Author Archives: Hunter Nolan

ChatRoulette aka Who Will You Get Next?!

Chatroulette.

Wow… Chatroulette.  Something that I have seen people talk about on Facebook but only thought was the name of a french character on a TV show.  Before watching the video, I explored the website for a while to form my own opinion having no clue what it was.  I clicked the “Play” button which I think is kind of weird… giving it the beginning feel of a game.  Before I knew it, my face was up on the screen and that of another Australian man was right above it.  I waved, not sure whether he was real or not and he waved back at me.  I asked him what myself and he were doing.  He responded that “Chatroulette was only introduced to him today by his friend”.  I asked him where he was from and he said Australia and we talked about the time difference.  Knowing that I was going to use my first introduction as a beginning point for the thoughts I would formulate on the blog I asked what he had encountered so far.  He said “too many naked men”.  Having only chatted with this one guy so far I was surprised and hadn’t even thought about the fact that anybody with a webcam could do whatever they wanted on this site.  After saying goodbye and good luck with the rest of his military service, I hit my first next button.

I was then barraged with about 8 different screens in a row.  1 girl, 1 naked man, and about 6 guys that looked either creepy or like I was NOT what they were looking for.  For about 45 minutes total, I surfed around talking to random people.  I met 3 french girls all in the same box and ended up talking to them for about 20-25 minutes.  Who would have thought that from my dorm room, I, Hunter Nolan, would spend my evening talking with french ladies 3,000 miles across the globe.  Something that is 1. random and 2. impossible without the modern technologies we have today.

More barrages of “User disconnected, trying to find you a stranger” hit me and I too felt the same way as did the man in the posted video, almost offended by peoples quick judgements and nexts.  Not to say that I didn’t click next a bunch of times too, but when you have a 2 megapixel picture of someone, I guess you are forced to judge a book by its cover.

I think that Shirky would be a big fan of this website if it had a more organized fashion to it.  It could be better in that people could click on groups that they are interested in and they could be re routed to chatrooms or “chatpools” in which other people are talking about art or film or african animals etc… really whatever you wanted.  In reality I think that most guys on there are looking for a free show or to find someone that is just as bored as they are.  I found the facts that it is filled with about 71% boys and less then 25% girls to not be very surprising.

I myself found it very rare to come across a girl on Chatroulette, and just like most of the people that saw Genevieve, usually stopped to see if they were interested in saying hi.  I also found it weird that I was relieved by the sight of a girl, it was like finding an angel in hell.  Sometime you are not enthused by what pops up, sometime just shocked or disgusted, and sometimes excited when someone pulled together/interesting comes across.  It was also a relief when somebody on the other side had day light or even just real light as opposed to being dimly lit by their computer screen while they lay in bed.

All in all the website is a very interesting concept and I feel that it will definitely be built upon and expanded in time.  There is a draw of, this next person is going to be different or great and sometimes its true and sometimes it couldn’t be more opposite.  I hope that they clean it up a little bit and possibly turn it into more of a think tank type of experiment where collaboration and cooperation of ideas could be more of a focus.

Wikipedia Wonderland

When thinking of what to edit, a million things came across my mind.  I would check to see the articles about them and what I was thinking about adding was already there in more depth then I even knew about.  It is amazing that we have a source of information as vast as this one.

I think about what I would have done 50 even 10 years ago if I wanted to know about who the leader in Uganda was.  I would go to my local library on my bike maybe even in my Firebird and go look through the Encyclopedia for the information that I wanted.  Not only would it have to be something that I REALLY wanted to know because of the effort and time needed to procure such information but it is also not up to date with the day that I would be living in.

With Wikipedia, the ability to attain information not only in a quick and efficient manner but also to get the newest and most “up to date” information is also possible.   I put up to date in quotations for one reason, that is the fact that if I happened to go the the Uganda page a few milliseconds after somebody put say Conan O’Brien up as the leader of the country because he said so, I have no way other then common sense to know that it is a lie.  Granted there are moderators and  post masters and admins etc. that control what does and doesn’t stay but if I were to read that and take the websites word that Conan was the president before someone changes it, I have now filled myself with false information.

This is the best and worst part about Wikipedia is that everybody that knows anything about anything is able to share that and have others read about it.  I myself put up a post about how Ableton Live (a program that few know [other then Torren!]) has interfaces that are dedicated for use in it’s interface.  I happen to know about this because I own one of them and have been fiddling around with it for a while.  Though I joined the ranks as a Wikipedia editor, I felt somewhat insignificant in my post.  Sure, I am adding to the ever expanding library of information on Wikipedia but in reality who is going to see it?  I will never know.  I hope that my post inspires someone that had no clue about it to go out grab one and become the world’s next biggest DJ.  All with unknowing credit to me.

The lack of a filter that this “encyclopedia” uses is much much much different then the one that Encyclopedia Britannica uses.  Once again, both a blessing and a downfall.  I hope until then that my entry in the online encyclopedia we call Wikipedia gets built off of and edited so that I too can learn about things I thought I knew all about.Screenshot

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/10/sunday/main2244008_page2.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody

Cool article CBS did about the Good and the Bad of Wikipedia (they also bring up the Stephen Colbert “contest”)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ableton_Live

Tweet This Tweet That.

Having been in this class for only a month now has really opened my eyes to things that I would usually never seem to notice when browsing the internet. I really wanted to watch the Olympic USA vs. Canada game today on NBC. One option comes to mind, watch it on TV. Having too much work, I had to sacrifice the historic match to get my reading and other work done. I tried to find an online stream so that I could take a glance at the score every once in a while but was not successful. Over here in Axinn, I have been working but also found a LIVE blog of what is going on in the game. Already, three times while writing this post I have gone back to the blog to click refresh to see if USA has come up from our 1 goal deficit. I just tweeted this in hopes that maybe I can brighten some other peoples study days up with a little bit of news from the battlefield in Canada. I have also picked up on how there are “Share This” links on just about every article of every page that I visit on the internet now. I never really used them but am now seeing that if I had a “list” in twitter of friends that really enjoy photography, I could easily tweet them when I find new technologies or devices while browsing. The ability to “Share This” used to be about copying the URL, pasting it in an email, and sending it to someone whoe would be interested. Now its more so choosing which ones not to share because it is so easy to click the little tweet button on any article on CNN or the entry page for a free Caribbean Cruise giveaway. Everything is becoming more of a web that we are all entagled in. (in a good way in my mind). I was going to delete my Twitter immediately after the class ended but I’m thinking of reassessing that decision. USA still down 2-1 with 5 minutes to go, lets pick it up boys.

ABLE to Learn. (Podcasting)

In the past few months, I started to get interested in mixing music and trying to mash different artists together into one track. In doing so, I started completely from scratch. I found myself being sucked in by the world of infinite options in what sounds are possible.

In not knowing anything about the technology behind all of this whole new world, I had to find a way to learn. I picked up a book about how to use a program that I’m now using called “Ableton Live”. I found though that when using the medium of a book there is a lacking aspect of being taught in the same medium that you are using. When reading a book, it feels more as though I have to “filter” the information through and then convert it in my mind onto the screen.

Of course reading works very well for learning new things but I thought about what other media would work better for fluid learning. The podcast Audio Tutorials popped up when I searched “Ableton” in the iTunes store. Here for free, I have been able to download as many of the 18 different episodes that they have uploaded. Some are videos combined with an audio track of step by step instructions in how to do different effects, construction of beats etc.

By using these, it was much more like I had someone who knew what they were doing teaching me step by step as opposed to reading something then trying to find on my screen what it meant. This is something that is impossible to attain through using paper as a transfer for information.

I think that the fact that anybody who knows something about anything is able to post a podcast as though they are an expert on the subject is also kind of scary. I mean I look at this podcast and immediately have a feeling that I am learning from a master of the program. For all I know its some college kid in Denver who has just fiddled around with the program more then me. Either way, free information that I am able to download onto my computer and take anywhere is quite handy. When I BUY a book, I have 1 book that I can put in my bag. I am able to share this podcast seamlessly through facebook or twitter by clicking a different part of the button in iTunes that says “Get Episode”. The virtual reality that we all live with and in everyday is something that has exponentially increased the speed at which we are all able to share information and learn from it as well.

Shirky I Suppose.

In reading Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody, there were many things that he points out that should seem obvious but that I never really take the time to think about.

In reading Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody, there were many things that he points out that should seem obvious but that I never really take the time to think about.

About a month ago, I sold a friends laptop on eBay. Since it is a “digital transaction” it requires communicating only through email and such, you actually aren’t able to obtain a phone number without filling out a form etc.

I sent the man the laptop after receiving the funds in my Paypal account. About 6 days later, he opened an “Item Not Recieved Claim” through eBay which notifies Paypal and puts my money on hold. I emailed him the tracking number and by that time he responded he told me that there was nothing to worry about since he had received the laptop later that afternoon and that it was “Better then expected!”.

Upon that I waited for him to close the claim (since my funds were now being held hostage by Paypal). This guy knew the system and didn’t close the claim because I hadn’t sent it with Signature Confirmation. In the small print that we all just click “I Agree” to when signing up for any website, it says that a signature confirmation is required for any item over the cost of $500. Basically I got scammed out of the $500 and he got the laptop and Paypal couldn’t do anything about it.

While reading the opening sequence in which Shirky talks about the girl who had her Sidekick taken from a cab, I felt as though I was the same type of victim to someone knowingly scamming me and being fine with it. When her friend started posting all of the information about her address, number, and everything that he could get his hands on it reminded me of my troubled transaction with “Quddos2009” on eBay.

I exhausted all of my options with trying to get him to be honest, having Paypal give me the money back, and it wasn’t worth hiring a lawyer to take the guy to court. I instead realized that I had enough information about him to do some serious revenge if I wanted (I didn’t but wanted to Spam his Inbox or something annoying). My friend joked that we should just go online and sign him up for every coupon website and click every “yes, please send me updates, newsletters, and promotional material” that we could.

The fact that people rely so heavily on e-mail inboxes and their online sources of communication opens them up for digital terror. There are websites in which you can put someone’s email address in and it will send them about 1,000 emails a day making it impossible to sort through and find the meaningful ones. Once again, I did not do it but would be lying if I said I didn’t check to see how easy it was.

The point that I am trying to make in this look at our digital lives is 1. What are we actually saying yes to when we click I agree without reading the terms (does that give away our ability to operate on morals as opposed to what is right and wrong?). 2. Use signature confirmation. 3. How much do we actually know about how much information about ourselves is accessible and how safe it is to throw ourselves into this virtual world that we call the internet?

Thanks☺

Blogged.

http://greyscalegorilla.com/blog/

I found this blog a little while ago while searching for tricks of how to do color correction for footage in Final Cut. It appeared to be just some guy who knew a lot about animation and the sort but it ends up that he has been involved in making some of the opening sequence for the Conan O’Brien show. I found this video that he posted of every photo he took for that to be very interesting.

I have since seen different contests and fun projects that he challenges others to do for recognition on his website and prizes. I think that the medium of the blog that he chose to use really lets others learn from what he is doing and all of the tutorial videos he has posted. I personally do not do much animation but love watching the cool effects that people who do are able to create. This is a great place to learn about after effects and other post programs like that. Hope you enjoy as I do!

Meyrowitz and McLuhan

In reading and discussing the different topics that both Meyrowitz and McLuhan , there were many aspects of different media that are present but rarely noticed.

I carry my cell phone around with me everywhere I go.  I wouldn’t say that I feel naked without it but at some points I definitely do feel disconnected or even stranded without it.  It has become such a vital part of communication in our generation that we often would not be able to function without one.  When McLuhan describes us having different media as “sensory extensions”, I completely agree.

It is like a third arm for us.  Twenty years ago, two people spoke on the phone in their home, agreed on a place and time to meet and stuck to it.  I now sometimes leave to go somewhere without any clue where it is but know that I can rely on the GPS system in my phone to get there.  When I hit traffic on the way, I pull out my cellphone and call the person to let them know I’m going to be a little bit late.  Before the existence of cell phones, if I got lost on the way, I would have to pull over, pull out my address book and find a payphone in which to call the coffee shop where this person is waiting for me.

The “environments/mediums” that we now interact with one another in are completely mobile and bring us to live in very different ways then people did twenty, ten, or even five years ago.  The social shaping of technology and our modern lives has been due in fact to the ever expanding digital world that we are now a part of.  The only thing I can see that would make a phone more of a sensory extension would be to build these items into our bodies, literally giving us new body parts.

Techno-Biografay.

When they first put me in an incubator after birth, I was surrounded by electronics of all sorts monitoring my breathing and heart rate just to make sure that I would be a normal baby.  This is something that no one 100 years ago had the benefit of after taking their first breath in the real world.

From the very start, I loved anything that was mobile and electronic.  My first Gameboy came around the age of 9 for Christmas.  I remember getting the Starwars game with it.  While driving around on the black and white screen, I could not believe that I was able to take the equivalent of a movie on the road with me for road trips.  Pokémon eventually came around and hit with a craze.  Not only were we all playing on our Gameboys and trading characters through that, we also were trading the cards during recess.  The movies then followed and still had all of us sucked in in 2nd grade until about 4th.

When I was 11, my parents got me a CD player.  I bought the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears new albums down in Bestbuy and became enticed by the portableness of my music as well.

Around 12, the digital camera came.  I had used my moms 35mm Nikon for about a year just going outside and taking pictures mainly because I liked winding the crank after every picture to pull a new frame into place.  The digital camera offered me the ability to not only take pictures but also to manipulate them and delete if I didn’t like them.  This is where I started to get picky about which pictures I kept.  The blurry ones would instantly go out the window and the ones that just weren’t good did as well to make space on the 64 or so megabyte chip that I had.

The internet started to become something fun to explore as well around this time.  I was able to play little games online and to check out all the stats of my favorite players on sportsillustratedkids.com.

I have a younger cousin that since I can remember has always gotten such a laugh out of my brothers and I acting like the three stooges.  We would “fall down the stairs”, cough, burp, sneeze, and walk into glass doors until he couldn’t take it anymore.  Every time we were at my aunts house he would ask so one day I decided that my 3 younger brothers and I were going to make a movie of us doing these sort of things so that he could watch it even when we weren’t there.  Little did I know that this would spark my creative side and pull me down a road that I am now interested in turning into a career.  I took the family handy cam and we made a movie of it that I cut in iMovie.  A year later, we again made a sequel which was bigger and better.

My parents then invested in a laptop for me which was a big deal in 8th grade.  Eventually starting to feel the limitations of iMovie with other GI Joe and remote control car movies, I upgraded to Final Cut Express.  It was a whole new world that I did not understand.  I wanted to revert back to iMovie but had already bought it so I felt the need to learn it.  History follows in the film part of my life.

The Sony PSP was the next item of technological importance that I got and started to use.  Never having owned an actually video gaming platform other then a Gameboy, I was amazed at the fact that my parents didn’t catch on that it was a portable Playstation.

A cell phone came in 9th grade and I was instantly able to be connected into the spiderweb that so many kids in my grade were already a part of.  Texting became something that was easy and fun.  It was a whole new world.  You could all of a sudden talk without speaking.

A 5.0 megapixel digital camera was the next step that I took with my digital photography.  I was able to zoom in on things on the computer and look at images a lot closer.

Myspace became a must have for everyone that had a social life so I joined and customized my background and the quizzes that I decided to share with everyone.  People checked them incessantly and became obsessed.  It was all of a sudden a lot more classy to have a Facebook so I indulged and deleted the myspace.

One AVCHD video camera with a 60gb hard drive and a few more canon cameras brought me up to where I am now with a Canon 7D that shoots HD footage in 1080p at both 30 and 24 frames per second.  Shooting 18.0 megapixel photographs, it is nearly 7 times more detailed then the original Nikon Coolpix camera I originally had.  I now DJ usng my computer and an array of hardware interface that do not function with out a computer.  Out with the hardware, in with the software.  Everything has changed.