Media Technology 2008

Everyone please start contributing to the class wiki because it’s super easy and there are a few too many keywords not edited– just check it out and spend a few minutes fixing it up– trust me, you’ll feel good about it…

And here’s a video that will lighten your finals weeks for sure:

Sorry to post so much, but this blog is absolute money. Here Barack Obama says that kids are spending too much time watching TV and on video games. A professor is disappointed by Obama’s stance on video games.

Also, according to Ian Bogost, social networking and youtube have taken over the role of video games in this election cycle.

“Forum,” a show on my local NPR affiliate, KQED just did a show on Facebook and the psychology of social networks. I haven’t had time to listen to the whole show because of exams, but Forum usually is really good.

Maybe when I grow up and be a big boy, I’ll make awesome remix videos like this one.

I found the latest on a mobile phone manufacturer (HTC) that has created a new Windows Mobile Device called the HTC Touch Diamond… of course it copies all of the iPhone functions and tries to make it look more aesthetic, but no, it just won’t work. I do think that sales will be pretty good though, considering all of those die-hard PC fans out there.
It won’t be coming out in the US until later in the year (by then Apple will have created a whole new revolutionary product anyway).

HTC Touch Diamond

hey joe,
Can you tell me how to embed something that’s not from youtube? I have the code from a site but it’s just not working. do i need to hit the “code” tab in wordpress? the embedded code starts off “embded src = “blah blah blah” but i can’t get it to work. any thoughts would be great.

Another thing I read in “The Globe” that made me want to throw-up my dining hall coffee.

Also, another reason why I hate flash.

Starbucks has decided to make a slow moving flash program that asks you questions about your taste preferences and then tells you what to order next time you go in. It is supposed to stimulate interaction with a real-live barista.

When a computer program tells me what beverage to drink is when I start to agree with those individuals that say the digital age is dehumanizing and can be detrimental to societal bonding.

I ran across this image today and thought I’d share it to show just how this fan base expands out to people of all cultures.

The Last Supper

Hey check out this new and aesthetic RSS feed for Macs:

Acrylic Apps: Times

weird, i’ve tried twice now to post a comment to Ross’s post but both times it just never showed up. here’s the article in relation to GTA
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/30/grand.theft.auto/index.html?iref=newssearch
it talks about how GTA could make $400 million this opening weekend, most for any opening weekend for any movie or video game.

I know we’ve been bashing Banner in the “fix Midd’s interwebs” thread, but it didnt freeze on me once this morning and i was done by 7:01

Here’s a wiki i stumbled upon.
http://www.imfdb.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

it’s a list of every gun used in pretty much every movie. Things like this wouldn’t be possible to do if one person was trying to research it all, but with tons of users (nerds) we gain access to this info.

Speaking of social network sites, what are you guys’ opinion on Midd Confessional

So through our readings and our class discussions, I’ve been thinking a lot about how the technological change we’ve been studying will effect the politics of our country and whether or not in will improve our democracy. I wrote a post on my blog that discusses how I believe technological change will probably be a good thing, but that we need a grassroots change in culture in order to really improve things. Yes, changes in fair use law, net neutrality and other measures we’ve discussed in class are necessary, but what do you guys think? Will the emerging media convergence and creation of networks ultimately improve our politics and sense of community? And on a deeper level, will it make people or autonomous and happy?

My personal opinion is that all this is a gradual step in the right direction. I’ll be really interested in hearing what you all think of social network sites next week, and whether they are actually creating more civic community (as Mark Zuckerberg claims).

peace,
-g

So, we’ve been ‘working’ on our flash project all night, and have not made a whole lot of progress.

Despite having put time into this for the past week, we haven’t gotten a whole lot done, and even the simplest task of making a frame not play to another is impossible, nevermind anything past that.

Unfortunately, the directions on the blog and on the sheet we were given aren’t quite specific enough, and the tutors, as nice as they have been, can’t help because they have very minimal knowledge with Flash.

Thus leaving us with a bit of a predicament on our hands.

I guess I was just curious if we’re the only ones having trouble with this?

Two weeks just doesn’t seem like enough time to create something even remotely substantial with a program we’ve had two hours of experience with. Especially with finals looming and term papers for other classes raising their heads, it’s hard to do four hours of work on something without producing any results.

Argh.

=/

-Elliot

I thought this article about J.K. Rowling and her legal team taking action against a webmaster who decided to take his Harry Potter lexicon site and publish it was particularly relevant given the Jenkins reading.

I found this to be an interesting remix for online dating and socializing…

About:

“‘I Want You To Want Me,’ an interactive piece on the subject of online dating and relationships by perennial CH fave Jonathan Harris and his collaborator Sep Kamvar, and one of the standouts commissioned for MoMA’s recent Design and the Elastic Mind exhibit, is the subject of this m ss ng p eces produced video. For anyone who missed the show at MoMA, the short explains how the piece represents constantly-updated info collected from dating sites using a drop-dead gorgeous interface and the visual metaphor of balloons. ” (coolhunting.com)

Gnarls Barkley just released their new album “The Odd Couple” for a free download… BUT, it’s in reverse… how’s that for an interesting spin on things?

Check it: Gnarls Barkley

Brendan Owens, the Digital media Tutor Supervisor, forwarded this article to me. I am not sure which is more interesting, that we could be moving away from Google as the primary search resource, or that Popular Mechanics has taken an interest in digital technologies. Sign of the times.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4259135.html

I’ve been running through some of the keywords that already have entries, and I found that in my opinion, a great deal of them are lacking.

I’ve started to edit a few them, adding new material etc. It’d be awesome if we all got on this. Some of this stuff deserves a lot more time than was previously given to it.

In other news…

Anybody been reading up on the Wii fit? it’s a ‘game’ designed to function as a workout system by using a balancing board that registers data directly to the game. It sold a huge number of copies in Japan, and it’s already sold out in the UK.

Pretty cool idea I’d say.

Any thoughts?

Wii Fit

Hey guys! I started an article about the Network Economy on the class wiki. Unfortunately, I’m not very good at explaining these kinds of things, so the article is really REALLY short, but at least it’s there.

Please help!

We can make this wiki awesome, guys!

While we are on the topic of collective writing of the Wiki–especially in light of the recent post about the blog novels, there will be an article coming out in “The Campus” this week about “Wu Ming,” a group of five writers who collaborate on novels. And in part of a “copyleft” movement, you can read their novel “54” online for free.
So check out the article this Thursday or you can wander around their site

So, it dawned on me that I haven’t read any posts commenting on Deviant Art: the online artist domain where artists of all types can post their work.

www.deviantart.com

The great thing about DA is that it doesn’t really matter what sort of artist you are. Writers, painters, poets, and even filmmakers are all welcome to upload high quality versions of their work. Whats more, DA also has a system where you can sell prints of your work.

Pertaining to something we covered in class about copyrights, DA has a really neat system to make sure your copyrights over your work are kept and held secure.

I highly advise anyone interest in art of any kind check it out. It’s a great resource and there are many a talented person on there.

My site is http://ryougasaotome.deviantart.com/

Check it out. =)

-E.

I thought this was an interesting (and brief) article about the launching of a Myspace page for Koreans. The process of “localizing” media is interesting because so many popular items on the internet can be enjoyed by those who don’t speak English (or whatever the media’s original language). I have heard that the “History of Dance” youtube video (the most popular youtube video of all time) is so popular, in part because there is no language barrier. Additionally, i know that a large portion of World of Warcraft players are Korean, and the article here describes South Korea as “one of the world’s most wired and tech savvy nations”

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-MySpace-Korea.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin

Walking Bike