Connection Lost

Earlier tonight I was chatting to a friend on Skype when suddenly the video froze and the dreaded screen came up, Connection Lost. I knew it was something to do with my internet so I immediately ran downstairs and frantically tried to fix the problem.

For a moment I felt a sense of disconnection.

Growing up in a world full of mobile phones, laptops and all the latest connection technology. I wondered, how much do we rely on these new technologies to feel a sense of connection?

I'm sure there has been at least one point in time where you've accidentally left your mobile phone and home on the kitchen bench and spent the whole day wondering if someone had been trying to get a hold of you. Our culture has come to the point where a sense of anxiety is reached without frequent interaction with these technologies.

Not only do we rely on these devices to create this connection but we also crave the connection. We've been so exposed, almost over exposed to these technologies such as the internet and mobile phones that we feel disconnected without them.

We gain comfort in knowing our whole extended network of friends is only a text message or email away. However, through this over connectivity, we have lost the ability to just sit and do nothing. The concepts of sitting and thinking or reading a book have been replaced with surfing the internet and calling friends.

Copyright and Manga 'Scanlations'

'Scanlation' (a combination of scan and translation) is where a manga (Japanese comics) is scaned, translated then the translated text is then edited into the original speech bubbles.

The scanlation community has never really been against original rights but usually filling a gap where legal routes dont reach. The legal translation methods are slow, with a manga series released weekly in Japan as part of a compilation of series being released overseas in groups of chapters meaning increadably long gaps between publications, prices being prohibitorily high, and only a small portion of manga being released overseas. Scanlations provide solutions to these problems with scanlations being done within a week of release, no costs, and a huge range with the availablity of a series only being limited by peoples willingness to do it. Most scanlation aggregation sites will take down a specific manga if it is asked to by a legal distibutor, but it is not universal.

Untill recently manga publishers and overseas licensors have largely ignored scanalation groups or viewed them positively with publishers in Japan generally considering it to be an overseas thing with their main market buying the cheaply available originals most of their revenue came from Japan. Some overseas licensors used the comunities to see what mangas were popular and licensed them for publication, and seeing the groups as good promotion. However recently as overseas intrest in manga has risen and licensing becoming increasingly profitable an anti-scalation coaliton of Japanese publishers an overseas licensors has led to the shut down of several of the major aggregation sites (like onemanga a site which closed the online manga reader portion of its site on Aug 1st, chosing to continue on as a forums and trying to redesign itself as a place for original manga) driving readers underground to sites who do not respect distributors rights.

addiction to SNS -mixi fatigue-

SNS has become one of the important communication tools to build social relations today. Because of its function, there is a trend that many SNS users become addicted to SNS and the addiction to SNS has become an issue in the world now. In Japan, there is an increase in number of people who are exhausted to use SNS, “mixi” derived from the addiction.

“mixi” have more than 10 million users and 80% share of social networking market, and become the biggest social networking site in Japan. This is a typical social networking sites that users can invite their friends to join communities, send and receive messages, write a diary, read and write a comment on diaries written by others.

The function of “Ashiato” (footprint) allows users to see who visit their page. This function makes users to keep writing diaries and lead an addiction to mixi. Now, there is a phenomenon that some Japanese people experience a sense of tiredness because of using mixi and desire to discontinue and then tend to quit mixi finally. This is called “mixi tsukare” (mixi fatigue).

The users, who get a comment on their diary from their friends, should comment on friends’ diary as expressing their thanks. This exchange of comment and diary play an important role and a way of communication within mixi. However, this method seems to obligate users to comment back and then this become heavy burden for users.

SNS makes it possible to connect a large number of people and play an important role as communication tool. We need to think how to deal with it, otherwise we might be tired of it.

Return to the Dark Ages

Originally I thought I would scan this blog post, so that you could experience the total archaic nature of this occurrence. Tea-stained paper with burn marks and tears. However since the advent of Microsoft word my handwriting has become illegible and my spelling, humiliating

Over the weekend I went for a short but relaxing beach holiday. I got sunburnt, went swimming and made fresh berry jam

However, my daily technological rituals were uprooted. There was no cell phone reception or internet access

I hate to admit it, but this made me really uneasy, Cyborg anxiety, as if I was living without a limb. During the first couple of days I experienced false vibrations from the invisible cell phone in my pocket. I’d packed my laptop, but because it wasn’t connected to the internet, it felt lifeless — a portal to nothing.

I felt disconnected. I was so desperate to check Facebook, my e-mail and my favourite blog that I attempted to use dial-up. It was an absolute nightmare. It loaded in sluggish, stunted segments, and irritatingly enough advertisement was given priority.

This forced break from technology gave me much needed insight onto how technologically dependant I have become.

I don’t like it

But I can not explain why?

It may be a matter of pride. I like to consider myself 'strong' enough to resist and live without technology.

The more I think about it though, why is this ability to resist technology socially defined as 'strong', are our digital habits really as negative as we perceive them? Or are they merely new behaviours, distinguished and frowned upon by their newness alone?

...

http://www.netaddictionrecovery.com/

...

Sometime good before exams (part 2)

Sometime good before exams part 2

No. 6 Painkiller: Resurrection

Friends suggest me to play this particular game, Painkiller: Resurrection, because they say it is not just good, it is one hell of game. Well, you know what, it is surely a “hell” of game, and on top of that, it can be seen as a game coming from hell.

You are this guy, Wild Bill Sherman, an assassin from CIA, who only follows the order form the high level government. In one hand, you are doing something for need of justice, such as bringing on a fight with weapon lord and drug lord. But actually, in other hand, you are just killing for the political need of your boss. One day, our brave Wild has to kill a politician. He shows up at front of a church, plans a C4 bomb, shaped like a gum, on the parked car. After the installation, he crosses the road, waits for his target quietly. Time surely flies, and time surely flies. Soon his target appears along with tough-looking bodyguards. If I was the director, and if this is a film, I will use this extreme close-up on three things; target’s thumb on the car handle, flashing light on the bomb and then Wild’s thumb on the trigger. All in a sudden, a school bus full of students is about to pass the wired car, at the exactly moment of its detonation. Wild knows that, on this time, the success of the mission will come with a very high price, lives of innocent students. After a period of struggle, to avoid the tragic event form happening, he rushes toward the car, and then yells to get the bus out of there, however, it doesn’t end up well; in fact, it ends up like shit. Ban…ban…ban…ban. Cars explode, kill everyone in the scene, include Wild, and then game begins.

The church is still the church, Wild is still tour Wild, only order and more wasted, or with more appropriated word, collapsed. The picture is rather blur and depressed, albeit not in the traditional way of hell, which is the land of waste with red-orange magma. The weapon the player has, I can’t possibility call its name, or describe it, but you can use it as gun, and cutting tools. I think it was a common weapon in this game, because in the two previous games, you get exactly same stuff. Adding all facts, it sounds like a nice game, though, only not.

Let’s just forget about the truth that; the game has a highly forgettable story; the game has serious losing-frame problem, and face the real piece of work, the bugs. They drive you crazy. From times to times, every time you start liking the game, the game itself crashed. There is crash in the single player mode, there is crash in the co-play, and then there is more and more crashes in the multi-play. Trust me, the re-installation of the game doesn’t at all, and so it the re-installation of the operating system, Windows or Mac Os. I really don’t know, if I am in the hell, or I am in for a hell?

IGN score: overall of 2.6 (Terrible) out of 10.
3.0 For Presentation: Forgettable story, frequent crashing, and a user interface Painkiller fans should be familiar with.
4.0 For Graphics: We’ve see these kinds of visuals before, and they look dated. Animation and graphical glitches and performance stutters negatively affect the experience.
4.0 For Sound: Decent, familiar sound effects and disposable music.
2.5 For Gameplay: Considering how simple Painkiller’s Gameplay formula is, it’s surprising how much went wrong here.
2.0 For Lasting Appeal: There is multiplayer and a lame, crudely implemented “co-op” mode, but there is hardly anyone playing. If you do get into a match, expect more crasher. It is not worth putting up with.

My personal comment: You better have some Painkiller, otherwise who know when you going to have a heart attack…

No. 5 Rogue Warrior

Remember the day that I said Deadly Premonition is the lowest and most horrible game in the history of Xbox360, however I was wrong. I think I own Deadly Premonition an apology. I am sorry, I am terribly sorry.

Along with all departments worked on this game, still, the department of advertising was the only one who was actually doing his job, a good job. The narrative was an adaptation of one of Dick Marcinko’s famous book. In speak of Dick himself; he was SEAL for a while. In the game, you play a SEAL too, who leads a team of SEAL, sneaks into North Korea to do some mass destructions. During the play, the gamers have the chance to experience the unfamiliar settings, which include sub dock, boat manufactory, the political camp, etc, and the main purpose of doing all that is to take out the nuke facility. Personally described by the Ads department, this game includes a highly sensitive political background, a rather advanced military tactic system, and single/ co-op campaign and the multi-play hide-and-seek first person shooting style.

However, an overall score of 1.5 out of 10 is for a reason.

2.0 For Presentation: Soldier sent behind enemy lines disregards orders and practically starts an international incident on his own. The plot is laughable and barely existent.

3.0 For Graphics: Screen tearing, slowdown and stiff character animation are only some of the visual issues packed within this horrendous game.

2.0 For Sound: The only amusement that you’ll find is laughing at how idiotic the cursing of Mickey Rourke is throughout the game.

Well, I am not a Graphics-ism, who only plays games with magnificent pictures. I am not a fan of high quality sound and I don’t judge the quality of the story. Back to my days when I was a kid, my first game console was a Nintendo FC. Comparing to the FC games, Rogue Warrior is still acceptable, but I and most of other can’t stand is the essences of video games, Gameplay and Lasting Appeal.

1.5 For Gameplay: Hit detection is hit or miss, enemy AI is dumber that rocks, and the cover system is useless.

Yeah, these are the points drag down the quality. “The hit detection is hit or miss” at least sounds all right, but once you play it, you are going to face the fact, that either you can take out the enemy with one bullet, or you can’t take out one single enemy with whole mag. And it is not just the bullets, the explosives too. You could throw two dozen grenades, but under the rule of hit or miss, the enemy still acts like nothing happened. The accurate aim is shit too, because the accuracy of the weapons is the worst you ever seen before. When you are in the cover, the cross-mark becomes a little doll, when you pull you trigger, the bullets go everywhere, only it is not the way your pointing. Normally, if you want, you can finish the game within 2 hours, indeed. How much you are willing to pay? It doesn’t matter. They charged for at least over 70 dollars.

My conclusion: You can throw you money into water just to see the watering; you can burn your money just to see the flame. You can do whatever you want, just don’t buy the game. You will regret.

One laptop per child...not the best use of money and resources?

At first glance the idea of one laptop per child in third world countries sounded like a good idea, it isn’t until you actually think about what a society actually need just to keep technology as a functioning part of it. While the work that OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte is trying to achieve is noble, it seems like the money could be better spent on missions such as $1 a day or the Salvation Army, using money to feed and clothe communities. Its quotes like this from the OLPC website “It’s not a laptop project. It’s an education project” that make you think that the money used to produce these laptops could be used to build quality education system and the infrastructure needed to support technology. It seems like OLPC are five steps ahead of where most of these third world countries are with regards to being able to actually use the technology. While the idea of the widening digital divide is a real one, it is important to also consider the fact that commodities and technology do not have the same level of fetishisation in the third world than in the West. Possibly the most obvious hurdle standing in the way of OLPC being more successful is the fact that a lot of these places either do not or have limited access to power sources which are somewhat necessary to recharge the laptops. Personally while I believe the overall idea is a good one, it can also be said that there is a growing digital divide in countries like America so it seems the money and the laptops would be better spent and used in developed countries that already have the infrastructure to support the technology. I believe that we need to give third world countries the resources they need in order to survive before we should even start to think about giving them technology such as laptops that will become unusable in a few years anyway.

Better Mediated Ways of Seeing and Hearing Global and Local News?

Finding out about the latest global and local current events in the 20th century has now completely transformed. Newspapers are no longer the popular way of finding out the latest news. The internet has pretty much taken over its place. The internet predictably is the faster and easy accessible way of uploading new information. The television and radio still has its place for breaking news but for more detailed descriptions and comments, the internet is the source for quicker updates. Since the released print newspapers take a significant amount longer to reach readers, online news sites has increased its users. As the net grows in its use, some publishing media companies are losing profits so in the nearing future there may be a limited number of newspaper companies available. Online access to the internet also allows users to instantly comment and express their opinions if they wanted to unlike other media sources. With the number of social networks and users on facebook for example, sharing news and views has also rapidly increased.

Music: Digital Vs. Analogue

The discussion about copyright and the matter of illegal downloads got me thinking about some other aspects of music that get lost through the mediation or digitization of online downloads through the web. I, myself am an analogue freak, and especially when it comes to music I like the good old way of consuming my favorite bands albums - through the analogue format of the Vinyl record. You know, those big round, usually black plastic disks that require the archaic use of a mechanical piece of equipment to play them on. Well, they are making quite a comeback in today's world of digital everything. Many artists stress the importance of the vinyl record, its a direct, tangible piece of work that you can hold and interact with, collect and sell - something you can't do with a digital file that is stored on iTunes or another media player. Its quite a hobby to collect records for some people (including me), just walk up Queen Street to Real Groovey to see at times many avid collectors of the ultimate physical medium of a bands work. Many records include quirky aspects that break the normal conventions of the stock vinyl record, making them a collectors item as they are often pressed in limited numbers. These include multi-colour discs, picture discs (album art printed onto the actual record), unreleased bonus tracks, etc. Jack White, guitarist of the White Stripes and owner of Third Man Records is a strong influence in pushing the vinyl medium in the ever-increasing digitized world with many vinyl exclusivity's.

Music plays a huge part in our social and cultural identities, it always has and probably always will, but it feels that with the increasing amounts of downloads, we are treating artists work as a disposable effort that has no true value, an opposition to a physical product. I myself also use digital versions of bands work when listening to my iPod, much of which comes from a free download card that is issued with the LP, giving you the best of both worlds, music on the go and music as a collector piece. The life of compact disc is dying out with emergence of the download but there is also a strong revival of the Vinyl record that could be seen as a reaction to loss of real world translation of a piece of art that is otherwise lost somewhere in cyberspace or somewhere in your computer.

Indymedia and DIY journalism

The Independent Media Center (Indymedia), as a social movement and a newscast network grew out of the anti-globalist protest during the World Trade Organization assembly in Seattle, Washington in November 1999. Since then the project evolved into a global network of independent journalists and participants operating in more than 50 countries around the world, to fulfill their main objective of criticizing neo-liberalism and globalization, and providing the news coverage strongly oppositional to (presumably biased) governmental and corporate mass media. According their website the Indymedia project involves "a collective of independent media organizations and hundreds of journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage. Indymedia is a democratic media outlet for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of truth."

It makes obvious, that emergence of such prolific independent broadcast outlet has provided the efficient platform for anybody to openly publish various political and social issues from their personal perspective. With pervasiveness of the internet and availability of mobile recording and communication devices, it is now possible for virtually anyone to immediately report directly from spot of the event. Yet beyond the obvious advantages of the new democratic broadcast platform there still are number of challenges to be addressed for the network to function comparably efficient to the mainstream media. For one, there is a strong demand for a sufficient number of well-informed and experienced journalists to contribute continuously to the network. Secondly, as the network provides the equal ability for anyone to report, there rise concerns regarding the quality of reports, fact check of information and possible moderation of the content, which creates the ethical dilemma of freedom of speech and maintenance of credibility and a level of proficiency in delivery of the content. Thirdly, apparent radicalism and reactionary policy of many alternative media is often strongly charged with certain ideological perspective which may undermine the very principle of neutral unbiased broadcasting. Finally, the notion of digital divide and the gap between people with different levels of knowledge of and access to information technology can be seen as a major obstacle in the use of the new media.
Yet despite of its limitation the idea of independent media as an alternative form of news coverage, I believe, is definitely worth the attention, as a new and constantly evolving democratic tool of distribution and access of information and oppositional opinion.

Online Communities 2!!

For any of those who follow the web-comic xkcd, you will have already seen this. However a few lectures back we saw the original version of this map, which was admittedly outdated. The creators at xkcd have answered the call for an updated map. And here it is.





It is far more complex then the original, with Facebook dominating the world. Take a perusal of the intricacies. It's really quite good and humorous. Enjoy!

Facebooks new way of 'categorising' friends

This article discusses how Facebook is working towards making new ways for users to 'sort' their friends. By making categories for different friends and family users are able to define which friends they want to view certain things.

This idea would be beneficial to users as they would no longer have to worry about their identity and lives being posted too publically on the internet. I think this idea deals with many of the problems in which internet users have such as the fact that they do not know who is viewing their profile and information. With this change to facebook then those on facebook may be more willing to post things and use the tools available as they are more comfortable knowing that their posts are secure.

I see this as a positive thing for Facebook to come up with, it allows users to have the option of selecting who views their posts and photos. It also opens up a new way for users to differentiate between their friends and family, which is also another way of expressing self identity in the same way as defining who your parents and siblings are.

This relates to the issue of self identity and the way we express ourselves over the internet as it is a way of creating a safer and more comfortable way for users to post things over the internet but in a controlled area.

Your Information Will Be 'Downloadable' on Facebook ---Yay or Nay?

Updated

I stumbled upon this very interesting article about Facebook's plan of implementing this new feature on their site, which will enable its users to download all the information they have shared and put them all on a Zip file.

Full article here on Forbes.

Full article here on NY Times.

What do you reckon?

Friends and South Park

Since I've been told that South Park is a constant frame of reference in my life and it directly relates to one aspect of our course I thought I'd share this clip.

Technology Today!

A couple of weeks ago in tutorial we were discussing how easily news items and other videos have been edited to create new forms of pop culture in society today. Here is an example of this. It is very important you watch the videos in this order.



Then watch what it was turned into:



This shows two things. That catchy pop songs are ridiculously simple to produce. And that video/audio editing has become a very easy thing for the average person to do in their own home. The 'Bed Intruder' song has reached over 30 million views (over a variety of videos) as well as becoming a fully mixed song available for purchase on the iTunes store.

This is all very well in terms of people making the most of technology for fun and games. But it makes you wonder. News items, interviews and debates (unless live) can be interferred with and tampered with so much, and we might not even notice. These days, it is so easy to mess with relatively valuble information.

The film 'Zeigeist' is a good example of this. George Bush's speeches have been played around with to make him appear Anti-American, and support the film's idea of the 911 Conspiracy Theory. Alterations to what he says flow so smoothly that the average viewer wouldn't even notice the cuts and fades,but once you notice them you can see them appearing quite regularly.

It's important to realise that we live in an age of rapidly increasing technological developments that can be used for both entertainment and more serious political affairs. It's kinda scary stuff. Let's just hope we get more Bed Intruder type hits, because that stuff is amazing.

One Laptop per Child?

So it’s been a while that Nicholas Negroponte made a brilliant move towards a better world – providing children in the poorer countries with a laptop each, to give them new opportunities and experiences of the developed world.

Before we start admiring his great deeds, here’s an inspiring line worth considering.
‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime’.

What has Nocholas Negroponte accomplished? Yes, for sure, he provided the children with a new, revolutionary tool (as he calls them ‘the new pencil’). But who’s there to educate them? The teachers themselves do not understand how to run the system, and so the laptops have now just become a fancy toy that they like to PLAY with.

But it seems that he still hasn’t realized the problems of OLPC. He is now making tablets for children in the poorer countries.

Nick, I admire you for the good cause, but I think you should reconsider this project.

New Media = Suicide

Last week, on the 22nd of September, an 18-year-old American university student committed suicide after a hidden webcam taped the student engaging in homosexual acts and was posted on various chat and social networking websites. The student, unknowingly filmed by two of his roommates, consequently jumped off the George Washington Bridge due to the resulting humiliation of the sex tape. Gay rights protesters exclaimed their consideration of the student's death as a "hate crime", with the defendants now facing up to a possible five years in prison for "invasion of privacy". There are ongoing debates about what sentences the defendants should get.

This tragic story highlights the corruptible nature of new media and the potentially detrimental effects of it. There are many other accounts of the potentially harmful effects of new media, such as networkers and bloggers losing their day jobs as a result of posting their dissatisfaction with aspects of these current occupations. There are also several other cases where recently departed couples have posted private, naked photos as well as personal details of their previous partner on the internet for mere revenge.

The case of the university student is an extreme one, however, it does highlight the lack of privacy one faces as a result of new media. Social networking websites, complemented by advanced technology have become undercover agents for public humiliation. The webcam on the student's laptop, streaming live across the web was hidden from his conscious mind as webcams are such a commonly owned item, and with individuals' online and real lives becoming increasingly integrated the opportunity for humiliation is now significantly heightened.

Having read this blog, does it bring to the forefront of your mind that our private lives are now becoming increasingly exposed? Where will our private lives be in ten years time?

Will we miss it?

With the end of newspapers in print looming over media as much as the All Blacks failure to win a World Cup in over twenty years looms over New Zealand, the question must be asked, will it actually be missed? The World Cup is obviously missed as many Kiwis threaten to riot in the streets if the mighty AB’s can bring home the Webb Ellis trophy, but does the world feel the same about print newspapers? It seems not.

Circulation is down, profit is down, and free internet access is up. People around the world the world don’t see the point in paying for something they can get for free, and would rather not inconvenience themselves with a, sometimes, hard to grasp bunch of paper that will need to be discarded after twenty minutes. This then raises the issue of those that don’t properly recycle their papers and just throw them into the rubbish, causing even more harm to the environment. A lot of environmentalists around the world will be glad to see the print newspapers go.

I must admit though, I am one who will dearly miss the newspaper. Don’t get me wrong, I love the free and easy access the internet provides just as much as the next person, but there was something about waking up before school every morning and reading the paper with my old man that was really special to me. That was a long time ago though and, as they say, times change. With more and more people becoming reliant on technology at even younger ages, the news is becoming increasingly easier to access via mobile phones and other similar platforms. Nonetheless, it will be a sad day when print newspapers are a thing of the past and I for one will definitely miss those annoying bunches of paper.

Not-so-common wealth

Delhi, 2010. History in the making.

This years commonwealth games have caught a lot of media attention and publicity…and with good reason, too. The tremendous media and public uproar that occurred following the exposure of photographs depicting the living conditions of the games villages was humiliating for India, to say the least. Photographs that made media headlines showed leaky toilets, stained washbasins and dirty beds – all intended for visiting athletes. What followed was an embarrassing international condemnation of India and the Indian government, inevitably established by the refusal of several athletes to participate in this year’s commonwealth.

But there’s another side to every story. Truth is, India has come a long way. What really exists in the country’s capital today are stadiums, arenas and villages of international standard. First class and quality products created and hosted by a ‘third world’ nation. But nobody ever told us that.

Thank heavens for blogs, facebook and youtube. The past three weeks has seen a complete shift in media representations of the commonwealth games. Thousands of Indians, enraged by the negative publicity that India was garnering went on a rampage of pro-India propaganda, determined to show the world what else was really happening. They were citizen journalists empowered by new media. Bloggers going on frenzy and filmmakers with a new found passion. My Facebook news feed for the past half a month has been clogged with groups, videos, photographs and status updates all showcasing and rooting for the newer, cleaner, more developed India. Possibly for the first time in the Indian context has the indi-media and non-mainstream broadcasts engaged so many people and elicited such a response.

Today, (finally!) all the Indian mainstream media have hopped on the bandwagon and are on a pro-India rampage.

Thank you, new media. On behalf of all the Indians of the world, thank you.

Ticket Scalping

So after watching the events of last week’s amazing 3 minute sellout of rugby Sevens tickets and the almost instantaneous emergence of those very same tickets reappearing on Trade Me I realised that the internet has provided another platform from which people can rip off other people.

Does anyone remember the days where to get a high demand ticket you used to have to line up outside the store for night/nights just to get a ticket? You knew that the shop would have a certain stock and as long as you were reasonably placed you had a good chance of getting a ticket. Do you remember the party atmosphere as day turned to night and all those queuing around you got tired of sitting around? Pulling shifts with friends? I don’t know, I guess what I’m trying to get at is the fact that pre online ticket sales there was a sort of investment not only in money but in time for certain desirable tickets.

It seems that the detachment from the whole process leads to the ability to make a quick buck. Anonymity in selling and the simplicity of purchase are also factors, distancing themselves from the purchaser and the possible moral implications of illegitimate ticket sales. Though not all scalping is bad, sure there are those who legitimately have to sell their tickets for whatever reason, I just disagree with the few that but tickets solely for resale.

Hey, that's my idea!

Imagine this, you are worth billions of dollars just by being geek. You have millions of online friends. And basically, you just created one of the most influential websites in our generation. Unfortunately, you realise that this is just an illusion and that you are actually not that lucky guy.

To make things worse, you could have been that guy, but this precious opportunity slipped from your hands. poof

The Social Network (2010) movie poster via www.impawards.com

I guess, this is one thing that film The Social Network (2010) is all about. I'm expecting that everyone knows about it by now. It's scandalous. It's hip. It's about Facebook. But there are more to it than the story of Facebook's creators, there are a lot more stories going around the Internet about the other social networking sites that were created same time as the infamous Facebook was brought to life. There is this news about the Columbia University's own Facebook version, CU Community, which was founded by Adam Goldberg. To sum it up, Harvard's Facebook was on a tight race for online popularity with Columbia's CU Community. Goldberg had a chance to join in the Facebook bandwagon but he refused. Now, I guess, it's one of those things you would wish you could turn back the time.

Here is a link to the full article about Goldberg and his social networking site, The Other Social Network on Slate.

My thoughts? Well, I guess, almost everything that was ever invented has an intriguing story behind it. From the invention of the telephone to the latest gadgets, people are always beating each other up to get the all the glory. Truth is (or not) it's a dog eat dog world. As Herbert Spencer once said, 'Survival of the fittest'.

And to those of you who have been under the rocks lately, here is The Social Network trailer.

Are you going to watch it in the cinema?

Why not go straight to the source?

Almost all of us have experienced some sort of computer virus related incident, be it unwanted popups, twitter scams or the more recent Trademe malware virus. When I think of hackers I think of people like 'The Warlock' from Die Hard 4.0, living in their mothers basement surrounded by Star Wars collectibles.

Maybe the challenge isn't to cause damage, but just to prove it can be done?

This is the only reason I can think of that these people don't just go straight to the source. If someone really wanted to cause damage to 'the system' they apparently need only head to the right beach with a sturdy hand saw. It seems ironic that we try so hard to protect our customs borders but do so little to protect the two little old under sea pipes that carry all our internet traffic.

Seems like a wee bit of a lapse in security there, guys.

It's all fun and games using hacker skills to take down twitter, or plant viruses on trademe but totally crippling the internet access of an entire country is a pretty extreme action. Apparently easy to do, but definitely a big step towards testing out the new terrorism laws.

The morale of the story? It's cool to be a hacker but take a saw to an under sea internet cable and you'll be one dead Vietnamese fisherman.

The digital divide

The 'Digital Divide' is the term given to the gap that forms between countries, or societies due to their access to technologies - like the internet. The digital divide can be seen in our culture where access to fast broadband is evident in urban areas but is unavailable in some rural zones. However, the digital divide is more obvious when looking globally. This divide is prominent between First World countries and Third World countries. It is easy for us to take for granted the technology we have. We have enough technology in our Westernised culture to even have an entire course available to study New Media. It is hard to imagine a society where Internet or mobile phones sound simply a myth and a luxury never to be had.

This weeks tutorial reading by Brian Winston discusses the project 'One Laptop per Child'. The project originated from a man called Nicholas Negroponte and his focus was to bring affordable laptops to Third World countries to aid in their education. He wished to address this digital divide and to lessen the gap. Though naturally the arguement arises whether the focus should rather be on the more immediate and essential problems of living before mini laptops are considered for the childrens learning advantage.

Many may think the access to information via the internet is increasingly being seen as a basic human right. In many ways it is becoming a more needful source. Those who don't have it are disadvantaged. But i believe Third World countries could benefit much more greatly if this amount of money were put toward more dire problems such as food, water, shelter and clean toilet facilities. 'One Laptop per Child' seems to be much less urgent in comparison to these pressing issues that are in need of more vital help. Poverty can surely not be helped by laptops, yet.

Ah, the days of Bebo...

The Week 4 lecture on identity made me think back to the days of Bebo (a social networking site for those who don’t know). Yes! I had a Bebo page once. In fact, i believe it’s still there *quickly checks* sure enough it is. It made me think about why i liked that social networking site (SNS) so much and i realised ...i liked it because i could be anyone or anything i liked. I could create a fluid identity and play around with it as i pleased. I found myself constantly communicating with people of different races, personalities and beliefs ...and in every instance i became different too, a chameleon if you like, who would take on the very same personality and beliefs (temporal convergence). And that made me or atleast my online identity, more acceptable (prestige). I found that some of the personalities and beliefs that i liked so much became a part of me permanently (saturated self), as if i was some kind of jig-saw puzzle of different beings (weird). Trust me; if you met me before i ever heard of an SNS then you would think I’d been living in a cave or something. I was so bland, like a blank piece of paper. And then all of a sudden people started writing, imprinting themselves on me and making me who i am today. This is why i believe SNS are so popular these days. You can communicate without having to be yourself. You can be all that you can be. And now that we have FaceBook ...well, just look me up and you’ll see what i mean. My online name? Superman =)

Rally to Restore Sanity

On the 30th of October 2010, a rally will be held on the steps of the Lincoln memorial, The ‘Rally to Restore Sanity’ held by The Daily Show’s John Stewart.

Stewart was inspired to create this rally due to his concern after the recent winnings by the American political party the Tea Party in the mid term elections and the Rally held by extreme right wing TV personality Glen Beck. Called Restoring Honor Rally it was held on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I have a Dream’ speech and held in the same place. An estimated 87,000 to 500,000 people attended this Rally.

It is described on the official website as a rally for “the people who've been too busy to go to rallies, who actually have lives and families and jobs (or are looking for jobs)”
“Think of our event as Woodstock, but with the nudity and drugs replaced by respectful disagreement; the Million Man March, only a lot smaller, and a bit less of a sausage fest; or the Gathering of the Juggalos, but instead of throwing our feces at Tila Tequila, we'll be actively *not* throwing our feces at Tila Tequila”

Not to be out done, Stewart’s ex-workmate and current face of ‘The Colbert Report” Steven Colbert has created his own rally, to be held after Stewart’s ‘March to Keep Fear Alive’. Colbert’s march, as it seems, is just to get back at Stewart for out doing him with an announcement on his show (The Daily Show and The Colbert Report play back to back). It also looks as though Colbert will use his extreme right wing satirical style of comedy and use it on the issues raised in Stewart’s rally, if there are any

Currently on Facebook, The Rally to Keep Fear alive has 79697 attendees whilst Rally to Restore Sanity has 184771 and has even been tweeted about by Oprah

Something fun to read before Exams (part 1)

Hi, there.

One of my habit, and as I believe that many may do this, randomly tapping interesting words in Google and then enjoin the fun of the contexts. The thing I want to talk about today apparently is not about what I tap in; it is something even better.

Most my friends play video games. Boys like high combative violent games, and girls like online games, such like World of Warcraft, just like what the lecture and reading say. Anyway, let’s get back to the topic. The context inside the link is called “counting down of tragedies in the history of offline games”. It only comes with short explanation and limited pictures, so I have to do some research to fully support its opinion myself, that all these games are piece shits, or may be these games are insulting the good name of “shit”. Unfortunately, I played all most every single of them.

Here and now, Let us start the counting down!

No.9 DukeNukem Forever

In DukeNukem’s defense, this game really can’t be called a terrible tragic, well, in every possible way. I was born in 1984. If anyone who is old enough to play this game, just like me, then you should know exactly what I am talking about. The picture, the visual effects, the sound effect, the killing and the handling, with perfect combination of all these facts, if this is not an epic of its time, then what is. So surely it is not the quality of game makes itself a tragic.

In January 1996, there was the great born of DukeNukem 3D, and the followed by a even greater official announcement, “the next DukeNukem game, the DukeNukem Forever will be published in April 1997.” Today is 2nd Oct 2010; 14 years after that announcement, I have to ask, where the hell is the game? What the hell was happened? You know, or you may not know, but during its legendary delay, or “bouncing”, following things happened.

During its delay, across all platforms, the Final Fantasy has 96 games, four films, three cartoons; GTA (Grand Theft Auto) has 14 games; Zelda has 16 games; and the Sims has 17 games.

During its delay, there were 75 Mega-man games; 50 Star-war games; and 56 Mario games.

During its delay, Black Isle Studio was established, grown, refulgent and then broken down.

During its delay, even Blizzard Entertainment, an super delay lover, made Starcraft series, Diablo series, Warcraft series and World of Warcraft series.

During its delay, there were in total of 15 game consoles invented. They were PS, DC, NGC, Xbox, PS2, Xbox360, Wii, Ps3, GBC, GBA, GBASP, NDS, PSP, GBM, and NDSL.

During its delay, 350 million game consoles and computer (for the purpose of playing games mainly) were sold.

During its delay, the speed of internet increased 300 times faster.

During its delay, the speed of CPU increased 32 times.

During its delay, Microsoft published six operating systems.

During its delay, Google, eBay, Facebook, Youtube. Etc got bigger and bigger.

During its delay, the US government has sent 30 space craft air.

During its delay, four countries have owned nukes, five wars finished, and then 19 new battles began.

During its delay, there were half billion dead, and then 660 million people were born.

I even found a joke about the game DukeNukem Forever;

One day, a Chinese meet the God.
God: With many years of serving me, I offer you one wish?
Chinese: Can you please sink Japan?
God: Sorry, it is quite impossible, do you have another one?
Chinese: I want play NukeDukem Forever.
(With a moment of silence)
God: Here is the map, show me where Japan is.


No. 8 Dreamkiller

Dreamkiller is game, made by Mindware Stodios. Me, myself found it very interesting, and yet very creative. It is a first person shooting game combines the facts of speed, furious and blood shard. The narrative is about a psychologist, Alice Drake, who enters her patients’ mind, and fights all the darkness and evilness inside. At the last, she finally realizes that, the origin of sickness is not something horrible, but the basic needs of every human-being. The game has 12 levels of single play game mode; for every level, there are huge amount of enemies, and by the way, every single of them represents one kind of fear. And the game also provides multi-play game mode, enormous amount of weapons and super-nature magic.

However, once you play the game, you will found that, it is very easy to drive yourself crazy. Really, I mean it. After one night of playing, I start having these weird dreams. The only fun in the game is to shoot monsters with strange guns, but with unacceptable rusty controlling, the only thing you may want to do, is to kill yourself at any point of the game. It is a long game; you may spend hours of hours on it, albeit the repeating of similar setting will make your playing experience equally boring.

The protagonist is called Alice, but please don’t confuse it with the film, Alice in Wonder Land, because it more likes Alice in Nightmare Land. Am I playing the game, or the game is playing me? Hard to say! The graphics is not bad, worth playing.

Games Spot Score is 5.0 out of 10. Under the personal commons of Mike TheMic, he points “Boring first person shooter, nothing special at all.”

No. 7 Deadly Premonition

Once there was a game called “Rainy Woods”, now it called Deadly Premonition. Before I do my own review of this tragedy, I would like to bring some words form others, in order to provide a better description of how horrible this game can be.

IGN gives this game a historical overall score, 2.0 out of 10. It was not the lowest score in the history of video games, but definitely in the history of Xbox 360 games. Deadly Premonition earns a 6.0 for its presentation, “A surreal plotline what might be almost interesting enough to make suffering through the rest of Deadly Premonition palatable.” Author comments the following on the graphics, “as bad as it has ever been on Xbox360”. Score? 1.0, I think this is the lowest mark that a game can ever get. 2 for the sound; “The most mind-bending part of Deadly Premonition is the small set of tunes that loop over every conversation. They will drive you insane.” 3.0 for its Gameplay; “Atrocious mechanics. The only difficulty in the game comes from the clunky controls and camera”. It gets another 3.0 for its Lasting Appeal; “You’re looking at over 20hours to solve this mystery, but only because it moves so slowly”.

I am sure if how many people have played the game Shenmue. It was a game on DC console, made in 1999, magnificent graphics and controlling, and with a much better narrative. If you have no idea about what I am talking about, just think it is a Japanese version of GTA. Anyway, if the game was produced 8 years ago, then maybe we could say that, Deadly Premonition is a termination of Shenmue, and within the paradise, you can explore every corner of the world; you can have tones of sub-missions; and at last but not least, every little detail supports its unique scariness, albeit now, we can only use these words to self-hypnotised, not because of the game has a shitty graphics, it is because the whole game is a piece of shit.

After play it for a little while, you can immediately discover that, Deadly Premonition is combination of two games, resident evil 4 and GTA. When anybody heard it, it surely will turn them on. But this good intention, soon becomes a nightmare for the producer, is way out of their league, out of their production ability. The producer of this mess is a Japanese company, Access. For most of people never heard of it, Access’s business is mostly on cell-phone games.

Oh, dear god, do we have anything else to play? Anything will do!

(Later I will post the rest of the counting down, all the way up to the shittiest No, 1)

Influencing on the Web

We spend considerable amounts of time online, but what makes us visit some sites more than others? With more and more of our time being spent online it only makes sense to try and understand the ways in which we are being influenced online and how we can influence others.

Firstly, to influence someone you need to understand the way they think. By looking at simple psychology and patterns in the way people think, we are able to understand how the human mind works in order to influence and manipulate their thinking, and understand the ways we are being impacted by this.



1.Ratings and reviews completed by users

Showing ratings of the website or reviews completed by users encourages the viewer that the site they are viewing is trustworthy. These sites tend to appear more credible than advertisements on billboards and newspaper because we can read about what other people like us think about the product or service. This works even if it isn’t a tangible item being sold through the website. For example, if you want people to follow your blog, YouTube or twitter simply showing large amounts of followers will get more people to follow you or subscribe.

It works because of social validation. People like to know that what they are doing is accepted by their peers. And when it comes down to it, we more often rely on what other people are doing when we are confused about what we should be doing. We are more likely to do something if someone else has already done so. For this reason many top bloggers and YouTubers remain in their high rank.

2. Give something for free or discount something

Giving out something for free or discounting something makes the viewer feel that you have gone out of your way to do them a favour. As such, this person will feel like they owe something back to you, therefore are more likely to do something for you i.e.: purchase something of yours, or follow/subscribe to your account. This is the act of reciprocity and is often used in the sales approach of marketing i.e.: foot-in-the-door technique. It can be done by offering free shipping for the sale of items or allowing a free download of music or a book.

3. Express limitedness or scarcity

We all want things we can’t have. If there are a limited number of things, the item seems unique and its value increases in the minds of people. This makes people want to have that item to be unique and special. This also works when a limited time frame is put in place. This encourages people to think that they are getting a great bargain and therefore act erratically to get it. Think about www.1-day.co.nz and how they get people purchasing their items.

Many people are looking to understand how our minds work when we are online so as to get us to buy more and use more online. These are still powerful ways to influence people that you may now notice or maybe even use to your benefit.