Creepy much?

After our “Twitter” discussion, I remembered an interesting iPhone app (available only to those who hack their phones) called Twinkle. It adds the ability to Geo-locate your twitter feed via the phone’s built-in cell tower triangulation GPS system, and the ability to map people whose Twitter feeds indicate they are nearby. I don’t want to call this creepy…but i just did.

Article Link

Responses for 4/29

Today’s readings explore social networking sites, an area you’re all probably quite familiar with. As native “experts,” do you think these articles capture the appeal of Facebook, myspace, and the like? What drives you to participate or abstain from these sites?

(And remember to please add your thoughts to the thread on Midd’s internet presence.)

Brooklyn is Watching (us)

I just read a really interesting article about a “sandbox” space in second life that is being recorded and projected (in almost real time) to an art gallery in Brooklyn. The avatar who is doing the recording is being controlled by people walking through the gallery. I’m going to sign in and check the space out in a few minutes. Here’s the slurl if you would like to teleport.

Check out the article on the Not Possible in Real Life Site.

The Escher reference is tight.
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A few SLURLs…

I’ve put together a list of places to visit in Second Life, separated by category. If you have the SecondLife client on your computer, you can click on the link and it will bring you to a page that opens SecondLife and places you in a location in world. It has been a while since I’ve visited some of these locations, so please excuse if the link brings you to someplace unexpected.

Joe’s Castle
http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Blue%20Note/115/41/24/

Help
NMC Orientation- http://slurl.com/secondlife/NMC%20Orientation/109/113/39/
Info Island- http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/121/20/33/

Art
Chakryn Forest- http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dreamworld%20SE/53/12/42/
Parsec- http://slurl.com/secondlife/InterSection/201/50/432/
Vista Animations- http://slurl.com/secondlife/Laila/27/245/83/
Machinima Institute- http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%203/61/31/23/
Play- http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Collective/44/69/701/
Second Louvre- http://slurl.com/secondlife/Tompson/179/60/101/

Clubs and Social Places
Jazz Cat- http://slurl.com/secondlife/Infotainment%20Island/226/121/33/
Ahern Welcome Area – http://slurl.com/secondlife/Ahern/34/34/43/
Paris 1900- http://slurl.com/secondlife/Paris%201900/8/172/16/
Fabulous Soul- http://slurl.com/secondlife/Soul/31/225/22/
The Blue Note- http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Blue%20Note/224/187/23/
Hug on the Beach- http://slurl.com/secondlife/Mul/212/97/33/

Stores
Simone- http://slurl.com/secondlife/Simone/70/190/31/
Shiny Things- http://slurl.com/secondlife/Shiny%20Falls/175/194/37/
Nonna Hedges- http://slurl.com/secondlife/Picasso/164/14/23/
Kitchens- http://slurl.com/secondlife/Guksu/225/198/426/

Games and Activities
Space Park- http://slurl.com/secondlife/Shinda/72/205/218/
Yankee Stadium- http://slurl.com/secondlife/Tantra/204/128/28/
CSI Crime Scene- http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spring%20City/69/56/24/
International Space and Flight Museum- http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Alpha/48/78/24/
Musical Instruments- http://slurl.com/secondlife/Scafell/69/143/49/

Other Schools
IUP- http://slurl.com/secondlife/Crimson%20Island/129/108/22/
Princeton- http://slurl.com/secondlife/Princeton%20University/20/193/105/
Vassar- http://slurl.com/secondlife/Vassar/111/113/27/
Clemson- http://slurl.com/secondlife/Teaching/181/54/23/

Another good source of interesting things is the Not Possible In Real Life blog. The name says everything.

Similar to Wikipedia but not really

So here’s something I’ve wanted to post since class this afternoon.

It’s a site called Encyclopedia Dramatica.

It’s formatted exactly like Wikipedia except that it specializes in internet memes and the like. Go here if you want to find out the real meaning of “shoop da whoop” or “over 9000!!”

I thought this was really interesting since the site has a much more relaxed feel to it than wikipedia, so it offers a different perspective about how a wiki can be used.

Oh, yeah, and I should warn you that some “mature” stuff is right on the front page. You’ve been warned.

And no, this is not a rick roll. 🙂

Not Social Networking… but Social Gaming

I came across this article about a new multiplayer online game that involves the territorial conquest of colleges and universities. Students make teams and recruit people in the real world, in order to play in the virtual world. It is a new way for networking between students around campus and is apparently going to grow into a huge phenomenon around every campus… maybe even Middlebury.

A quote from the article about social networking:
“No one is claiming this is the next Facebook, the social networking phenomenon that began on the Harvard campus. But GoCrossCampus represents the new kind of online games that unite the participants of real-world communities in a common online cause.”

Here’s the link to the article:

“Storming the Campuses”

Big Blue Dress

So my boyfriend is a 1337 pwnzor Tauran druid ftw, btw, and sends me these crazy things. The previous video reminded me of this one, which is one of the better ones I’ve seen. It’s also musical, to a very catchy song. One more way MMORPGs invade the lives of non-players like me.

And remember; “A man who’s truly skilled can look quite good in twill!” Oh dear, that was a bit much, even for me…

[youtube vqO7zEWu0W0]

Perez Hilton

When I get back to my room from class, practice, or wherever, I typically plop down on my desk and log onto my Middlebury webmail account, see if I have any urgent messages or new facebook messages. Then I procrastinate for about twenty minutes and check out my friends facebook updates. My next step is always to check Perez Hilton. I am really ashamed to admit this, but there is something about the site that makes it so easy to access celebrity gossip and scan through the site, picking and choosing which headlines might appeal to me. It’s much easier than actually purchasing People Magazine, Us Weekly, In Touch, etc. and you don’t have to waste your time skipping over the advertisements. It is a crazy site because Perez updates the information every 30 minutes or so. Each time I get back to my room, there is something new to learn about celebs. I don’t recommend getting started..it can get addictive!

Metanomics

Hey all,

I just happened across SLCN (Second Life Cable Network). It delivers real-world streaming entertainment and news. The wild part is that all the content is generated on and is about Second Life. Here is an episode that explains the presence of journalists imbedded in Second Life. Currently Reuters and CNN have avatars in the “Metaverse.” It seems that large companies, economists and other real-world movers and shakers are beginning to recognize the inherent power of virtual worlds.

Three Reasons Why People Who Hate Facebook Should GET OVER IT

Okay, so I read the article posted on the site, Three Reasons to Hate Facebookand I gotta say, I’m just tired of people whining about Facebook. I’ll agree that the addition of new vocabulary to our everyday speech because of Facebook (“Dude, I poked your girlfriend last night.””That’s a profile pic!””Did you see what I wrote on your graffiti wall?”) is slightly worrisome, but I mean really, it’s just a fad.

Remember back in the day when everyone had a LiveJournal? And your friends would get into fights over something one said about the other in a public entry? And now nobody cares at all? I feel like Facebook is heading in that same direction, especially with the addition of the applications deal. That is probably the one thing that Miss Annalee Newitz and I agree on. But even though applications are annoying, it probably takes about three seconds for me to delete all my requests. Plus, you can hide all those requests anyway.

The fact that one of Newitz’s arguments against Facebook was hinged on her own laziness ASTOUNDS me. She said herself that there are indeed plenty of privacy options that can be used on Facebook to keep all the people she’s slept with from seeing each other, but she’s just too lazy to figure them all out. And then the whole “social conformity” thing? PLEASE! Are we in middle school? Is putting your name in a phone book “conformist”? No. Facebook is practically the same thing. Newitz was upset because her employer was evidently using Facebook as a means of connecting all of their employees in a clean, clear, easy-to-use manner. Oh no! My life has been made easier because of Facebook! Give me a break.

So here’s the three reasons why people who hate Facebook should get over it:

1. It’s a voluntary site; if you hate it, then DON’T USE IT.

2. Privacy options are there for the people who are smart enough to use them. If you’ve got stuff you don’t want other people to see, then get off your lazy butt and hide it.

3. The “conformity” of the site actually makes it a lot easier to use; MySpace’s biggest problem is people covering their pages with useless graphics and crap that slow down your browsing speed. Conformity is not necessarily a bad thing.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

Links for class

Hi all – I’ve added a RSS Feed for links to websites that seem relevant to class on the sidebar. I’m running this through del.icio.us, a social bookmarking site that I highly recommend. If you ever find a link that you want included on the site, you can send it to my del.icio.us account – username jajasoon. You can also browse the links I’ve accumulated. And if you’re a del.icio.us user, post your username in the comments to share the love.