Cyber policeing

Alrighty, I'm sick and tired of the Internet being policed, by so-called watchdog companies such as http://www.watchdog.net.nz. Who disallow people who subscribe to their services to access sites such as bebo.com or youtube.com because they deem it to be unacceptable? I think that this is the most outright most ridiculous thing anyone has come up with. Sure there are some things on both sites that are questionable, but in saying that there are always immense wealth of information that can be gained from these sites. They allow interaction with people whom are not in the same geographical location as you, allow you to make friends from all different walks of life. All national schools are subscribed to the service will blocks these sites for kids. I think that just by stopping them isn’t going to do any good for the children of the future. If you forbid something it makes it more likely that they will want to find out what it is. There should be proper education about the Internet and how it can both be used in productive and counter productive ways. I believe that the Internet should be free for all who access it, which was the way it was designed and that’s the way that it should stay. If we allow governments or so called regulatory bodies to filter what content we are able to view it takes away the entire of what makes the internet the internet. It’s the only way in current society that allows freedom or speech and freedom of movement. Just as a final point I believe that if kids want to learn about sex sooner rather than later that’s fine, after all kids in European countries learn about sex a lot earlier than us here in New Zealand or in the States. They turn out to be better at adapting to the idea than the rest of us. Don’t forget we always look up to Europeans when it comes to the domain of sex. So why then are we still not moving towards that goal rather than blocking it out, make a change… I don't know if any of what I said makes sense to any of you but it makes sense in my head. So if you want me to clarify any of it tell me.

Stand for your rights of freedom of speech, freedom or movement, and freedom of information.

My Friend Technology

So I was reading this weeks reading about the sociology of the mobile phone, and I was surprised at the significant social changes that the mobile phone has caused. Growing up at the same time the cell phone was being popularised kept me from ever viewing life without it. And, much like McGuigan points out, social life would be a virtual impossibility without it. But, there was used to be a time when no one had cell phones, and people's lives were still just as active and full and friendships still existed. In today's social world, that would be literally impossible. People without cellphones are automatically places at a social disadvantage. It strikes me as incredible that such a small step in technology completely changes the way people set up and organize their social life.
It makes me wonder how much we will allow our lives be controlled by technology. I enjoy my cell phone. It keeps me connected with people, allows me to rearrange meeting points and times with people easily, makes communication with friends much more immediate, it even serves as a clock. It is a practical piece of technology, which is exactly why its social impact is accepted and overlooked without much thought. But what next technological step will we (as a society) make that will reform our social interactions?
Despite its great functions and abilities, the mobile phone has also dehumanized social interaction. Instead of calling someone on the phone and talking to them, we now just txt like crazy, forfeiting personailty, tone, and other subtleties in language that are only audible. The mobile has become a substitute for human interaction, and has also prevented people from being able to function without it. I dont' think many kids today would be able to handle their day to day responsibilities without their mobile. Like McGuigan has pointed out, the luxury has become a necessity.
I'm not saying we should get rid of mobiles and damn technology to hell. Technology is important and is a natural progression of society. But I think it is kind of disturbing the kind of social power and change pieces of technology can have and can be integrated into everyday life with such subtlety. To what extent are we really in control of technology, and how much does technology control us? I feel like society has allowed technology to dehumanize the social realm, be it through txting, ipods, internet chat rooms, and has moved the social realm into a virtual realm. I found McGuagan's article to be a good reminder of how socially important and determinant technology is, and the necessity for us to be in control of the technology to prevent technology from transferring our social lives into a virtual realm.
transmission over.

Look, I'm not exaggerating when I say the success of your mission hinges on how you use that cardboard box.

Technological Determinism...

Are DVDs better than VHS? How do you determine the value of a technology?
DVDs have been praised by the world as the next generation of video technology to surpass and replace the VHS which it has to an extent. But does this guarantee its superiority over VHS?
Kevin made the good point during tutorial that VHS was much more versatile for Lecturing purposes as you could have all your clips prepared in advance for screening, but because film is consumed by us in a different way, we have hearkened to the wonders of the DVD.
So it is hard to determine which is "naturally" better, it depends on the way it is consumed or the culture consuming, or any other variable that may affect it.
In this way I reject Technological Determinism.

But this idea of determinism doesn't only apply to technology. It can be used as a lens to perceive the differences between many different cultures and people. In fact you could apply it to sexuality, religion, food, philosophy.
In history the United States has been so adament to fight the evils of Communism and bring the joys of Democracy to the ignorant people of the world. But most cultures have survived to the modern day with those systems in place. Why is it they need to be saved?
Democracy is not the only successful system of governing a nation. His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie the 1st governed the nation of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974 and was an example of a good man doing right by his country. It's especially hyporitical for the US to impose Democracy on the rest of the world when it fails to be Democratic itself. Think back to the presidential race between Bush and Gore. Gore received more than half a million more votes than Bush. This could have nothing to do with Jeb Bush being the governor of Florida, the state that suffered severe misonduct and organisation in their electoral responsibilities.
How can someone who won the majority vote lose in a Democratic system?

But this idea of Determinism goes beyond Technology and Politics. People and technology and the environment are all different. It's these differences that make things beautiful and interesting. It's just a shame that so much of these things are being wiped out because of ideas like Determinism.

Why did they have to shut down the 2D studios in Walt Disney?
I liked those films. We don't all have make Pixar films now =(

You must be able to tell by now that I'm a raving lunatic...especially you Sam.

Caleb (loves his Gameboy as much as his PSP)

The Fear

You know, writing stuff on the Internet totally gives me the Fear. I know we (the class) have talked about this already. I’m going to talk about it some more.

I kept a blog a couple of years ago, but doing so changed my writing style, made me less candid, more sort of – I don’t know. Stunted, trite, sarcastic, ‘witty’. I would always be posting stupid little anecdotes that ended with a punchline. (A continuation of this style is evinced – my god, ‘evince’ is actually a word? – at the beginning of this class blog in my post about cellphones.) And it’s totally because of the Fear, you know, like of public speaking – which for me is ridiculous since I’ve never had any such fear of public speaking specifically, nor of writing, nor of letting strangers read very personal writing about myself. Actually I get off on the idea – well – I know I very much used to get off on that idea. I made a habit of telling anyone and everyone incredibly personal things about myself. I used to think that social protocol, tact, for example – a sense of what’s appropriate - just got in the way and ought to be ignored. Used to.

Ugh, I’m babbling. It’s because of the Fear. What I’m saying here is, I love attention, I love the sound of my own voice; you wouldn’t think I’d get the Fear, not me of all people. What’s going on?

Agoraphobia, fear of the agora, agora being the Greek marketplace where everyone hung out and gossiped and checked each other out, I guess. The mall, I was totally afraid of the mall during my early high school years. What is she wearing? What am I wearing? Who am I being seen with? Dad, I’ll meet you at the car in two hours.

The art gallery opening. I mean, I know we’re all adults and we’re all beyond that shit now – and I certainly at least try to act indifferent - but if I’m planning to go to one I still check to make sure I’m wearing eyeliner and maybe take too much advantage of the free alcohol.

Spaces where the social stuff is made visible, then. Opportunities to see and be seen. In short, the public arena. This is what I’m afraid of. And rather than socialising on the Internet being, like, a freeing thing, where you can play and reinvent yourself or show the ‘true you’ or whatever, I totally find it scarier than real life. Possibly because in person, it’s easier to feign indifference.

I mean, try feigning indifference when filling out a personal profile. I’ve done a lot of the things. The issue, perhaps, is striking a balance between total indifference (in which case you wouldn’t even be constructing a personal profile) and, well, the opposite of indifference – the, er, reason why you’re constructing a personal profile, I guess. (I’m operating within the assumption that indifference is sought after, ‘cool’, a kind of armour, like irony.) And I’ve put time and effort into constructing personal profiles, and I think that this is normal and human and okay, in the same way that spending half an hour deciding what to wear is okay. We put time and effort into constructing the way we’re perceived – people of my age group more so, perhaps – this is stuff everyone knows, I don’t need to be bashing on and on about it.

Maybe the reason why I’m so entirely neurotic about, um, the online agora (online agorae?) – so much so that I’ve stayed away entirely for most of the term – as opposed to almost everybody else who can just get on with it – and many of my friends who still maintain blogs –

No, I don’t know the reason. All I know is that I hated deciding what to wear to the mall when I was fourteen, that I hate turning up to a gallery opening where I don’t know anyone well enough to cling to, and that publishing any kind of content at all online turns the tone of my writing into the sort that needs its own laugh track.

I was going to say, like a standup comedian on amateur night, but I’ve thought of a better example: those people who, to hide their anxiety, turn their conversation into standup comedy, and just recycle anecdotes so if you hang out with them too much you hear the same stuff. I knew a dude in high school who did that. He blatantly made stuff up, too, and retold other people’s stories. But he was okay.

(the above paragraph was a deliberate ploy to not end this post on a punchline.)

Minimization of technology

Has anyone seen the new iPod shuffle? Its tiny, almost to the point of not being there.
I know the saying goes ‘less is more’ but it seems like these days in the technology market the consumer is getting less while the producer is the one making more.

Does anyone else yearn for the days when technology was slightly more tangible and tactile? What happened to the idea of a more masculine rugged piece of technology or gadget. Sure small and sleek is sexy, but part of me wishes it was just a bit more substantial.

The cellphone industry is cronic in this respect, they are almost getting to the stage where phones are small to the point of impracticality. Im not exactly a 'sausage fingers' but I even struggle to cleanly hit the keys on some of the super small new phones.

Apparently bling is in at the moment, and from a bling point of view the 1980’s had it right. When you walked down the street with your suitcase sized cellphone people would know you are the man. Now our flash new tiny phones hide away in the depths of a pocket. People want to drive big flash cars, why not have a big flash phone?

Has any one else here had the pleasure of waking on a groggy morning up after a big night on the sauce, to find your phone is lost, or its in about four more peices than when you went out the night before?
I'll tell you for free that it would be a hell of a lot less likely to happen if the thing weighed the best part of 500 grams and had the structural integrity(and styling) of a brick...


The same sort of phenomena has occured in the personal audio market. Sure Ipods are pretty cool little gadgets, but there is something intrinsically cool about a boom box or a walkman that a dinky wee iPod just cant give you. Would Radio Raheem have been anywhere near as cool if he had been rocking an iPod instead of a boom box?

I feel it has almost reach a terminal point. The quest to minimize has had certain trade offs in the practicality, tactility, strength and toughness of many of the technological gadgets we buy.
If phones and mp3 players get any smaller, it could be to the detriment of the user. It could be argued that this has already happened.




Boom box= cool and tough grrrrrrr!

I need your help!

Hi there :) I need your help!

I'm doing a postgrad course (one of Nabeel's actually), and as part of that course I am doing some research into people's music acquisition and consumption. And yes, my research is taking the form of a dreaded survey!

But, before you all run screaming, let me placate you. This is a very simple survey, and should take less than 5 mins to complete. It comes in the guise of a PDF, where you just fill in the gaps, and then click the button at the end to return the data to me. The one caveat is that it does require Adobe Reader rather than any third party PDF-reading software.

Even if you don't ever buy, download or even listen to music, your opinions are still really important to me. I'm aiming to get 100 people to complete it over the next 10 days, so it would mean a lot if as many of you as possible could contribute. All responses will be kept completely confidential and anonymous.

The link to the survey is http://www.genio.co.nz/survey.htm

Thanks so much, all of you - it can be quite hard getting respondants to surveys like this, so I am hoping that you can help a po' man out.

::Mark S::

-edit- any questions or problems, post a comment - I'll keep an eye on them :)

FTVMS 203

DVD's are just part of the growth in technological development and advancement. It was inevitable really, with the rate of innovation. We live in a consumer driven society, where competition between companies and businesses to produce and develop the latest technologies is paramount to the industry, by being one step ahead of the rest, the continual push for newer and better to meet the needs and desires of consumers. The transition from VHS to DVD is just part of the evolving of technology. The DVD provides better picture quality "based upon pixel resolution, color resolution, color detail, black level reproduction and a virtual lack of color noise, the DVD picture is nearly 3 times better than conventional VHS". The DVD highlights the enhancement of audio, picture, sound, the way you can watch it through pan, scan, widescreen and letter box "and brings the Cinema experience to Home Entertainment". The packaging is better being smaller and more compact, the ability to skip and get to parts of the movie you like or have missed, makes the movie more accessiable. It caters to newer technologies like the Wide Screen television. While VHS is still around, DVD has surpassed and taken over
VHS in relationship to Multimedia and also within relation to the home entertainment sector.

And another

I think both VHS and DVD have their benefits. One thing I'm really interested in is the video tape that can produce a more HD picture than DVD, which Kevin mentioned in the tute yesterday (shelved because of quick consumer uptake of DVD). I remember reading somewhere last year (and this is contestable) that compared to DVD, VHS has a greater level of fidelity to the original theatrical image, especially with older and not too worn out celluloid. I guess there is a kind of loss during the digital clean-up of prints with the alteration to levels of contrast, colour and sharpness. It's well-known that video cassettes are really susceptible to the 'tape chewing' function thru excessive fast-forwarding and rewinding, along with melting and delamination, whereas with DVDs (as mentioned) the only main worries are surface scratching and storage. I had a DVD once that wasn't carefully placed on the tray and I lost about 1/3 of the film - DEEP scratch courtesy of Luddite mishandling of digital tech!
Stella

Yet another DVD comment

Ok, so I wanted to pose another side to this fairly flat argument so far, as people play with the new technology like an unpinned hand grenade...

personally i really like dvd's, they store more, better quality, sound etc and also have the added features, although most of them are advertising materials, you can find some real gems. I have also found that they are a lot more resiliant to scratches than cd's and have lasted longer than tapes I got last year brand new.

Of course there are improvements to be made, their loading time and being able to skip the starting menu's (which is solved with a software crack) but we need to fully embrace dvd's in order to fully tell what needs to be done... personally I want DVD players with the buttons on the player so i can navigate the menu when i lose my remote for the uptenth time.

I know there are complaints about them in lectures but it's a process of education that should have been instituted at the university when DVD's started becoming the norm. I have sat in lectures where there was not one hiccup with a dvd because the lecturer had ripped the parts they wanted and put them all on one dvd... you could even put them on video. Personally I think someone needs to find out why those touch screens are so usless and why when you go to a mode it goes on, goes black then comes back on... has anyone else noticed that?

So don't hate on the new technology. Sure, like the old ones if you wish, but it is only set to improve and you don't want to be totally left in the dark do you?

YouTube

Whose content is it anyway?

Technological Determinism - The DVD

Is the DVD really better than VHS? It is smaller, more compact and better sound and picture quality but there is a lot of faults with the technology. Such as,ZONING!! I remember being really excited about going to America so I could buycheap DVDs (As well as traveling around and seeing the country... but mainly for the DVDs) Then the sales guy asked what Zone is NZ? I had no idea... So he was like "ahhh I don't think you should buy any because I don't think that they will work in your DVD player". I came back to NZ empty handed, only to findthat my DVD player was multi-zoned and it could of played the DVDs from the US!They must waste so much money putting DVDs into 4 zones - and why do they still put the DVDs into zones if DVD players are now multi-zoned? Never had that confusing problem with VHS!

Also, how much time has been wasted in lectures because the lecturer can't cue the DVD to the part they want? I mean, DVDs might be better to watch it all theway through but for scanning and searching, the VHS is much better... So Silly!

I'm not really sure why I buy DVDs instead of Videos to watch - because I don't really care about sound and picture quality (Along as it is watchable) but I do like the menu functions on the DVD - and I am learning Spanish so it's quite cool to put "sex and the city" into "sexo en nuevo york"... Hmmm yes my love-hate relationship with the DVD.

Re-release of DVDs in comparison to other forms of media texts.

Thinking of the lecture today, we saw how DVD's were released and then re-released to satisfy fan demand for more and more information. What got me thinking was that this is not just unique for DVD's but for almost any form of media. Any novel transformed into film will be re-released in a new publication (usually indicated by numerous references to the film) just before the release of the film, so potential fans can be incorporated into the films surrounding supersystems, resulting in (of course) more coinage.

Video games are also an example of another form of media that continues to be released. Ever bought that new playstation game just to find that a few months later the platinum version is released? (at a muchly discounted price of course). Some games ive seen have been re-released in boxed sets in combination with other games. It seems the only difference between the DVD's and the books and games is that unlike with DVD's, the producers (or re-compilers) of books and games dont have the excuse of simply servicing the fans need for more information. This is because with games and books you simply dont get the same level of anticipation and standardization that fans will be guaranteed to want more than just a cheaper price in future editions.

How those top 50 blogs linking to each other?

DOWNLOAD PDF FOR LARGER IMAGE.

The pdf document draw the almost clear lines to showing how those top blogs linking to each other, therefore we can have a peep about the relation between blogs over the world.
Well the Top 50 blogs are quite interesting, if you got a time, hope you guys can go and have a look and, it is a the people in different country, have a big different style to deal with their blogs.

1. Boing Boing

A herald from the expanding fringe of Net culture: nerdy and fun.

2. Engadget

The Net premier tech blog and the flagship of the Weblogs, Inc., blog network. Pete Rojas, the brains behind the blog, specializes in product reviews
and breaking news in gadget-land.

3. PostSecret

An online 揳rt project?that allows people to read your deepest secrets on scanned anonymous postcards.

4. Daily Kos

Started by a U.S. Army veteran, Markos Moulitsas Z鷑iga, Daily Kos is the standard-bearer for liberal political
blogs Netwide.

5. The Huffington Post

Famed national syndicated columnist, former California gubernatorial candidate, and former conservative Arianna Huffington gets on the blog bandwagon with a posse of famous friends in tow.

6. Gizmodo

Where Rojas used to work, before he jumped ship.

7. InstaPundit

University of Tennessee law prof Glenn Reynolds started spinning his libertarian-conservative punditry pre-9/11 and ranges freely
among tech issues, law, politics, and the war on terror.

8. Thought Mechanics

A mishmash of Website design, code, music, and art.

9. Crooks and Liars

A lefty blog composed mostly of links to
video clips from the MSM (that抯 搈ainstream media?to you).

10. spaces.msn.com/klcintw

The Horn Village Blog, in Chinese.

11. Michelle Malkin

Dubbed the Filipino Ann Coulter, Malkin writes about America-haters, illegal immigrants, and Democratic windbags.

12. SamZHU

In Chinese.

13. Dooce

The public suffering
of a postpartum depressive. Mommies everywhere seem to relate.

14. Beppe Grillo Grillo, an
Italian political satirist noted for packing stadiums in Italy and having giant wavy hair, writes an English/Italian blog peppered
with strong anti-corruption, anti-globalization outrage and a
pro-tech, pro-little-guy ethos.
He knows his audience.

15. theme.blogfa.com

In Arabic.

16. Herramientas para Blogs

Madrid, Spain朾ased blogger Marcelino Madrigal writes in Spanish on music, graffiti, and whatever else he wants.

17. Lifehacker

Part of the
Nick Denton blog empire, Lifehacker envisions a better world where computers make us more productive, rather than suck
down our spare time.

18. locker2man
In Chinese.

19. Open Palm! silicn

In Japanese.

20. Think Progress

House organ of the Center for American Progress, a think tank led
by former Clinton chief of staff
John Podesta.

21. Official Google Blog

As the name implies.

22. Kottke

Jason Kottke got his big break in 2000, when he was profiled by The New Yorker. Now he blogs full time.

23. Fark

A frenetic mix of Star Trek: The Next Generation tidbits and dorky Photoshop contests.

24. Gawker

The gossipy flagship of the Denton blog empire.

25. chattie555

Whats not
to love about sketches of skinny adolescent Kimono-clad girls playing with hippos? In Japanese.

26. spaces.msn.com/gb2312

In Chinese.

27. spaces.msn.com/msn-sa

In Japanese.

28. lwhanz1981530
The blog
of one pensive-looking Japanese boy with photos that highlight his six-pack and pecs. In Japanese.

29. Wonkette

Part of Denton's empire, gossip for the D.C. set. Founding editor Ana Marie Cox handed over the reins in January, but it still dishes Cox-like 抰ude.

30. shiraishi seesaa

In Japanese.

31. The Space Craft

Where Microsoft discusses its rather lame network of blog sites called Spaces.

32. Talking Points Memo

Josh Marshall has taken the blog form from couch-potato punditry to real journalism. He recently hired a reporter to muckrake full time.

33. spaces.msn.com/huangmj

More Japanese.

34. A List Apart

If the term liquid center makes you think of candy rather than a Web page, this site isnt for you. Design tips and tricks for those in the business.

35. manabekawori

More Japanese.

36. spaces.msn.com/atiger

Welcome to 揳 Tiger抯 Space.?In Chinese.

37. Power Line

A conservative political blog by three lawyers. The blog got famous during 揜athergate?for helping to prove that the docs used by CBS questioning Bush抯 military record were fakes.

38. Weebl's Stuff News

From the creators of Weebl and Bob, cartoon talking eggs who love,
I mean love, pie. They抮e Internet stars and were recently picked
up by MTV UK.

39. Eschaton

Liberal pro-Dem political blog of Duncan Black (a.k.a. Atrios). Known for its serious, in-your-face invective.

40. Xiaxue

Self-absorbed travails of twentysomething lovelorn Wendy Cheng. Famous in
Singapore, she has also been criticized as racist and xenophobic.

41. Joystiq

All things video-game related, and part of the Calacanis blog network that includes Engadget.

42. Little Green Footballs

A rabidly conservative war blog. The source of so much Net controversy that it spawned a watchdog, LGF.blogspot.com.

43. AMERICAblog

Lefty political blog famous for exposing Jeff Gannon, the male prostitute cleared to attend White House press conferences.

44. nosz50j

In Japanese.

45. Joel on Software

Joel Spolsky, CEO of a small New York朾ased software company, computer programmer, and book author, shares his coding tips.

46. spaces.msn.com/gouy2k

In Japanese.

47. princesscecicastle

Lots of blurry cam shots of 19-year-old Ceci and her friends in Toronto.
In Chinese.

48. Google Blogoscoped

A Google gossip-watch site run from Stuttgart, Germany.

49. The Superficial

Maliciously funny celeb gossip that's long with the ubiquitous celebrity boob and butt shots' eeps you coming back for more.

50. Andrew Sullivan

A gay, Catholic war supporter, albeit one who is very critical of Bush.
In January, he leased the site to Time Warner.

New course next semester (Popular Music on Screen)

I hope you'll allow me to indulge in a plug for a new stage three course I'm teaching next semester that deals with music on screen. Some of you might be interested in it. Below is a working description. The course is provisionally timetabled for Wednesday 2-4 pm (I think) plus tutorial. The content is far from set in stone and the texts listed below are just suggestions at this stage. I'd be happy to receive any suggestions for films, videos, quicktime movies, television programmes that we should cover in some way. Please send any comments to n.zuberi@auckland.ac.nz

I hope to see you next semester.


FTVMS 323 Popular Music On Screen

Examines music in film, television, video, the www and other audiovisual media spaces. Considers the relationship between sound and vision in such forms as the musical, documentary, narrative feature film, concert film, music video and television commercial. Looks at the visual cultures of jazz, pop, rock, R & B, hip-hop, electronica and other music styles. Texts include 9 Songs, 42nd Street, A Hard Day’s Night, American Graffiti, American Psycho, Bandwagon, Black Orpheus, Buena Vista Social Club, Come To Daddy, Don’t Look Back, Flashdance, Gimme Shelter, Girl Power, Head-On, MTV, Man With A Movie Camera, Modulations, Monterey Pop, Morvern Callar, Punk: Attitude, Saturday Night Fever, School of Rock, The Jazz Singer, Top of the Pops, Wattstax, Woodstock, Wild Style and many others. Students discuss weekly reading, complete a research proposal and essay on a topic of their choice, and take an exam.

off topic rant

anyone get the text message circulating through mainly vodafone customers that if you send it to 40 people from your address bk then Vodafone would credit you a hundred smacks? or something similar?
and did it work..
i have a friend. i love her. yet i find myself wanting to cut off her hands and pour acid on her computer. it should be illegal for her to use message services. for now i send her mail to the junk box.
i have a fear and deep hatred for any sort of chain-letters/ emails/texts...
it develeoped at a young age i guess 8, chatter rings were banned elastics were cool and chain-letters were big. on the rise especially in my area as everyone was sending them to the ten people they knew.. each other. and if you didn't photo-copy write your name fold spend forty cents lick stamp and post by the specified time.. oh the consequences.. you can only imagine the psychological problems a 7 year old has, mafioso deadline bad luck for the rest of your life little cancerous jim will die.. ITS ALL ON YOU.
i write this because it seems everytime i check my email account its there. waiting to suck me in. laughing at me.
they come in many forms. i believe she has sent me every single terrific type.
there's the one that promises a picture or a clip if you send it to 5-10 people
the sad story that never happened made up by some sicko who wants to torture you by making you feel you should share it with 10+ people because you should feel guilty about teasing anyone- he didn't commit suicide because someone picked up his books-sound familiar?
the typical send it- good luck don't send it- eternal damnation. other words bad luck
the make a wish forward it to 20 people and it will come true.. i.e bruce has crabs, he wishes they were gone, instead of buying vagisil or some sort of crab ointment he'll forward it on like the std he has and once those 20 people have it, the party on his pubes will be gone.
the find out who your true friends are because they'll send the crap back to you. N.B you are not my friend in the first place if you think i'll apperciate it.
it never ends. falcor. for more info go to www.bighoax.com
this isn't to say that i don't appreciate the letters that end up as chains because everyone 's forwarding it. they're forwarding it decently. not putting a load on your shoulders merely taking it off with humour.
i'm sure you have all been victims. don't pass it on. delete it. for the sake of the children.

The Death of DVD

Interesting read on how DVDs are almost dead in South Korea due to broadband:

deathofdvd

Sure soon DVD will be replaced by Blue-Ray/HD-DVD but I think in the future physical media will only be used for backup purposes as all media could easily be accessible through ultra fast networks surpassing broadband/cable/etc. It would be cool to one day have access to all stuff related to a particular film/song on demand at the comfort of your home. I'm envisioning that one would just have to turn on their Ex-HDTV sets and be given a menu (that can be personalised of course) of whatever they wish to watch based on what's been subscribed/available in a virtually infinite & constantly updated database of a/v material. Say you search/click for Terminator then you'll get a menu of what's available: the theatrical version, the director's cut version, the MODs, deleted scenes etc. Beats buying multiple versions of dvds (special edition, 20th anniversary edition, etc). Closest we get to this at the moment is iTV/TV on Demand.

The DVD and film scholarship

Here is an interesting addition to the discussion on DVD extra texts and audio commentaries. I was thinking about what came up in the lecture about how the director's commentary of Fight Club attempts to suppress what some scholars believe is a homoerotic tension between Edward Norton and Brad Pitt's characters.

I am working from the assumption that film scholarship and film criticism emerged as an academic discourse for those cinephiles who were bent on untangeling and unpacking deeper social, political and economic meanings within film texts. This may be wrong (please correct me if it is) but doesn't the director commentary now do this for us?

Granted there are a lot of director and actor commentaries which are quite trivial and bland and reveal little about the meaning embedded in the text itself, but it seems to me that it would be quite hard to argue with the director's preferred reading if it was the director who was responsible for giving the text meaning in the first place.

I think this makes for interesting discussion. Please let me know what you think.

-Andrew

DVD vs VHS

I have heard a few criticisms about DVDs in today’s tutorial and lecture. Problems such as, DVDs are not optimised for teaching; they either work or don’t when they are damaged, whereas VHS can still play some part of it; and DVD zone is inconvenient etc. were discussed. I have never thought about those problems before. I have to admit that a damaged DVD can be pretty useless. You either have to skip a whole scene or just give it up completely. However, I still have to say, I love DVDs!

Personally I prefer DVDs rather than VHS. The special features included in most DVDs make them so much better compare to VHS, especially those pixar animation films. They often include ‘behind the scenes’ which allow the audience to learn how the animation is made through CGI. They also include games which you can play by using your DVD remote control. Of course those games are mainly targeted at children. This shows how DVD is competing with theatrical releases. Children not only want to go and see the animation in the cinema, but also own it on DVD so they can play those games with their friends. People expect to see special features on DVD because that’s what makes it unique. I was so used to watching the behind the scenes and the directors’ commentaries on DVD that I got disappointed after watching Dead Man Walking as there was no special feature at all. Of course not all special features are useful. For example, that 360°C thing in Gangs of New York DVD was just lame.Overall I think DVDs are great in terms of offering us the opportunity to not only watch the film but also the making of the film. This is something that VHS can’t offer. And DVD remote controllers are great to use, you can skip between scenes which saves a lot of time from forwarding/rewinding. I never owned a VCR myself, and I really don’t like using them. Maybe I’m just technology determinant

Quick response to "Religion & Media"

First off dude/dudette, can you back up at anytime in the history of the media an occurance where "... muslem LEADERS chant for the death of all Christians (far worse than what the Pope said, and an occourance that happens far more often),..."??? Name me at least 1 official muslem leader that you know who said this. Pls don't say Osama, even then, he said he wanted to wage war on America not kill all christians nor jew, at least that's what I heard/read so far in the media. Anyways that's besides the point. Who cares as long as you get to put out your own biased views and interpretation, right? Just like the media? Problem is people react from such things that are said in such a way, like that "muslem" who killed the nun, or that "christian" who burnt the mosque, etc, etc. I don't have to list down the many occurances where the "media" is biased towards muslems. Hell, the media is biased to anyone and everyone for that matter. I understand your disgust at the killing of the nun. But please get your facts right before saying some things that could be misleading/misinterpreted. The world is full of stupid people who reacts stupidly based on what people say. Who is to blame really when such acts happen? Well that depends on one's own biased point of view isn't it? Ain't it sucks to be human cause almost nothing is definitive and not open to interpretation? Wouldn't it be much cooler to be a robot/machine with a limited set of instructions that every other robot in existence agrees on? (Laughing Sarcastically Out Loud) By the way it's muslim or moslem... it's in the dictionary, you can look it up but by all means uphold your "muslem" spelling. Who knows when you're powerful/famous enough one day it will for no good reason be the definitive spelling for all humankind simply BECAUSE YOU SAID SO. (Laughing Sarcastically Out Loud Again).

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What's that? I totally missed your point? Oh is it because my humanistic nature to look/respond at things that caught my attention based on my own biased interpretation? WAIT A MINUTE!!! Why did I waste time on this? The main purpose for me to be here is to get points for posting stuff related to the course. Luke won't give me any points for this. I should post about some "cool" website/technology/something related to class/tutorials/readings and write in an analytical manner to show that I'm.... err, well...

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My next post will be on how new technology.... (OH STOP IT ALREADY)

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I'll be a "good" student and go read my reading for class before I go to sleep now.
xxx

Blog searching not working

Is anyone else having problems searching this blog? It's closer to the deadline and it seems everyone's blogging which is all good but then again I don't have time to read all of them. I also don't want to post stuff already mentioned/touched on previously. Any words/keywords I put in with the search function did'nt give me any results, even those that are obviously there (I tried this, that, piracy, kevin, global, internet, music, sharing, etc). So Kevin/Luke can you confirm if this is a problem or if it's just me. Thanks.

z

Piracy: It's a Crime?

With recent coverage in the media concerning the likes of music and movie pirating, it has me thinking about the beginning of the trend. I would think that it could be traced back before the digital medians we know today (though at the moment, the idea of someone stealing a printing press to churn out counterfeit manuscripts is the best I can come up with).
Technically it is illegal for someone to keep a video taped movie or program for extended periods of time. The same is true for music recorded with a recorder. Were the makers of these devices aware of what could happen with this sort of technology given out to everyone? I would think so, but more of a deal is being made because it can now cut into the profits of those medians which are being copied and replicated. Many would not see this as a syphoning of corporate profits, but there are adherents to anti-piracy laws and think that theft is theft. The fact that they can still rake in sufficient and very real profits stands as a fact that not everyone is a pirate and will still go out and buy. One would have to think whether this sort of behaviour is actually more prevalent today than it ever was.

Interesting note: Christian music is quite the popular target of piracy. Aside from breaking the 'Thou shall not steal" command, it has caused a split-side argument between those who do think it's just stealing, and those who think that rapid distribution is an effective means of dispersing the word. Catering to all parties perhaps?

The 25 worst websites ever

PC World has made a list of the 25 worst websites throughout the webs (short) history. Quite an interresting list I think. And guess which site's in first place? Yup, MySpace.

Emily

Religion and Media

Religion and Media....they DONT mix!!

Im rather upset with the latest media attention given about the Pope's comments about Islam. Before I too get emails of hate comments for daring to suggest the Media is so PC and affraid to say anything against the religion of Islam let me just say one thing. I have nothing against Islam. And I am not a Christian, nor am I muslem.

Sitting on the benches watching the news it seems it is the Pope's fault that a nun was shot dead!? This leaves me to wonder, 'did i miss something here?'. The mass media makes it seem as if the shooter was acting rationally in light of the Pope's comments. This doesnt wash with me. Sure, the Pope, as the head of the Catholic church should not make any comments against other religions, him doing so does not ligitimize the killing of a nun.

Everytime muslem leaders chant for the death of all Christians (far worse than what the Pope said, and an occourance that happens far more often), Chiristians dont go and kill someone over it. Dont bring up Geroge Bush and his clowns. Thats different. Wars aside. When any Muslem leader suggest christians are worthy of death on one side of the world, christians on the other dont march in the streets. If they did, something tells me the media wouldnt be on their side, unlike with the current situations.

Why such double standards? Would the NZ media blame a Hamas Leader's comments for the death of lets say, a Muslem Cleric in Sydney, and then demand that the Hamas leader say sorry? The Answer, No! They would rightly blame the nutter who killed the guy! So why's it ok if it's the other way around? Just some questions for thought.

Now being all PC, and scared of any comebacks, i should appologise for any offence that may have been caused to any group or individual. None of this was meant to offend, or put either religion down. All i wish to do is suggest a possible bias in the media. One i see evident.

Let me tell you about Bebo

Before I start, I saw that people needed more information about me. I don't know how much you need to identify which student in class I am, but my name is Shane Mannell, my student ID is ******* and my favourite food is potato salad.

So, you all know about Myspace. Some use it for social networking. Some use it to find love. And apparently Al Qaeda used it to announce terror plots. Personally I use it for work. I am a stand-up comedian, and pretty much all NZ comics have Myspaces. That way we can trade ideas, organise gigs and post slightly askew black and white images of ourselves. But, deep down inside, I have a need to troll internet communities and generally make a fool of myself. And that is where Bebo came in.

Bebois yet another social interaction website. I call it Myspace-Lite, as it has far less things to do than Myspace. You can set up your own page, post little Blog comments and upload photos. You can also set up a page for your old school, and interact with students, past and present. Bebo is far simpler to use than that CSS giant Myspace. And as a result attracts a far simpler type of people. As I found out when a friend of mine introduced me to the Bebo page set up for students at my old High School. The stereotype that all young people are incapable of correctly using the english language when online is true. The best example of course is the old trick of UsInG cApS oN eVeRy SeCoNd LeTtEr so you get your point across. Fun. So I have collected many a death threat from my old township by tormenting these people. You can always tell a lot about the citizens of an internet community by their death threats.

You can also use what is called the Whiteboard to draw images in a MS Paint-like environment. They appear on the users page. You can also post a little quiz for your users to take, and imbed videos for others to watch. The notion of friend-hoarding isn't as big on Bebo however.

So I suggest that if you find Myspace too frustrating, and you like your posts formed as if a monkey threw a brick at a typewriter, then check out Bebo.

Beachles

Check out this appropriate response to EMI getting in a huff about the Beachles' mash-up of Pet Sounds & Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Copy rights and wrongs

Some of you might know the work of Weird Al Yankovic. He has a new album which features an ironic number called 'Don't Download This Song' and a parody of Mr Blunt's You're Beautiful appropriately called 'You're Pitiful'. Read more here.

Also check out sonic activists/pranksters Negativland's website for more on intellectual property issues and samples.

class rep meeting

hey there, Sorry to disrupt this thriving electronic sanctuary, however theres a class rep meeting coming up in a couple of days and I was just wondering if anyone has anything they want me to report to the faculty. gripes, kudos, anything class related. Gimme an email. cdow@hotmail.com. thanks

Internet, Music and Fashion

These days many fashion shops have place TV in the shop and plays the newest music clips, and the music they've been chosen are always matching the shop's style. Then I was thinking how would it be, if there's no music at all?
These days, music is not just something for entertaining or pleasure to listen. It leads the trend of the lifestyle and fashion. For example, Hip Hop and Rn'B. The representative stars for Hip Hop music, such as 50C and Eminem... They are so in hit, that many young people are following their dressing style, like baggy clothing.. Also those Rn'B stars like JLO and Beyonce, their sexy look lead the trend of revealing clothing, such as tight Jeans and tops with very less materials.
From these we can see that music is not just to listening, it creates a certain style and identity. And I realised how important is the internet as a medium to process these information. Like in the older days, when people just hear music from eg.cds,cassettes... There are limitations of what you could hear and get to know. Unlike now, its digital music world, you can listen all sorts of music from the net. These made the singers worldwide, and since these stars represents a certain style or identity, the fans has adopted it so fast, and leads to the today's fashion. Therefore, internet network is so powerful! Also the development of those Myspaces, and blogs... There are a group of people who share the newest music, pictures of new products... And on the other side, there are peoples who follows these... So the internet is like a space, where people make communications. Therefore, thesedays digital music plays a very important role in the youth culture also in the fashion industry.

A banana experiencing both worlds!

*Banana: yellow on the outside, white on the inside, ie. asian on the outside kiwi on the inside

The impact of the internet; identifying just one of the many ways in which it has greatly affected our lives.

As a Korean 'banana*' living in New Zealand I experienced difficulty during the years as a primary and intermediate student. It was impossible to equally maintain the values, customs and cultures of both countries. But as I entered college our home too became wired to the internet and I became a frequent user.
Through this new found tool it was possible to truly bring out and maintain both shades of yellow and white. The internet became a tool for uncovering not only current affairs on a daily basis but news and information such as music top ten charts, recent films, and the life of the stars. Nowadays, with the internet as a tool it has become the norm for most Korean diasporas to be even more aware of the most recent star gossip and rumour. This is but one example of the many of the advantages we diasporas experience, through this accessiblity of information. Now this banana can truly feel a part of both worlds, atleast much more than before the arrival of the internet!

runescape

hey guys..

i know the internet game 'Runescape' has been mentioned before in class but i hadnt come across it then. As for now? lol ive been playing the game. This will sound silly but its really weird how almost real the game has become to the point where i was walking down the road the other day and i literally for that split second had to turn around just to make sure there was no goblin behind me that i needed to kill (as u need to do in the game).

Basically most of the things u do in real life u can do in the game. you cook, go fishing, make money, trade, construct buildings, pray, strive to get the latest clothes or armor seriously the list goes on. Last but not least...... you have boyfriends, girlfriends AND YOU CAN EVEN GET MARRIED (lol they go to the jewelry shop and can buy u a ring, saphire, ruby emrald diamond lol u name it) but dnt ask me how this relationship thing works coz i still havnt got my head around it.. i mean whats the point? in a game? the only thing that you do in the game that u dont do in real life is kill people.

so check out the game if ur interested..

:)

why to pay to listen music online?

resontly i notice some of my friends uses software that links to online music data base like , KKbox. It is basicly a software that is link to the company's server, which provide the newest music; while the user can create their own play list and listening to their favourite tracks online. what surprises me is how the interface of the software, actually gives out the subtitle for the tracks simutainously while the track are playing; like an karaoke. I know it isn't a new innovation, but it actually uses a function that might require plugins for other music playing softwares; and increase the visual pleasure to the song( with surporting subtitle and the album's cover displaying when ever a song is playing.) The only down side is the software is membership based, as the monthly fees apply. But by using the software, it means getting the newest tracks, while listening to it with a interface offers lots more fuction than your ordinary player; and also lligal. But for NZ's limited bits usage, do you guys think it is really worth it? do you think its gona change the way of how many of us still just downloaded our favourite tracks, when we can listen to it tho a paid provider?

why to pay to listen music online?

resontly i notice some of my friends uses software that links to online music data base like , KKbox. It is basicly a software that is link to the company's server, which provide the newest music; while the user can create their own play list and listening to their favourite tracks online. what surprises me is how the interface of the software, actually gives out the subtitle for the tracks simutainously while the track are playing; like an karaoke. I know it isn't a new innovation, but it actually uses a function that might require plugins for other music playing softwares; and increase the visual pleasure to the song( with surporting subtitle and the album's cover displaying when ever a song is playing.) The only down side is the software is membership based, as the monthly fees apply. But by using the software, it means getting the newest tracks, while listening to it with a interface offers lots more fuction than your ordinary player; and also lligal. But for NZ's limited bits usage, do you guys think it is really worth it? do you think its gona change the way of how many of us still just downloaded our favourite tracks, when we can listen to it tho a paid provider?

Something to giggle at

There's been a lot of talk of music. I've been doing uni work and decided to upload something to humour people. I personally use youtube for this very purpose, so enjoy.

Technology and Isolation

A thought popped into my head when I was watching the sci-fi movie ‘Contact’, starring Jodie Foster and Mathew McConaughey about two weeks ago, in the movie McConaughey’s character made a comment about how with the increase of computers in the home people are getting more isolated. His point was that humans’ who are social beings which we can argue need human interaction are isolating themselves as a consequence of having computer with internet access. Nowadays you can do anything and everything at home with a computer and internet connection, for example shopping, communicating via e-mail and so on, and banking; the possibilities are almost endless. What I wanted to know was if this was true, with new technology are we isolating ourselves? I can come up with some instances out of my own life where I have kept my self in doors surfing the net, especially when I’ve just discovered things like chatting on line and on-line communities like my space, bebo, hi-five and so forth.
I’ve looked up some statistics on-line on the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) website which listed such figures in places like Iceland and Denmark with 86% and 79% increase of households with access to computers in 2004 and rapid increase in internet access in households.
I’m not to sure if there has been any studies on this but it sounds really interesting, anybody want comment on this?

-RiX

Just Thought You Might Like to Know....

So Beware!

FTVMS 203

I saw in my fellow blogger’s post that they were saddened by the idea that originality is dwindling in the movie and music industries. Personally I don’t really see it as a lack of originality, more as a homage to, or appreciation of, a previous work. We all know that Quentin Tarantino can write and direct good films of his own, he doesn’t need to plagiarise other people’s ideas. The same goes for Mary J Blige, she is already an established artist in her own right, so if she is reworking other pieces maybe it is less to do with her creative juices running dry than an adoption of the idea that art is a fluid, shared and dynamic process. If we can sit at home and mash up our own remixes of our favourite songs, or create films with references to our favourite movies, it seems hypocritical to criticise professional artists for doing the same.

Music Plagiarism Project

Columbia Law School Music Plagiarism Project

Lack of originality

Last semester I watched a film called "City on Fire" directed by Ringo Lam for my 205 paper. A couple of months ago i watched Quetin Taratino's "Resovoir Dogs" for the first time. I loved the film but some elements within it seemed like De ja vu. The plot was very similar both to "City On Fire" both being about undercover cops who finds a connection with the thiefs they are meant to catch. Also some of the scenes in Resovoir dogs were excatly the same as City on Fire.

I think its interesting to see that within the film and music industry copying another person's work is not always deemed as unacceptable. Sometimes copying another artist or directors work is almost like a compliment to the original creator. We see alot of this in films such as Resovoir dogs but even more inside the music industry. Rap's method of sampling uses sounds and music from previous songs to create the beat and tempo. This has been taken to the extreme in recent years where singers copy the entire sound off another song and just changes the lyrics such as Mary J Blige's "Love it or Hate it remix. For me i think originality is important music and its sad to see that Hip hop artists are starting to lose some of their creativity and originality

a day in your life?

A friend sent me this link a while ago and it’s basically a site where members take pictures of a day in their lives.

http://community.livejournal.com/adayinmylife/profile

It intrigued me how I could spent hours just looking pictures of people Id never met. I guess the difference from this blog community to a virtual community like myspace is that people on mypspace feel like they have a community of interests and may know each other outside cyberspace. Within this blog community, the personal intimacy is greater than any other virtual community after all, you are letting strangers take a look into a day in your life.

Another thing to note is the ability of people to post pictures of themselves doing the most private things, things which no stranger would be able to see, e.g pictures of members going to the bathroom. The purpose of this blog is to share your lifestyle and let other people experience is vicariously through your pictures, but to me, letting complete strangers see pictures of you in your underwear seems like a true and almost direct reflection of narcisstic culture? Any thoughts?

-Vanisha

Banksy

Here's another story about Banksy whose Paris Hiltonculture jamming I discussed in class.

narrative

Yeah, I know we're all on the music kick at the moment, but I wrote this a few weeks ago and forgot to post it...

It was interesting talking about movies (King Kong, etc) and their narrative or lack off (a few weeks ago now). Doing the scriptwriting paper this semester we are forced to structure everything we do in A-B-C style. It is interesting actually doing the course in the first place as a lot of scriptwriters have no training whatsoever, and scripts that don’t conform to this dictated structure are highly successful. Then there are the people who write scripts and say that just about anyone can do it regardless of skill (Nick Cave, but then he is a genius).

So you wonder if there is any point paying to take a course on scriptwriting and whether it is possible and more efficacious (definitely cheaper) just to teach yourself.

And perhaps there is a case for scriptwriters not teaching scriptwriting. Because they surely must get their own ideas mixed up with the ideas of students and therefore what the student says will never be as good as what the teacher has in mind. For example, if the majority of people (i.e. the audience) like an idea but the teacher thinks it needs some work, is that their academic opinion or their personal opinion?

narrative

Yeah, I know we're all on the music kick at the moment, but I wrote this a few weeks ago and forgot to post it...

It was interesting talking about movies (King Kong, etc) and their narrative or lack off. Doing the scriptwriting paper this semester we are forced to structure everything we do in A-B-C style. It is interesting actually doing the course in the first place as a lot of scriptwriters have no training whatsoever, and scripts that don’t conform to this dictated structure are highly successful. Then there are the people who write scripts and say that just about anyone can do it regardless of skill (Nick Cave, but then he is a genius).

So you wonder if there is any point paying to take a course on scriptwriting and whether it is possible and more efficacious (definitely cheaper) just to teach yourself.

And perhaps there is a case for scriptwriters not teaching scriptwriting. Because they surely must get their own ideas mixed up with the ideas of students and therefore what the student says will never be as good as what the teacher has in mind. For example, if the majority of people (i.e. the audience) like an idea but the teacher thinks it needs some work, is that their academic opinion or their personal opinion?