Help?

Ok, this friend of mine (certainly not me...) was downloading something on LimeWire, double-clicked on a song she wanted and instead of starting to download that song it opend a website for downloading songs from (I think). She got a bit scared, since I remembered someone mentioned something about this in tutorial a couple of weeks back. Are the big scary "slap-people-on-the-hand-for-downloading-illegal-music" men coming to get her now because they somehow got her ip-adress of the website??

What would Habermas say?

Blogosphere as a postmodern public sphere:

It has been argued that the tabloid news and in particular tabloid talk shows can be seen as a modern reinterpretation of Habermas’ ‘public sphere’. Using this same kind of reasoning I feel that we can also view the blogosphere in the same light.
It is argued that tabloid talk shows give the opportunity to everyday people to voice their views and interact. Effectively providing a platform to broadcast and debate, while forming (or as critics have argued) reinforcing ideas. In the same way blogging offers a similar degree of democratic merit in that it provides a platform for everyday people to speak and debate. I realise that it is easy to overstate the democratic nature of the blogosphere. As many people still don’t have access to the Internet it could be argued that it doesn’t fulfil this aspect of a ‘public sphere’. But Internet use is constantly spreading and becoming cheaper. It is conceivable that in the not to distant future it will be accessible by almost everyone.
People have also raised questions of the rationality and nature of the discourse and communication the blogosphere. Sure I accept that a lot of it is pretty menial stuff, but there is still a good deal of rational considered debate that occurs, it would be basic intellectual snobbery to disregard this. And as it has also been argued any communication is good to an extent.
I feel the blogosphere is probably the closest thing we have at present to a modern reinterpretation of the ‘public sphere’ as conceived by Habermas.

In my opinion this is a good example of how new media and techno culture are allowing people to start communicating with others on a broader level. Reinvigorating public debate with out the mediating effects of the mass media. A more direct, ‘pure’ form of communication and discourse, if you will.

Trigger Happy

In ‘Trigger Happy’, Steven Poole discusses the moral concern over videogames and childhood violence. I agree with him that you cant blame games directly because, as he says, the point of playing games is not to kill as there isn’t actually anything to kill and also because as no one actually dies, there aren’t any moral consequences. It’s just entertainment. In looking at teenagers involved in high school shootings you couldn’t say that playing violent games would cause them to shoot their classmates, that if they hadn’t played them they wouldn’t have done it. Clearly these kids had psychological problems. Perhaps they got ideas about how to go about it from games like Doom, but as Poole notes, influence the violence in video games has on kids would be in combination with other media such as movies.
I do however agree with the moral concern of children being exposed to videogames and movies etc with themes of violence, sex, drugs and alcohol as this would be doing more harm than good.

Who wants to watch others playing games when Wii can play together?

In this week's tutorial, we discussed the difference between watching someone else playing video games and playing it yourself. Watching others playing games is a lot less stressful because you don't have to multi-task so much. I think that is one of the major reasons why some people don't play viedo games. They find it hard to control what they are doing in the game by pressing a few buttons. It takes time to get used to it and I guess some people just don’t have the patience to practise, which is fair enough. However, Nintendo’s new game console Wii aims to attract both non-gamers and gamers which takes gaming experience to a whole new level.

The Nintendo Wii developers said that they wanted to make gaming as accessible to people of all ages and all abilities. The unique thing about Nintendo Wii is its controllers. The developers used motion-sensing technology so that the controller sends your action to the console. For example, if you are playing a shooting game, your controller is your gun and yes, you only hold it by one hand. Another example would be tennis game. Your controller becomes your racket and you have to move your arms around to hit the ball on screen. What Nintendo Wii has done is that it made video games more interactive. First person shooter games can make the gaming experience personal, where you get absorbed into the gaming world. For example, in Doom 3, you feel unsafe around the lab by the limited view on screen. A dead body could be hanging from the ceiling all of a sudden. It gave me a fright that's for sure. Anyway, with Nintendo Wii motion-sensing controllers, gamers would become even more absorbed into the game because not only mentally they are experiencing it but also physically. I think Nintendo Wii has put gaming experience on a whole new level. It is definitely going to attract non-gamers because of its intense interactivity.

For more information on Nintendo Wii, you can visit http://wii.nintendo.com/ .

The controversy that surrounds Video Games

Video Games like many other forms of media are surrounded by controversy and censorship. The typical reasons are the way they portray graphic violence, the perversion of sex and sexual themes and the consumption of tobacco, drugs and alcohol. Video games are continuously criticised by parents, politicans, religious groups as being highly addictive and influenial and causing violent behaviour, directed at violent behaviour displayed by youths. Video Games such as mortal Konbat, Grand Theft Auto, Doom sparked controversy in the United States. In the United States, where it is all pc, the ever recurring issue and national wide controversy at the attempt to censor video games "Video game censorship is defined as the use of state or group power to control the playing, distribution, purchase, or sale of video games or computer games" (Wikipedia). The attempts at trying to censor video games was a violation of the First Amendment Rights. Funny irony really, the term of violation, as the Video games violate us in a certain way (my inner feminism coming out), but we can not violate them (in a certain way).
The controversy around video games is nothing new and it happens in all other forms of media; motion picture, music etc. In the forms of censorship, censorship can give video games a rating from G to AO, but realistically, Children are going to get their hands on it illegally or through other sources, they can watch the six clock news to watch violence or television and bear witness to drugs, tobacco, alcohol and profanity.
I guess the controversy that surrounds will always be there and that the attempts of censorship and control of it is highly unlikely, due to the popularity and the forms of distribution and production of it.

About Rpg Maker XP Review

Yet another review!
This time it's a review of RPG Maker XP for Personal Computers.


This is not a game! This is a great tool that lets you create your own Role Playing Games!!!

Rpg Maker XP is a fantastic tool that lets you create your own Role
Playing Games, this tool can be used by those who has no experience in
scripting and game development but it still allows them to create great
role-playing games, but if you can script Ruby, then you can create
your fully customizable games with custom menus, effects, battle
systems and stuff!

I used this great tool a lot, and I have created many cool games with
it... The cool thing about RMXP is that you can share this game with
everyone, even if they don’t have RMXP runtime installed on their
computer, unlike RPG Maker 3 for the PS2 system which didn't allow you
to share your games, unless you lend someone your memory card. And that
sucks! But with you RMXP you can share your games, there is no size
limit, you can voice cast every character, burn it on a cd, give it to
your friends, sell it , put it on your website, the possibilities are
unlimited!!

If you would to create your own RPG I recommend that you use your own
Tiles and not the one that was included on the RPG Maker XP cd. But if
you can’t create your own sprites you can always find many on the
internet.

Gaming News "It's going to be incredible. We promise." - Bungie

So much exciting news today for the whole gaming world! Thanks to Microsoft, never thought I'd ever say that until the Xbox and Halo series. Ow and not to mention it's all very relevant to this weeks great lecture and tutorial.

Sooo to the news

Peter Jackson has created his own game studio "Wingnut Interactive" which has partnered with Microsoft Xbox to create a new Halo game. Toted by Microsoft Game Studio's Vice President, Shane Kim, as some sort of gaming revolution "I don't want to classify it as a game. I'm hoping to stretch the definition of interactive entertainment to go beyond the game... It's about making interactive entertainment a mainstream form of entertainment."

Now I here all you Halo fans saying WTF! "How can they announce a new Halo without releasing Halo 3 already? is there gonna be a Halo 4? - But Microsoft said Halo 3 was the end.arrrrr!!" Well the details are sketchy but here's what Bungie said "This raises as many questions as it answers – will it be a sequel? A prequel? A side-story? We won’t squeal, but we can tell you it will be a blend of gameplay and storytelling quite unlike anything the games industry has ever seen before. And Wingnut Interactive isn’t stopping at Halo – the newly formed gaming behemoth will also be working closely with Microsoft to introduce a brand-new gaming IP created by Wingnut themselves."

So as we talked about the problems with games in the tutorials and lectures, about the database structure, perhaps we are about see a change in the coming years. Thing is well they don't even know how they are going to do it yet "I feel like we haven't figured it out, to be honest" - Shane Kim. It's so early in time that speculation is a waste of time. I myself think all this big talk is perhaps rubbish and the real news is that the Halo series is going to continue hopefully as a FPS in some form! YAY! Definitely be watching this space people and don't forget Peter Jackson is also producing the Halo film, due 2007.

What news could possibly be worth mentioning along with this?? Well there's one other development today and that’s new information on yet ANOTHER Halo game, Halo Wars. This is however not a FPS but a RTS game created not by Bungie but Ensemble Studios. So for RTS fans this is awesome news!

Feel free to post speculation and ways that the Peter Jackson and Microsoft partnership could improve and totally change gaming. I myself never liked the idea of movies interfering with gaming or the other way around. They are 2 separate entities that evoke different feelings and emotional states and I have to say I prefer gaming to movies. Gaming offers far greater emotional involvement through personal in-game experience not to mention gaming being an actual sport to many people who play online skill based games such as Halo and Counter Strike. Fellow players know the adrenaline that runs through you when in sudden death during a CTF match, something not felt in Soccer or Rugby to the same intense extent, well maybe but it’s not sudden death its dead ball time aint it? Anyway, I’m to passionate.

Now for the people who hate games or really couldn’t care less. To try and introduce you if you want to play and experience an amazing game borrow either Half-Life 2 or Halo 1 or 2 from friends. They are 2 of the greatest games of all time. You have to want to play them to enjoy them though, so give it a go, put yourself in a room, turn up the speakers, spend some time learning the controls and provided you are not a total unco (is that how you spell it haha?) then you should joyfully immerse yourself I hope.

Time to go kill online. (www.xbconnect.com if you have a Xbox and want to play online without forking out $$$$ for XBOX live, see ya there).

Increase the peace

References:
http://www.bungie.net/News/TopStory.aspx?link=bungieatx06 http://www.smh.com.au/news/games/peter-jackson-to-develop-xbox-game/2006/09/28/1159337258750.html
www.bungie.com
www.valve.com
www.halowars.com/

GAMING!!! Narrative and Identity.

SO, i had two thoughts while I was sitting in tutorials yesterday.

1. Games don't have a narrative even when someone is navigating their way through the database because they are so difficult and boring to watch!Sometimes I am subjected to watching my brother play that grande theft auto game (is that what it's called? - the one where you go around stealing cars and you can have sex with hookers to give you health - thats about the extent of my knowledge...) when i'm having breakfast. Anyway I find it really difficult to watch because a) My brother skips the information about the mission parts - so I don't know what is going on and b) when he dies he has to go back to a certain point and starts again so I have to watch repeated material. It is certainly not like watching a film or a television programme. Also if you wanna watch till the end to get some type of resolution then you have to watch for days and days... I was thinking also that watching someone play a 1st person game would be a 3rd person perspective but watching someone play a 3rd person game (like grande theft auto) would be like a 5th person perspective. The most distance you can get away from the character in the game.

2. I was thinking about consequences - like that terrorist game - it's your choice to shoot, but then again you could bring in the same argument as we did for chat rooms and MUDs. It's better for my brother to go round stealing cars, shooting people and picking up hookers in a game than in real life, right? So maybe video games give people a chance to experiment with thier identities just like chat rooms and MUDs. Plus, I think that the consequences thing is a little far fetched - games aren't that immersive that they cross the boundaries between real life and a game! - you shoot in a game because you know that the consequences of real life don't apply. I don't feel bad if I shoot someone in a game.. because IT'S NOT REAL!! Especially if thats the aim of the game - to shoot people. I can see how some people think it's sick that someone would make a game where the aim is to shoot people though. killing shouldn't be a game/fun. But it really is fun in video games. If I think that killing "someone" in a video game is fun am I morally corrupt?

Sneaky Mind Games

I have found a new purpose for the blog. I don't think it would work for just any blog. This 203 blog is unique in a very important way. Like most of you, I have many assignments due next week (five in fact) and as anyone who is in a similar situation will know, people who have essays to write will more often than not try to avoid ways to avoid actually writing them.

So what did I do when I was faced with the idea of how to put off writing these mind numbing assignments? Well I went and read the 203 blog of course!! Because my brain told me
"Hey Andrew! The blog is a legitimate academic excercise and it gets marked and stuff so by reading it, and eventually contributing to it YOU ARE WORKING!" Well I thought that was just super so I've now read heaps of blog. Although I have yelled at the screen when people have poor grammar and spelling (even though mine may not be perfect, I think it's fun), but have essentially achieved very little.

Thus, I conclude that this blog has tricked me. I wonder if anyone else feels the same?
-Andrew

Youth identity and Genre. Hybridity? Where do you draw the line?

Interesting.

I think i most closely agree with Dennis here out of the replies that i have read.

In terms of the theory of Sean Ebare '"expressions of youth identity are inscribed in music fan culture".. i find it quite complex and something that every individual would understand and comprehend differently.

For instane, if there was an average New Zealand 20 year old rugby player whom spends most of his time drinking and playing rugby then he probably wouldn't know the distinction to somone whom listens to punk music or hardcore music in terms of fashion sense. Of course the dress sense of "punks" has greatly changed over the last couple of years and i think the distinction to which you label someone belonging to a music sub-genre is limited.

It simply depends on the person's understanding and complexity of music to which they've been subjected to and influenced by.

I think you could say by looking at someone what sort of music they'd tend to listen to ,as in my opinion, i think people dress in accordance to create a sort of connection with them and the image associated with the genre of music they liken to.

I think this is evident in the new "emo" trend. Noone is really to judge, but since i myself listen to some loosely "emo" music, i find that these younger kids dress in likeness to perhaps their favourite bands.

At the end of the day, Everyone, to some degree, wants to fit in. Even punks because they are dressing a certain way and acting in a certain way in accordance to be associated with a particular group or scene.

I think that people that don't see music as a big interest in their lives lie behind a barrier in terms of really being subjected to dressing like their music taste. Ie- Serious rugby players would generally have that sense to their normal dress sense etc.

As image becomes more of a focus every day, image and fashion is consistently re-constituting itself and is becoming more apparant in the music scene.

The driver=acceptance.
And that is avid in any sort of community or group.

But if Sean Ebare are completly true in the mainstream pop sense. Then that is a sad future for the youth. With songs, as i mentioned in an earlier blog, mainly revolving around sexualised themes- including Nelly Furtado selling out BIG TIME ... is this the future of pop music? What ever happened to the good old days of Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls Hanson?

Hybridity exists as alot of music genres are influenced by those before them. Ie- alot of Punk is jazz influenced as is Ska etc. There is a theory of Heavy Metal being a form of classical 'virtuousity'. And so a punk can be a punk but underneath that they can exist to liken towards Jazz for example. The question is where do you draw the line?

I suppose your dress sense is either influenced, in some way or another, by a musical taste, income level, sport community or not associated with anything at all. Personal expression. The choice is to express or not to express.

I guess at the end of the day selling these popularised ideas of the easily influenced youth is the sale sign to identity.

~Sarah McElwain

To anyone considering a career in online weaponry

I had recently been scrolling through the plethora of online auctions on Trademe and to my suprise found some really interesting sales. The link i have here is for the auction of 3 level 60 characters for the online game World of Warcraft. What suprised me was not that the bidding started at $300, but that this was not an unusual price range for this type of 'item'. I was still shocked that people would spend that much money to cheat their way through a game until i realized. Perhaps it wasn't about unnaturally gaining an advantage over other players, but instead was much more like purchasing a cd from the store (If any of you nasty pirates still understand the concept of paying for music). What i mean, is that since these people are not planing on creating their own online characters from scratch (or perhaps had already done so, then supsequently got bored of that character and wanted a change), then perhaps they are treating the online game more like the instant gratification as you would a cd. Perhaps to these people its not about the interactivity of the online game (or at least, not anymore), but that they can participate at a higher level of gameplay without the effort that perhaps the more 'hardcore' gamers might. I understand that the general theme of a video game is to provide entertainment, but does this seem like a big waste of money, to pay for the game, then to pay the monthly fees, then to pay for what would seem to me as being the entire point of the game and what you're paying for in the first place. Although in saying all this, i've never actually played the game, or even so much as seen it in action. Am i even missing out on anything?

Unrelated?

Ok, well this is kinda off topic, and off subject. But Click ME!

How you turn a relatively mundane pop song in to a rock n roll anthem...

Gotta love his voice...

Had he already dropped the acid when he picked those shoes?

Go on to youtube and watch the interview with Crispin Glover high on acid on David Letterman, its hilarious!
His face when the girls in the audience shout "Nice shoes" is priceless.
Ahh the internet, where would we be without you?

Dear Luke/ Kevin/ anyone who can help...

Hey,
just to clariy, in our exams can we not answer on the same topic that we did our essay on? Sorry if this has already been asked and answered.

Cheers,

Geoff

Sunday Cartoons

After scrolling through the likes of www.pbfcomics.com and www.whiteninjacomics.com, I began to wonder whether the humour found online was much more different than those I found in the Sunday papers and whatnot. While there are obvious differences in size and handling, many of them seem to have a similar dateline for when you get to see a new iteration. I'm not sure if my sense of humour can be considered normal, but I still find the old Haggar and long edition Garfield strips quite funny, but perhaps am able to laugh at the 'complex and intricate stylings' of the one-shot comics that are found on the net. With the above two (plus Bob the Angry Flower), you'll find your share of violence and elements designed for more mature (sic) audiences, but ultimately the humour in both medians seem to translate well on the terms of their reading. Presentation doesn't tend to be much of a factor, perhaps preserving a kind of simplicity of reading.

Then you have your other brand of web comics which are more 'comic-oriented' so to speak. Having a page on a given day increases anticipation and decreases the need to look over the page to see what happens next, but ultimately it tends to drag out due to the fact that it's on a site that needs bread to run. Ending it would be harder to do, unless it were episodic (which I still think is quite tough to pull off given the deadlines and largely payless conditions.

Movie Screening

Hey everyone,

There is a film screening coming up and you are all invited!

A young student film maker by the name of Jack Woon has aspired to make a Bollywood based movie, and this is it!

Read more about it here:

'BeSharpSeeFlat'

Screening: 17 October

8pm Academy Cinema
Tickets $5

For Tickets or Info : BESHARPSEEFLAT@GMAIL.COM

Support student film making!

So buy a ticket and watch it!

-Elaine

p.s. Blogs may help to promote/advertise certain things... 0.0

Wikipedia: Fun for the whole family!

I love Wikipedia. I love the fact that the entry for Knuckles the Echidna, a secondary character from the Sonic the Hedgehog games, has a larger Wiki entry than William Shakespeare. I love that I possess the ability to change the description of my hometown to "Smells Faintly of Cabbage." And I love playing Six Degrees of Wikipedia, trying to link an article to another seemingly unrelated article via the links on the page.

I saw this little link today: Top 100 Wikipedia Searches. It apparently lists the top searched words on Wikipedia. I just found it funny that so many were about sex. I guess people used to like looking up rude words in the dictionary, so is this the next logical step?

And for those of you who are confused by both Wikipedia and the English language I suggest you give the Simple English Wikipedia a try. An attempt to make the information easier to understand, we are left with highly amusing entries such as the one for The Simpsons, which defines the program in one sentence: The program is mainly a criticism to the American culture. And there is something oddly innocent about refering to Barney Gumble as "One of Homer's friends, an alcoholic."

I cannot seem to get the Six Degrees of Wikipedia generator to work, so I guess there goes my friday nights. Some people play World of Warcraft. I play Wikipedia.

*SIGH*

Telecom Keeps On Trying To Fool Us

Yet another blatant move to pre-empt and undermine the government's impending regulatory action: Telecom has announced what appears on the surface to be an exciting change to broadband in New Zealand, but is actually just a tasty piece of bait filled with all the tricks Telecom are all too good at pulling.

The telco recently announced these new broadband plans that will start October 26th, with all plans capable of "max" download speed (expected to be up to 7.6mbps). At first the plans look pretty good, and a far cry from what they currently have on offer. But if you look closer, they're a load of crap.

Now before I lose the interest of those of you who aren't so technically inclined and don't know your bits from your bytes, I just urge you not to believe Telecom when they ask you to join them in their 'xtraordinary new world'. Kinda like when your parents told you not to take lollies from strange men. Thanks.

Ok, so carrying on...
Firstly, Telecom have dropped any medium usage plan, forcing people onto the more expensive plans. So, you either pay $40 for a 1GB data allowance (which any semi-regular net user would chew through with the speed they're given), or you pay $50 for unlimited data. Where's the middle ground there?

Secondly, on the "Go Large" plan, they offer "Unlimited" data usage. Now, most people would say "f**k yeah!" to this news, but the definition of UNLIMITED is slightly, no, thoroughly bent if you read through Telecom's "fair use" policy. The policy states that if you go through more than 700MB of data within the 8 hour peak period (4pm-12am) you'll be told off and put in the "fair use pool" (that's actually what its called), where heavy users and file-sharers swim around in the same murky, slow-assed bandwidth.

This is farcical! How the hell can you call something unlimited, and then shove a whole lot of limits on it!? And 700MB?! If the speeds are up to 7.6mbps like they're promising, you could download 700MB in 15 minutes! And you've gotta restrict yourself to that much for 8 hours!!

What Telecom needs to do is stop screwing New Zealand around, and give us truly unlimited data, and full speed download AND upload.

As Public Enemy said: Don't believe the hype, yeeeeah boy.

Thats what im talking about!

Click me

Oh the cruel cruel irony

Why can't everywhere update their technology at once?! I have to take in a floppy disk for my other film paper with our script on it for the autocue... a floppy disk!

About a year ago I got rid of my floppy when I got a USB flash drive, saying to myself that I was technologically advanced enough to rely on no moving parts and a great deal more space.

So tommorow I need a floppy disk with a notepad document on it, so I am buying a floppy disk tommorow (never thought I would say that again) to go to uni and transfer this 64kb file from my 2gb flash drive to a 1.44mb floppy...

oooooooo the cruel cruel irony...

p.s. - anyone wanna be interviewed on tv tommorow? my script may not be on the autocue but i have to interview someone... around 11:30?... txt me on 021 984 687, or is cell numbers to much information? oh probably. oh well

class party

hey guys, coming to the end of year and theres a stir amongst us uber cool class reps concerning class parties... now just wondering if anyone is interested. we threw it up in class one time and there seemed to be little enthusiasm, but i'll tell you the suss... we could have a shindig at the area underneath shadows. Light refreshments and nibbles would be served for the price of one dollar a head. Alternatively we could go to some bar close to uni, say rakinos/deschlars and have some casual beverages. Its really hard to guage a response from you guys and Im not to keen to muster something if there isnt gonna be a half descent posse. So come on team, get involved in a little campus comradery which is so dearly lacking especially in the arts dept. any replys/feedback or if you just want me to get on with life, then let me know. cdow@hotmail.com

Vodafone "does a Myspace"

Vodafone will launch a social networking site viewable on mobile phones due for release by mid-October.

Quoting the article:
Netsafe director Martin Cocker doesn't see a mobile social networking site as fundamentally more dangerous than ones on the Web. But he is concerned the service will in future allow people to locate each other, as some US services do now.
"That becomes quite a risk because people are more likely to make face-to-face contact," he says.

This is quite an issue. Anonymity is a wonderful thing. And would someone please think of the childen..

So really, its just Myspace but alot more personal. Will that make connections and networking easier to build? If it is a success, what happens to Telecom? They were all set for a similiar product but pulled out at the last minute.

Some other ideas:

Question 1: If Myspace flops in a couple of years time, will Vodafone have the same fate with this new intiative?

Question 2: How much influence do you think Myspace's success as a popular social network had on this development?

Question 3: Is this further continuation of the increasingly feature-driven course of communication technologies, mobile phones and the Ipod for example?

Question 4: New Zealand wants to follow and keep up with international trends. The article says social networking sites are very popular in Korea and have increasing profiles in the United States and Australia. So I ask: does New Zealand have the market size to have a social network?

Personally I wouldn't necessarily join because of this added benefit (I'm already with Vodafone anyway). I think Vodafones' preliminary market are the corporates, and gradually will branch out to everyone else. Telecom is now behind the 8-ball re: social networking. Short-term, no-one bats an eye-lid, however this development has surely implications for the way we communicate in the future. Will New Zealand become one massive network where everyone is everyone else's "friend"?

One more for the rubbish dump

Well it happened again. A few days ago my girlfriends second iPod in that many years died, well, turned off and was unable to be revived. Someone said it might be that I plugged it in to my computer at the wrong time... I wasn't sure there was a wrong time... Someone said there could be a battery problem and I needed a new battery... but then I was told it wasn't avaliable for the iPod that she has.

So now I am left with not iPod for her and because I was the one stupid enough to give said gift, I think I am expected to replace it.

This isn't a rant at relationships or girls (that argument would take way to long) but merely an expression of distaste at the Apple corporation in their inability to create a worthwhile product. Everyone I know has had some sort of problem with their iPods, it is usually a case of the battery failing and wiping all of the information, or the screen cracking on those nano things. I know there is a warranty, but you can get it replaced once in that year and the new one doesn't come with any extended warranty.

So now what? Do I buy a new iPod? Or do I get one of the other ones which aren't that bad but don't have the 'name'... I don't really know... I could spend $400 on Vinyl and see what she says...

*Insert expression of disgust here*

Penultimate DVD Blog!

The latest purchase by a fellow cinefile...my Dad!
Are any of you aware of the latest James Bond Special Edition Package
It is a 007 silver hard-case specially designed to neatly fit 20 James Bond DVDs all complete with the passcode security dials.
Only 6000 produced world-wide it even contains the "Limited Edition Certificate" with your number printed on it...
(in my Dad's case...#5865 of 6000) Of course it costs a heck of a lot...a couple of hundred dollars...
Now in a cinefile's point of view this was a great investment that had to be made.
Exactly what the marketers were targeting and playing on...
because although there was the option of purchasing the same package that sold the 20 DVD's in just a normal cardboard box..
but of course how could the consumer resist paying a hundred more for that which included this nifty case.
The same goes for the motive behind producing a limited amount...
as I saw this fellow cinefile feeling special that he now owned one of the 6000 existant worldwide.
As mentioned in the lecture this kind of DVD collection...especially in regards to this one...
which is a collection of 20 years of films truly adds value to theatrical products thus strongly illustrating the key to DVD culture.

My Friend Technology reply.

In reply to Wades blog "My Friend Technology" - was a little too long to put as a comment/reply..

I agree with you. It's crazy how such a small piece of technology can have such a big effect on our lives. The other day for example I got to my busstop and realised I didn't have my cellphone, from that moment I was wondering how I was going to last the day without it. Several times during the day I even went to reach for my phone to check it for messages before realising I didn't have it. I went on my lunch break and had no idea what the time was and in some strange way I felt almost secluded, like if something happened to someone I would never know and if something happened to me noone would ever know...

But we all coped without cellphones so what is it about the technology that has changed our complete mindset about communication and contactability that we now cannot live without them?

Now it is expected by people that we can be contacted at any time of the day or night, a cellphone in a way is almost also a tracker - which the American market has picked up on and actually started putting trackers into phones so parents can track their childrens whereabouts. It is almost a device that restricts our freedom as we are always able to be contacted. This is the argument my brother used as his defence against not having a cellphone (despite working for Telecom) - his work continually pushed for him to have one, even offering to supply him with a work one, but he did not want to be contacted in the weekends re. work so kept declining the offer. But did finally give in for some crazy PDA (which is probably more in line with his computer background). Could the cellphone therefore be linked to the fact that in our society people are working longer and longer hours? Because of the fact that they can be contacted any time of the day or night during their diminishing hours of leisure time?

I also believe that it's dehumanised social interaction - where one would normally ring someone or god forbid knock on someones door to talk to them they now just pick up their phone and send a heavily abbrievated text message which is given a small amount of emotion through semi colons and brackets (and P's and S's and $'s if you want to get really creative). But for some reason it is almost easier to express emotion through text messages, especially those bad ones (which usually come back to haunt you) but it's also very easy to get the complete wrong end of the stick from a text message and pick up the wrong emotion coming through. So why do we continue to express ourselves through the technology? It gives us time to react to what someone says without giving that uncomfortable silence that you would have if you took your time to think of a reply in a face to face setting, it gives us the guts to say stuff we might not normally be able to say face to face to someone, it gives us the opportunity to tell people things the minute we think of them - but are these things all benefits from the technology?

anyhows I must publish this before it is another week... :P

Last DVD post i promise!

Ok i can't really promise that but since i'm doing my blogging for the week last minute i doubt anyone will be able to squeeze in to post another one about DVDs.

Anyways i'm a big fan of dvds. Whats so special about dvds? well for me its how it can bring you features and information beyond the actual film that the dvd is made from, for example Barlow's example of the velvet cover and money clip from a limited edition scarface DVD. I mean who will ever use it? But its just so damn cool! I have a routine when i watch a new dvd. Before watching the film I always check out the special features first especially the deleted scenes. I sort of prepare myself for what i'm about to watch. Because if I watch the deleted scenes after the film it feels like i've missed some important parts that the director wanted in the movie but wasn't able to put in but if i watch it beforehand I'm already anticipating it.

Another element of the dvd that I love are the subtitle options! i'm really into my foreign films and the dvd makes them so much more accessable than VHS because it allows you to have subtitles and actually understand what is going on. VHS sometimes do have subtitles too but i find that the quality of the letters are not as good as DVD. I think the subtitle option is a marketing tool that is ignored most of the time. Everyone expects it to be there, and its a bit overlooked. However imagine if great films like 7 samurai, Leon the proffessional and Das Boot didn't have any subtitles. The market for those films will almost automatically decrease dramatically unless you are able to stand dubbed voices (I would rather not watch it than listen to the horrible dubbing).

These features, for me, are vital to dvds like a keyboard is vital to a computer. It'll be interesting to see what new installments blue-ray will bring to the film industry and home entertainment

Yay, public speaking from the comfort of your very own home

I know that this is a popular topic, but seriously, what is with this blog being so damn scary? I fully agree with the concept of ‘the fear’ and I am so glad that other people are feeling it too. But I guess as they say, (not sure who ‘they’ is, I forgot) I’m feeling the fear and doing it anyway.
I wonder if this blog were anonymous (or signed off with ID numbers instead of names) whether that would make this whole experience a little less daunting…at least then I wouldn’t have the worry of being judged by my fellow classmates…that’s right, you.
Although I agree that this class blog idea is a great way to help us get first hand blogging experience, I think that the major (frightening) difference is that ‘crossover effect’, where on Wednesday you may very well find yourself sitting next to the person whose post you so scathingly ‘critiqued’ (or vice versa).
Maybe I’m just keeping the class blog and the actual class too closely related in my mind because for me this feels more like a speech made from the front of the lecture theatre (shudder) than a way to achieve a semi-anonymous discourse with my classmates…

The New iPods

Just come out this week are the 5th generation iPod’s (30 and 80GB in black or white), the 2nd generation iPod shuffles (the same size as the generation 1 shuffle’s clip!) and the 2nd generation iPod nanos (2G, 4G and 8G)!! Colours are back and the 4G nanos come in silver, black, blue, green and pink! Before you start thinking I work for apple, I bought a pink one and it was very… exciting to say the least and the experience only cost me $380. My first iPod. I don’t know how I’ve been putting up with my old mp3 player for so long!

Very Special Features

I am a HUGE fan of the TV programme 'Friends', so much so that I got the entire 10 season DVD set in a collector's box and haven't stopped watching them over and over - the episodes just never stop being funny! But this is besides the point really, the reason I bring this up is because of the Special Feature available on each disk. Each season has unique Special Features specific to events and guests etc that have happened/appeared throughout, along with certain ones that are available in every season.

On each DVD there is Commentary by the directors on an episode which describes how they came up with certain ideas, how many takes they had to take on certain scenes and so-on. As well as this there is a 360 degree view of different scenes in the show available, similar to the 'Gangs of New York' example given to us in the lecture this week. With these you are able to select different items and a caption then comes up with information about what it is and/or the history behind it. On the fourth and final disk of each set there is "Gunther Spills the Beans about next season".

I think some of these features are almost a remediation of other mediums. The 360 degree view is very similar to the way you can look through 'Monica's Apartment' and other scenes in the show on the 'Friends' website (URL provided above). The website was created in 2002 and the full 10-season DVD set did not reach store shelves until late 2005, meaning the idea of this 'view the set' option was available on the Internet first. The "Gunther Spills the Beans" special feature could also, although more far-fetched, be considered remediation of a kind as informing viewers of what to look forward to in future seasons is a traditional 'trick' on TV and in magazines/newspapers done by producers to get people looking forward to watching the next episodes. In fact, the DVD itself is actually remediating the programme on it's own from the medium of TV (which screened and re-screened the different seasons until 2005) to a disk format, each season coming out on DVD approximately two years after it was originally aired!

I have watched nearly all the special features on the 'Friends' DVD's even though usually I don't bother with movies I watch etc. I have found with these ones that it almost brings the show more 'alive' in a way so I can see how audiences would find special features just as enjoyable to watch as the show/movie etc itself. You can also see how something such as DVD Special Features can remarket a programme or show that has already been aired by adding those little extras, making people feel more involved and get into certain shows that much more! I loved 'Friends' already but being able to watch interviews, behind the scene shows, and much more all on one disk can entice me for hours.