To join in da fun visit World Cup XV

While on my travels across the ditch in my holidays i was talking to a taxi driver about all the signs with a large E on them while travelling down the motorways. He preceeded to explain to me that you had to pay to use the motorways. Horrified by this thought i asked how they enforced it (being a Kiwi there must have been a way round it!!!!). You buy monthly passes which are microchips placed on your windscreen and at every on and off ramps as well as overpasses they were electronically scanned and matched against the records of purchase. If you dont have this pass os it wasnt valid video cameras recorded your number plate and automatically bills you $100. Ouch! As with all of Melbourne it is obviously user pays there (except if you are a Kiwi play dumb and jump a few tram and train turnstiles!!!!)

Oops, that wasnt that short! Sorry people!
"I couldnt find any Hip Hop quotes that The Big Taipua Dictionary hasnt already used!!" The Grimmer.




posted by Anonymous at 8:32 PM

Dear Ashley,
I think you are quite correct in your thoughts regarding two time zones one real world and one mediated and while to a certain extent I do agree that the discrepancy between the two has been a source of some annoyance for all of us, especially those with friends who feel texting over the course of a day is an appropriate forum for discussing the previous weekend, the prevalence of texting as a legitimate form of communication would suggest that the burden isn't as unwieldy as you might think. Hasn't the goal of mediated communication has for a long time been to approach "real time" ie, at conversational speed? Texting has to a certain extent achieved this.
One fact remains however, real conversation is fluid and dynamic, it is not linear and thus allows an infinite number of possible branches and this is one of the true pleasures of stimulating "real world" conversation. Texting to a large extent IS linear and thus allows a much more limited number of statements and responses. This is the point though. Texting was made for asking 'WHT U DOING 2NITE?' not 'CN U XPLAIN THE CHANDRASEKAR LIMIT IN RLATN 2 EINSTIENS THRY OF RLATIVITY?'. Think of texting as Conversation-Lite, just 5 calories but not quite the real thing.
The thing is though beacause of the informality of texting you can choose when and what to say, no one really expects you to reply straight away. People just like to text. The medium really IS the message in this case.
As for the blog, when you find the point you wanted to make is no longer the topique du jour, it is because (ironically for the point of this entry) the conversation has approached (sort of) 'real world' fluidity and dynamism albeit in a state of what I think of as conversational Bullet -time. You should say your piece anyway - you get marks for it remember?!
posted by Anonymous at 8:14 PM

Well, ive had about a 3 week break from any meaningful blogs, and as much as i would like that trend to continue...i cant, so here is the latest installment of the now becoming very tedious E-Nation thingy...Zzzzzzzz.

As a side note to Belle Barber...Who is that Daniel Taipua?... well i let you in on a secret, he is a departmental plant, that is there to raise the feeling of inadequecy within the class when it comes to all things hip hop. Fortunately, this class isnt just about all things hip hop and the plight of the african diaspora across the galaxy far far away.

"Everybodys bad, and everybody's tough,
but how many people are intelligent enough,
to open up thier eyes, and see through the lies,
discipline themselves, yourself, to stay alive,
not many,
thats why the universe sent me today
with this stage, with this disent."
- KRS one

Bad ass
Matt
posted by Matt at 7:34 PM

Hey People

What a week it has been... I was sitting at both lectures last week thinking I don't really get the full picture on the topic of diaspora. So along with my assignment I started researching about it. My technique to topics that I don't fully understand, is by looking and researching for basic information on it. Once I understand it, then I go further on to read and maybe research more academic books such as journals etc.

I'm not sure if I'm the only one who does not fully get the grip on the whole idea of diaspora..So what I did anyway is found a book on Cultural Studies that explained to me in simple terms the idea behind what disapora is all about.



Written by Ziauddin Sardar, Illustrated / designed by Borin Van Loon


Introducing Cultural Studies provided me an incisive idea through the minefield of this subject diaspora. It covers a whole lot more from Gramcsi to Raymond Williams, it looks at postcolonial discourse to the politics of diaspora, feminism to queer theory, technoculture and the media to globalization,its an insightful and easy to read book that provides essential concepts. It is essential reading for all those concerned with the quickening pulse of old, new and emerging cultures.

It also includes lots of grids, frames and background visuals and text. Its not an academic book of any sort well at least I don't think so, but I think it is worth the read.



One word of warning!!! Don't be put-off by the comic book format. This book is not a core academic book but a simple guide that is peppered with names and ideas essential for understanding diaspora and cultural studies.

Have A Great Week


posted by Anonymous at 5:20 PM

“So it has been a while…” seems to be a common phrase in this Blog that I would like to explore and discuss. Not to attempt (entirely) to intellectualize why it is I have not been keeping up with my entries, but to ALSO discuss something I find quite relevant with these media studies is how the immediacy this forum and others like it inhibit the ‘natural’ (or already established) patterns of communication that we routinely experience in our physical world as opposed to our metaphysical world now founded in digital communication and hyperspace.
These new technologies seem to have altered their participant’s perceptions of time as well as modes of conduct by redefining what is appropriate and courteous in light of these new rapid and immediate technologies. In many cases, this presents a conflicting paradox of how time is spent by the individual. I’ll try to ground this argument for those of you who choose to pursue onwards through my ramble. I am suggesting that there are conflicting senses of time that people who participate in these technologies are presented with, and in my experience sometimes burdened by. The ‘metaphysical time’ of the Internet and other recent developments in communication technology, does not blend very well with physical time. I think the best example I can come up with to illustrate this point is the texting phenomenon you all have here as well as some other European countries. As an American just recently walking into a society that has fully embraced this technology, I was immediately overwhelmed with the demand these messages placed on me. In the beginning I did not have control over the technology (i.e. the slang, typing like a two fingered granny, etc.). As I have had time to get a hold of these aspects though, there is one quality I still find unsettling and that is the immediacy of the whole process. There is a certain time frame one is meant to respond to texts within that often does not interface too well with how physical time is spent. I may be in class, I may not yet know the answer to whatever the person asked, moreover, I might simply not be in the mood to respond. I assert that this desire to not want to respond has never been as detectable as with text messaging which id where this interfacing problem exists. As opposed to the telephone where there is a certain delay period if one desires to create it, texting enables us to rapidly contact a person who wields the technology, and worse yet, they can immediately respond. This situation implies that we should there for use it at the speed that it can operate when in physical time, the person may not want to for any number of reasons that are in their physical world.
For those of you who are comfortable with this burden and don’t even consider it such, maybe you can relate to the example I will argue in the context of the Blog. I have often found that after giving themes in class some reflection, and completing other demands I have in my physical life like simply moving form one place to another, the Blog had already moved past the theme I would have liked to discuss by the time I could get to a computer and relate my thoughts. I could attempt to simply bite it and write what I wanted to say anyways, but I was left with this notion that it was outdated and my point was therefore moot. The jest of this all: a few days in the metaphysical hyperspace world is a very long time, which, considering time in terms of our physical existence, creates many conflicts as the two notions of time do not coincide all too smoothly. Is it even possible to exist in both notions evenly or are their speeds too conflicting? I would argue not, especially as we are blindly striving to get communication as fast as possible and in as many different ‘hyper’ forums (like dungeons, Blogs, cell phones, raspberries, instant messaging etc.) as possible SO now I will venture out onto the furthest academic limb that I will attempt and suggest that there is a digital divide among those that can incorporate the two senses of time and master their presence in both, and those that can’t.
… what do you guys think? Are there two different developing notions of time?
posted by Anonymous at 4:34 AM

Yeah, Garret A. Morgan was one of the inventors of early traffic symbols, check out this website: inventors of stuff Wasn't W. E. B. DuBois the original founder of the NAACP, among other things??
posted by Anonymous at 4:00 AM

For this blog entry (my fifth, I think) I thought I’d draw your attention to a, well, flash-looking flash website. The site is for a motion capture technology producer called Giant Studios. I found their website through a link on the rather unexceptional site for Peter Jackson’s visual effects company, Weta Digital, whom employed the Giant Studios motion capture system for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, . What interested me most about the Giant Studios site is the way in which its highly interactive and animated design reflects the company’s trade, which is concerned primarily with motion capture and animation. Upon arriving at the site’s splash page, the user is greeted with an animated message welcoming them to the site and inviting them to click on a button to enter. In doing so, the user comes to a loading page which features more animation, including both informative text and aesthetic devices -- most notable is the interactive background behind the main logo, whereby a matrix of squares are triggered when the cursor is passed over the area. By clicking on another “enter” button, the user is presented with an animation of a ball bouncing between two paddles, and the slogan “We make motion capture perform,” before finally coming to the site’s main index. Subsequent Pages of the site are selected from this index (which is interestingly in the shape of an ant), and appear in pop-up windows, or animated pop-up boxes within the same window -- the latter, in particular, further emphasises the idea of motion and animation associated with the Giant Studios company.

That’s me for now…
posted by Anonymous at 2:51 AM

You guys got your feedback and FTVMS 200 assignment back? Hope you guys are happy with it.

I want to discuss the impact of internet on today’s companies and our society for my sixth entry. Internet creates many successful companies and brings our life to a different level, for example, Yahoo and eBay are the perfect examples of the internet-based companies. It puts these companies CEO among the world’s richest men. Chatting softwares that bring people closer from all over the world, ICQ and MSN Messenger for instance. These are the positive externalities that generated by the internet.

However, it also creates many negative externalities that people didn’t expect before. For example, music industry claims that the growth of mp3 really damages their business, even some of the music companies went out of business because the internet provides free music exchange opportunity. Who can predict the future, when the technology gets better and better, it could put other companies out of business as well. For instance, what happen if people could download a movie from the net as fast as downloading today’s mp3. Could it endanger Hollywood? Who knows.

Hackers now can steal our credit card number from the net, these days they could steal more money without physically robbing a bank. These are the negative externalities created by the new technology.
Here I am not saying the internet is a bad thing. It’s a balance thing, we could download a mp3 today for free, and then our credit card is using by someone else next day because of the internet hackers.
Thus it is very hard to determine whether it is good or not. It is really up to each individual to weight the advantages and disadvantages.

posted by Anonymous at 2:39 AM

____________

Sunday, September 21, 2003

Who is this 'Daniel Taipua' anyway?! You are obviously very well informed,.. a little too well... it's starting to get suspicious.
posted by Anonymous at 4:30 PM

The futurism gave me some ideas on how the futurism influences our lives, or maybe too broader, depending on what the evolution happens.

I found a quite good website, Kubrickfils, which introduces a great filmmaker, Stanley Kubrick. What makes me interested in is the film, "2001, A Sapce Odyssey". Maybe lots of you guys have watched this film, unfortunately, I haven't. But I found a movie review by Tim Dirks .

This movie shows us an amazing, mystical, but also bloody future, technology makes us touch the world we are dreaming for millions of years, but we are also destroying by the technology we produced. The movie is divided into three sections:

The Dawn of Man
Early ape men become endowed with their first intelligence after experiencing a black monolith.

(The Lunar Journey in the Year 2000)
Eons later, a similar monolith is discovered on the lunar surface in the 21st century.


Jupiter Mission, 18 Months Later [(in 2001 or 2002)]
An 18-month journey to Jupiter.


Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite
An experience in another time and dimension

The first episode, I think, is the most fantastic scene. The ape man throw a bone, which he learned to use as a tool from experiencing a black monolith, up to the sky, then the special effect dissolve the bone into a bone-like spaceship, this scene just uses several seconds in the film, but the time passed by for millions of years. technology changed people's lives.

In the later of the film, the spaceship has its own mind and becomes a killing machine. The conflict, happening between the pilot and the spaceship, shows the evolution of the technology. It suggests an idea, does the technologies still need human beings to help them develop when they can think by themselves.

2001 has passed, how many things, suggested in the film, have happened? space odyssey, space hotel, killing computer...not happened. But now we watch this movie, made in 1968, we can compare, what has come true, which imagination under-develop, which beyond our nowadays life.
posted by Anonymous at 6:48 AM

I don't know what to write for my 5th entry, so I'm gonna talk about the movie I watched last night, "Tomb Raider 2". It is based on the popular playstation game, which I didn't know about. :) I was little disappointed about its narrative, but the scale, actions and CG images were pretty exciting. The development of technology has enabled human to create and experience the virtual reality world, which is NOT REAL, and it takes people to kind of phantasy world. In the movie, characters use many high technology stuff. I know they are not in our real world and only in the world of the movie, but I was still exciting in the sequences of CG images. And they may become available in our real world some day. (Who knows? ha?)
As I said, this movie was based on the computer game. Computer games are very popular among young people today and some of them contain serious violence, etc. Recently, the crimes by young people have been increasing and I think we cannot ignore the influences made by some of computer games to them. I think some of young children who play these games sometimes cannot distinguish the virtual reality world in games and their real worlds. Some of them could feel that human could die and come back to life so easily just like in the games, seriouly.

Virtual realy world is great, but we need to keep the fact that as long as it's virtual reality, it's NOT REAL in our minds.
posted by Anonymous at 6:28 AM

To add a bit of diversity to the blog, I thought I'll comment on something else, other than the topic on Afro-Futurism. I was reading the text on Networks and Communities and I thought of two communities online that I'd like to comment on.

The first is Friendster.com, a site that connects people through a network of friends. So your friends get to know your other friends, and the whole network balloons. I have been bugged by my friends to register on Friendster asap and I did today. To my surprise, or perhaps I shouldn't be, but by just accepting an invitation of a friend to register online, I found out that I am connected to 83,940 people in my personal network through 3 friends. Such an online community provides people the opportunity to form social relationships. What was once done offline - meeting new people through a network of friends - is now being done on a massive scale online. The text, in section 3.4, talks about a second paradigm, where "cyberspace not as a separate or distinct 'realm' but as part of our already existing social reality". It is suggesting that our online experiences have already been woven into our off-line lives, as Baym (1998:63) describes. Our offline lives and online lives are somehow integrated here. We are connected online with the friendsd we know in real life, and take our relationships with them in real life to cyberspace. The activities done offline has offline consequences as well. For example, leaving a good testimonial for a friend on the Friendster network or leaving messages for a friend on the same network would likely evoke a respond and emotions that take on an offline dimension. I would think that rather than thinking of cyberspace as some alien space where we take on a different identity (which may sometimes be the case), online communities like these take the traditional way of meeting your friends' friends online, but it's not as virtual as it seems because sometimes there may be real world consequences. (eg. You may meet up with them, etc.)

The second community is Diaryland.com, where people post their diaries up and invite friends to read them. The text quoted Rheingold's (1994) description of his cyber community, and mentioned that it has elements of the "fictional locales of soap operas - in which the audience are witness to simulated community. Here, however, there is active particpation.". This brings to my mind Diaryland.com. A friend of mine keeps a diary there, and she invites friends to read them. Everyday, as she describes how exciting or boring her day has been, or when she comments on something, her network of friends read with interest and enthusiasm (myself included) and it really is as if I am "watching" a soap opera unfolding before me but the best part about it is I get to comment on it by leaving messages on her Tag Board, where other friends who view her diary can see. I get to share my similar experiences with what she goes through, to "squeal" in joy or to "thrash out" at this person whom she's angry with. There is this emotional utility that is derived from such an online community, that is sometimes an extension of our real life experiences. We bring what we experience in our real lives online by writing about it and letting our friends know about it, and in return, they respond in like and such interactions bring about a comfort zone that often seeks to strengthen our social relationships with them in real life. It is like a 2-way communication.
posted by Anonymous at 5:28 AM

Last One I Promise:
Didn't Garrett A. Morgan invent traffic signals?

Garret Morgan made the traffic lights,
Harriet Tubman freed the slaves at night
- KRS-One of Boogie Down Productions, You Must Learn
posted by Anonymous at 4:47 AM

When are UBS getting that shipment of texts?
Literary references might make seem like less of an asshole.
Then again, maybe not. wahey :D
posted by Anonymous at 4:26 AM

Okay, well I have nothing really important to say, no witty quips or condecending remarks *ahem*, but I can proudly announce that I have seen two key members in the Afrofuturism movement live. Lee "Scratch" Perry, with the Mad Professor. They came last year some time (cant remember exactly) but that was one Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy experience. Lee was up on stage, he is about 4 feet tall and 70 years old, dancing like a little monkey rambling into the microphone. That guy inhabits a world in which only he understands. I swear. The Mad Professor, funnily enough, was a lot more sane. The music was amazing, and they had a giant audio visual display which went with the music. Images of space and wierd visualisations and stuff. I should probably take into account I was hallucinating quite hard then though.... but yeah. Lee Scratch Perry and the Mad Professor. Good concert. Crazy men. Right on.
posted by Anonymous at 4:22 AM

Never discount the MC:
Jing Hou, you kick ass.
posted by Anonymous at 4:21 AM

For my 5th blog I thought I’d talk about identity in cyberspace. The Internet provides a new field for people to create their own identity in. For some people this is an opportunity to play a different role as if actors on a stage and for others they find within the internet a place that they can be themselves in, beyond the social norms and constructs of the society they live in. While I am not personally in favour of meeting people online, some people do prefer this as a way of meeting people. It does have some advantages – a first impression can be made by something other than physical appearance also there aren’t such tightly defined norms existing as there are in everyday life so people who are part of societies ‘out-groups’ (for lack of a better term) - by this I mean people who find being themselves difficult, and feel like they are being looked at differently and judged because they are different (whether this be through dress, piercings, hairstyle, race etc.) in the society surrounding them - can be more comfortable and express who they really are.

I was reading a bit about identities in cyberspace in the textbook. Susanna Stern talked about her study that looked at peoples self expression through their websites. It talked about the cyber space culture in which age/ gender/ race/ appearance and class are irrelevant. In this some people felt free to share personal accounts of their life such as their poetry and personal stories, where as others stuck to talking about less personal things such as their likes and dislikes etc. People choose to participate in this cyberspace culture at a level of personal-ness that is comfortable to them - after all one individuals web-page is introducing their private world into the public sphere through the internet making it accessible to anyone with access to the internet.

Also in the text book Daniel Chandler touched briefly on a quote which referred to identity on the web as linked to the idea of a web-page being ‘under construction’. It is interesting to think about this idea of constructing identity and our senses of self in society and whether they differ or are similar in cyber-culture.






posted by Anonymous at 4:20 AM

The lecture on Afro-Futurism threw me a bit, and to be honest I dont think I understand very much of it at all. Following the advice of Belle Barber I visited the Afro-futurism website and did a little bit of exploring to familiarise myself with the main ideas being generated around the blog. I visited the manifestos link and came across a manifesto by Paul Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid. It is titled 'Afro-Futurism: A Statement of Intentions--Outside In, Inside Out.' What I found most interesting about this manifesto was his description of the invention of traffic signals. Spooky describes traffic signals as a "system of signals that controls the flow of movement through the urban landscape" and that light and movement, code and control were just parts of how the urban landscape spoke its existence to itself. W.E.Dubois,the inventor of traffic signals, witnessed an accident between a horse and carriage and a motor vehicle- two binary oppositions: the old and the new. Spooky describes the accident whereby people were flung from their vehicles and strewn across the intersection as a modernity clashing with the past and "chaos was the only result". In response to witnessing such an ordeal, Dubois went home and came up with a system for regulating movement.Hence why we stop for red lights and go for green. Something to think about everytime you drive through a traffic light intersection. Dubois describes this as a "peculiar sensation,'this double consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.' The just of Spooky's essay is that there are parallels in-line/on-line to the same psychological conditions Dubois wrote of many years ago. He claims that what you encounter online is part of a structure where identity and the "real world" is based on a completely variable system of controls.
posted by Anonymous at 3:28 AM

Hey
In light of my lack of sleep last week even though I attended the lectures everything seemed to go in one ear and out the other so when I decided to comment about diaspora in my blog I realized I had a serious lack of understanding. The reader failed to educate me so I've been online all evening trying to find the most basic example. A nice and simple explanation I found on African diaspora is that: in America there were often concentrated areas of slaves from similar backgrounds in specific slave societies in America. In some areas where there was a significantly large amount of slaves there were several distinct historical backgrounds that have a determining influence on the formation of identifiable and distinct communities. Mostly in America, slaves tended to connect themselves with communities in terms of there roots in Africa. While abroad slaves like many different races today maintain there social identity by living in communities which trace their origins to their specific homeland. The problem is though that often diaspora is generalized in terms of ones roots to Africa rather than to the distinct and identifiable community that people have roots from that exist specifically within the vast continent of Africa.
Although I haven't viewed this e-resource because my computer wouldn't let me! It looks like it might be very good with key theorists like Theodor Adorno analyzing diaspora, its called - Outlandish: writing between exile and diaspora / Nico Israel .

I was watching a pre taped episode of the now axed Pam Corkery show that was on TV one and I saw the most ridiculous piece of new technology. Someone bored enough has come up with a down loadable high pitched shrill tone that keeps mosquito's and everyone else for that matter at bay. What will they think of next.
posted by Anonymous at 3:26 AM

Rap music has emerged as one of the most distinctive and controversial music genres of the past decade. A significant part of hip hop culture,rap articulates the experiences and conditions of African-Americans living in a spectrum of marginalized situations ranging from racial stereotyping and stigmatizing to struggle for survival in violent ghetto conditions. In this cultural context, rap provides a voice to the voiceless, a form of protest to the oppressed, and a mode of alternative cultural style and identity to the marginalized. Rap is thus not only music to dance and party to, but a potent form of cultural identity. It has become a powerful vehicle for cultural political expression, serving as the "CNN of black people" (Chuck D), or upping the high-tech ante, as their "satellite communication system" (Heavy D). It is an informational medium to tune into, one that describes the rage of African-Americans facing growing oppression, declining opportunities for advancement, changing moods on the streets, and everyday life as a matter of sheer survival. In turn, it has become a cultural virus, circulating its images, sounds, and attitude throughout the culture and body politic.
Rap also functions as a means of affirming and constructing individual identities for the group or rap artist. This identity may border on narcissism and a materialism that brags of its record sales and material possessions, but it is also a key mode of assertion in an environment hostile to any form of African-American self-expression. It also situates the rap artists in their specific milieu, gaining identity and authenticity from being located in a specific space and time.




posted by Anonymous at 3:05 AM

Hey Guys,
After this weeks lectures on Afrofuturism, I wanted to talk about an interview for 'hyperdub' with the artist 'DJ Spooky' who could be called an Afrofuturist. Spooky's interview comments on the role of rhythm and patterns in African culture, and how developments in technology, have led this to dominate European culture. He comments in the Afrodiaspora history drum patterns were "part of the basic fabric of the culture", and were used to carry messages as one of its primary functions. He argues that formats such as 'flash' and 'mp3' have fragmented notions of what the message is. But these new formats have become appropriated by Afrodiasporic culture.
"With Hip Hop we are an African American manifestation of computer culture...in the beats, and how the language works". He outlines that this form of culture has a distinct digital 'feel', which is also due to the fact that (according to Spooky) "language is a sampling machine, music is a sampling machine , the human body itself is a sampling machine.... because it allows for information exchange". Spooky seems to be commenting on a new form of human, not just applicable to the African, but to Europeans as well. This may be in part due to the major role reversal, whereby "African American Culture dominates the US". Spooky outlines Hip Hop and Techno as two examples of this 'African American culture' which has "submerged European culture", however perhaps his view is overly romantic, as this 'domination' may far less apparent in other cultural forms, and thus the roles are not quite reversed.

His interview finishes off by commenting on the lack of "overframing vision" as a dominant ideology, due to computer culture, and DJ Spooky seems to
see technology as a venue for new apporopriations of traditional ideologies.

Have a good week,
Chris


posted by Anonymous at 1:55 AM

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