Digital Aesthetics

Okay this article. I don't understand what's going on. I just...I can't even really describe why it didn't make any sense to me. Maybe it's just a very abstract idea. I'll probably get a better grasp of it in class, like usual. But that was the first reading in a while that completely lost me. :(

Digital Politics

I don't like politics, and so naturally I don't like politics on the internet.

The two pages with results on the best Liberal and Conservative blogs only had ~17,000 votes, so it doesn't seem like it was probably a very...accurate representation of blogs on the internet. But I wouldn't know, since I stay very far away from blogs that are political. They're just annoying :(

I suppose it's a good thing for the people who do like politics that things like YouChoose '08 exists. If I was interested at all, I would probably be appreciative of all the videos there are to see these politicians in action, and hear what they have to say.

Digital Broadcasting!

Streaming media is something I really try to avoid. It depends on having a reliable ISP (something I do not have), a better-than-decent download speed (something I only get occasionally), and probably the desire to do it - something I do not have because of these first two.

I've already spoken about my dislike of sites like YouTube. The only reason I don't like them is because they tell me how well my internet is working at a certain time. Sometimes videos download instantly, othertimes they just sit there, doing nothing. It's very frustrating.

Streaming audio is also something I really don't do, because I own most of the music I want to listen to - and because "buffering" is annoying to wait for.

I have yet to take advantage of corporate websites that host episodes of their shows for everyone to watch. This is probably because the shows that are available are shows I don't know about, or want to watch.

So, yep. In the words of a wise character, "...and that's all I have to say about that".

Multivariant Narratives: tl;dr

My first experience with Multivariant Narratives was the series "Goosebumps" by R.L. Stine. Man, those were the good days. "Choose Your Own Adventure"-type books seemed to be popular for at least a decade, but I haven't heard much about them since.

The brilliant idea I had for this response, though, was that MVNs are also kind of the point of RPGs and MMORPGs - but more for MMORPGs. The course of action in these games is strictly determined by its players. There is no end to the game, and the whole point is to explore around for yourself and interact with other characters. What makes games like these is unique in the way that every single player has a different experience of the game. What happens for one person may or may not happen for another.

Second Life would also be considered a MVN, because like an MMORPG, users have a very different experience with the simulator. The difference, though, is that Second Life is not a game like World of Warcraft or its sister games. I would venture to say they are essentially the same thing, only one is a game and one not.

Back to writing my Shakespeare paper :( (I wish I could take Intro to Shake with Prof. Gants!)

PS - Will you leave a comment this time? :D


[rant] PPS - For the people in our class (and since I am 99% sure none of you read this, I have no problems saying this): DON'T COME TO CLASS IF YOU'RE JUST GOING TO SIT ON THE COMPUTER THE WHOLE TIME. SOME PEOPLE LIKE TO PAY ATTENTION AND IT'S HARD TO HEAR OVER ALL THE TAP TAP TAPPING OF THE KEYBOARDS. Just don't come. [/end rant]

Digital Video!!

I think Digital Video will be a continuation of the Digital Media class, which I enjoyed. Only I'm not sure if I'd like to see "Freaks" again...

YouTube blew up, fast. As in "got really popular really quickly". And I guess I can understand why. The immediate availability of being able to view personal video, as well as pretty much any kind of video was a pretty big step for the internets. But now that YouTube is a few years old, it's lost it's appeal - at least to me - because of the spammers, the stupid videos friends keep linking me to, and so forth.

So I'll be using this post as my platform - STOP LINKING ME TO YOUTUBE. I probably won't click on it. And if I do, it's probably just to see what it's called, and then I won't watch it. Sorry friends, but that's how much I hate YouTube.



See you in class ;)

http://torrentfreak.com/canadian-police-tolerates-piracy-071110/

Canadian Police Tolerates Piracy For Personal Use

Written by Ernesto on November 11, 2007

The Canadian police announced that it will stop targeting people who download copyrighted material for personal use. Their priority will be to focus on organized crime and copyright theft that affects the health and safety of consumers instead of the cash flow of large corporations.

Around the same time that the CRIA successfully took Demonoid offline, the Canadian police made clear that Demonoid’s users don’t have to worry about getting caught, at least not in Canada.

According to the Canadian police it is impossible to track down everyone who downloads music or movies off the Internet. The police simply does not have the time nor the resources to go after filesharers.

“Piracy for personal use is no longer targeted,” Noël St-Hilaire, head of copyright theft investigations of the Canadian police, said in an interview with Le Devoir. “It is too easy to copy these days and we do not know how to stop it,” he added.

St-Hilaire explained that they rather focus on crimes that actually hurt consumers such as copyright violations related to medicine and electrical appliances.

A wise decision, especially since we now know that filesharing has absolutely no impact on music sales. On the contrary, a recent study found that the more music people download on P2P-networks, the more CDs they buy.

Digital Film

"• The overwhelming majority of feature films are under copyright.

• Copyright has (in its original form) limits:

– Published before 1923, the work is in the Public Domain (PD).

– Works created after January 1, 1978, are copyrighted for the life of the author (in film, often considered the Studio) plus 70 years.

– Works published from 1923 to 1963: copyright holds for 28 years, renewable up to 67 years. There are other variations, but these are the most pertinent."

Also, I've never heard of having a database for one particular movie. That's weird.

That was the most interesting part of the read for today. In other news, I can't think because its 28 DEGREES OUTSIDE AND THAT'S REALLY COLD.

This was my day today.

Electronic Editing

I don't believe proper appreciation is given to those who edit texts electronically. At least for myself, I take what I view online for granted. Viewing texts online is a great resource, for any number of reasons, but it's easy to forget how much work it took for these to become available.

Does Wikipedia count as scholarly...electronic...editing?

MOBILE PHONES

I have a few scattered thoughts about phones and their growing technology:

• I don't like this built-in GPS stuff on phones...it's kind of creepy!
• Remember everyone's first phone was probably a Nokia? And how horribly ancient they are now? And the only game was SNAKE!
• Now we can access the internet via our phone. That kind of blows my mind.
  
• We can also store I think up to 2 GB of stuff on our phones?! They're mini-computers. This is crazy! I have a 1GB card in my phone...and I find it very hard to fill up. Makes me wonder if having so much space on a phone is really necessary, when you could just carry around your iPod as well...
• I don't really know what else they could do to cell phones, but I'm sure it's right around the corner. I am always apprehensive about buying a new cell phone, because it's always the case that a week later, they release another phone twice as good for the same price.
  

And that's what I think about cell phones.


___________________________________________

In light of recent events, my post on P2P was drastically edited. My final paper in this class has been inspired by the events of this past week. RIP OiNK.

OiNK

http://torrentfreak.com/oinkcd-servers-raided-admin-arrested/

;_;

E-Commerce

I remember the day I found out about eBay. Well, not the exact date and time, but you know. It was so small and easy to use and navigate. There were only real sellers and real buyers, and real junk. I like real junk.

Now it's full of companies and stores and crap that I don't want to look at. It's also hard to navigate (harder than it was, at least).

So, I haven't been a fan of the rise of E-Commerce. The only things I buy online are things that I can't get in stores, or are hard to come by - band merchandise, novelty shirts (I'm very particular about these), and music equipment.

I suppose it's good in some ways, but these are things I care not to think about. My initial opinion is that I don't like it. And I bet if I thought more thoroughly, I would still not like it!

On a related note, I did quite enjoy the picture on the Slate article about iTunes:




and since I spend probably at least an hour a day saving funny internet pictures, I feel I must share:




Not the best, but the first one I came across. See you tomorrow!

Good Article

This relates to our talk about Intellectual Property, copyrights, file-sharing, and all that.

But here’s the kicker: Even if the RIAA settles or wins a court judgement, even if the lawsuit isn’t thrown out of court for the frivolous piece of litigation it is, the artists who actually make the music that is being stolen don’t receive one thin dime back from the RIAA. That’s right, the artists who slave for years to make records, pour out their souls into their CDs, and enrich our lives in a myriad of ways don’t actually get any of the money recovered through these ridiculous lawsuits. Not one red cent.

This is why the RIAA = FAIL.

Mark-Up and Encoding, Pt. II

Now I feel a little silly for not understanding such a basic idea. I suppose working kind of backwards - from narrow to broad, XHTML and CSS to Mark-Up - messed me up a bit. I made it harder to understand than it actually was. I do that a lot!

I feel like I would be much better making my own Mark-Up and Encoding than finding it, though. I am still a little uncertain about the physicality of this subject, even after today's exercise. It seems like we talked about half of the subject, and didn't get a chance to go into it further. Or maybe we did get to both parts (now I recall what we were looking at on the screen from that Camilla something-or-other, which I think is the part I thought I was missing), but didn't get a chance to bridge the gap between them. What I'm trying to say is I don't grasp yet how our exercise today would translate into text on a computer.


(In other news...I MET GUSTER)

Mark-Up??

This seems to display my emotions on this topic best:



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It seems I will be echoing many sentiments if I were to say that the articles we had to read for tomorrow were extremely hard to get through, and I found myself many times glazing over what I was reading without comprehending. Perhaps that's where my confusion about the topic lies, but I would bet that had I been paying full attention, I still wouldn't have been able to wrap my brain around the topics.

So I'll post about this again after we talk about it in class, because then maybe I'll have something remotely intelligent to say.

Intellectual Property

Copyrights are a pain in the butt. They make everything complicated and more difficult to any party involved in a copyright dispute.

This issue has come up many times for me, being a musician. It's always been an issue as to whether or not an ensemble I play with should make more copies of music they've already purchased (most pieces of music actually say that even if you've bought it, you still can't make copies of it), or whether or not we can record our ensemble performing whatever it is we play because many times you aren't really allowed to do that, either. In both of these cases, we do both with only a little bit of guilt. No one really consciously thinks of the harsh consequences. How is the ASCAP going to know?

This problem bleeds into copying music, and also movies or data. CDs and DVDs now are safeguarded with copyright protections (which are easily evaded if you have the right programs). Still, people - myself included - make copies of music and video without really even caring about the consequences. It's so rare to hear of someone being reprimanded for doing this, even though the punishments are pretty well-known.

I can understand the opposite point of view: the creator. Making whatever it is they make is probably how they make their living. But seriously, I really don't take pity on people who can choose whether they should fly to Paris or Rome today, or which car they should buy next.

In Response, Pt. II

Courtesy of Toothpaste for Dinner

P2P IS MY FRIEND AND YOURS

Peer-to-Peer file sharing has come a long way since the 2001 article we were assigned to read. It shows its age by mentioning over and over Napster, a file-sharing client that raised the beginning controversies of Intellectual Property (via the internet) and illegal downloading.

Post edited 10/24/07

Social Networking: Privacy

I've been a member of both MySpace and Facebook for around two years now, and I've never really had an issue with privacy. I've never felt the need to delete things from either profile because of potential employers, and I don't really understand when people do (this is an entirely different post, so I won't get into my opinion on that here).

As far as unwanted friend requests, MySpace makes it fairly easy to discern whether or not the person requesting your "friendship" is actually your friend or not - just go to their profile. In some cases, it's even easier: if their name is SeXyKiTty and their picture is that of a retarded-looking half-clothed girl, odds are they aren't real, and you don't know them. Same with Facebook, only the people who ask to be your friend are real people...and you can just as easily decline their request.

It seems so simple to me to protect your privacy on these kinds of sites. Don't post information on them that you wouldn't want a stranger to see. Edit the options to make your profile friends-only. Ignore people you don't know. Find and use common sense. Etc.

SECOND LIFE + CSS

On Second Life:

My first experience with Second Life was through my ex-boyfriend. Suddenly, it seemed, all of his free time was spent playing this game. I don't understand the fascination. The only opinion I have on it now is that people who spend so much time on it probably don't like their "first" life very much. That's why he's my "ex" boyfriend. :)

But really, you can be whoever or whatever you want in not only Second Life, but in the entire online community as a whole. In the game, you can look like, dress like, act like whatever you want. Many times, people with low self-confidence in real life are the ones with all the friends on games like these, because they can open up to strangers who won't judge them, and also because they'll never have to face these people in real life. I really hate that.

On the flip side, I was a little excited to play it, if only to see what all the hype is about. I've never really gotten into RPGs.

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On CSS:

I'm pretty excited to learn about CSS. Other than HTML, I really have no other experience with web development, but I would like to. But I can't really look at the assigned pages and figure it out well enough to make a great page. I'll need some classroom instruction for this one!

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Lol, get it?

Webpage for Class

~~~~~~~~~~

I "FTP"ed my html file, so it's accessible on the web. In case anyone is interested (and I understand this is doubtful), here it is!

http://garnet.acns.fsu.edu/~smh05h/dontputaspaceinit.html

I'll be fixing it up this weekend. Stay tuned.

~~~~~~~~~~

Placing My Allegiance...Sorry, Dr. Gants =)

That's right, Mike Nelson!!


(And by the way, Mr. B Natural is the funniest thing I've ever seen in my entire life.)

Post Secret

Frank Warren, creator of Post Secret, came to speak at FSU tonight. Post Secret is "an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard". The blog is updated weekly, with about 20 new postcards every week, and there have been three books published - the fourth is due in October - of various postcards.

I first encountered this project during a trip to Borders. I came across a book that looked like it was a parcel - an address, postage, and even the postal barcode. Interested, I opened it up, and began to read the secrets of strangers. I ended up reading the entire book that night, sitting in Borders. There is something fascinating about reading the secrets of others.

In short, I was the first person to arrive; I was there even before the production staff! After waiting for three hours, the presentation started. Frank was great. He was personable, witty, and sincere. During his talk, he showed some of the postcards he's received - the actual postcards, not just the ones in the slideshow. It was amazing to actually see a postcard that had been mailed to him, to see it in person instead of on the blog or in a video. He stayed well over an hour later to make sure everyone in line to get his autograph got what they wanted.

I got a picture with him, and he signed both of the books I bought (the 2nd and 3rd in the series). He was extraordinarily nice. Even though I went by myself, I had a great time. Took lots of pictures, too!

"Free your secrets and become who you are" - Stamped into my books by Frank

x-posted to Fitter, Happier, More Productive

People and [or perhaps "vs."] Computers

Hypothetical Question #1: If a tree fell in a forest and no one was around, would it make a noise?

Hypothetical Question #2: If humans stopped using computers, would computers cease to, well, compute? Or in a less hypothetical view, can computers exist and operate without the need of human interaction? Do we need computers, or do they need us?

Most people would agree that yes, if a tree fell in a forest, it would make a sound. Whether or not there is anyone there to hear it is irrelevant. Conversely, if we were to stop using computers ["if a tree fell..."], they would cease to operate ["it would make a sound, regardless"]. This seems obvious, right?

Well, not necessarily. One could argue that computers have their own minds, and in many ways, they do. They are capable of performing complex equations, and in turn, outputting information that is readily available to the user in minutes, sometimes seconds. If you left a computer running on its own, it would still go about its computer-way, figuring out things and being smart. But eventually it will run out of gas, run out of reason to perform. Computers need a guide, someone to tell them what to do and when.

Our own minds and computers have very much in common. People, too, are capable of complex thinking, capable of solving multi-dimensional equations, and capable of storing mass amounts of information. But, our brains are still far superior; we can store thousands of times more information than a super-computer ever could, and we are even more complex than computers, because we have the ability to think and reason.

Computers are tools. They need an outside force to control them. Generally speaking, they enhance our lives. But we shouldn't forget that they are man-made objects. They need us. We don't need them. Just like noises in a forest.

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LOL

Listen to Guster

Yay, another blog to keep up with. I bet I'm the first one to have the one for class set up, I'm such a loser! Oh well. Here's a funny picture to make up for it*:




* It's probably not funny to most people.