Week #10: Life: The best music video

I already know how i am going to utilize the mp3 player. I have been envisioning listening to several of my favorite bands as "soundtracks" to my everyday life. Rather than listening to annoying talk show hosts on my terrestial radio, as i drive to and from work, and/or lame over played songs that just seem to get stuck in your head as means of punishment for past wrongs you may have done in another life, i will now have tunes that will appropriately match my tastes and needs for whatever random occasions life may throw at me. I'll probably even make a playlist for my funeral (a tad morbid perhaps, but at least i'll end the "movie" of my life with the "soundtrack" of my choice.)

Week #9: These ideas are copywrited

I definitly do not like the notion of DRM, particularly in the exploitative use that itunes is using. I think if it was a viable means, that did't offend/upset/irritate consumers, the major labels would still be using it now. Rather than do away with the DRM, which already has caused certain Scandinavian countries and the European consumer protection bodies outlaw iTunes for its proprietary DRM. (see http://blogs.allofmp3.ru/music_news/category/norway/).

The other issue i have with the oppurtunistic methods of most download services is the cost of the songs. I mean, if we are providing the hardware to store and play these songs (from hardrives, to ipods, to cd-rs) why does the purchasing of an entire album sometimes come out costing equally to a retail store purchased album. You would think that the record companies would be saving shipping and manufacturing costs, that i assume they tack on to the total cost of a cd album and hence onto us--so where is our savings difference in that?

Week # 8: "we are living the 80's--'1984' to be exact"

I'm enjoying the courses that we've taken so far, and am still looking forward to the ones that are yet to come. One of the best things about the course is that it compels me to venture into web 2.0 applications, such as Flikr, that i've been aware of for quite a while, but have been reluctant, for whatever reason(s), to participate in. Sometimes i'm just critical of an application (i find it frivolous or just not user friendly), other times i'm just lazy and don't want to add another name/identity (i have enough problems dealing with my own real world one) and passwords to the ever increasing list i already have.

Then, there's also the Orwellian thoughts that seem to always permeate my mind when dealing with many of these new web applications. The issues that keep getting raised are most often those about privacy/transparency and how much, who decides or defines, when and where is it (in)appropriate, and so on. I recently read about one of these new web applications currently in the works (or may already exists, can't remember exactly) which allows people to tag the names of individuals in the pictures that they post. One can then just move the mouse arrow over the faces of people in the picture and their respective names will pop up. To add to this, the program will have face recognition qualities so that when another person posts a picture that contains the face of a "tagged" person from the first picture, it automatically tags the recognized face with the correct name. With technology like this, of course i am pushed to think thoughts of 1984.

Week # 7: The alternate afterlife?

Ahh.. catster. finally a web community for people who are not satisfied with just creating myspace accounts for their kitties. In a way, this is our version of Egyptian cat mummification. The ether that is the internet is not unlike the netherworld that the dead travelled to with all their belongings, including their pets. Creations like Meez require real money for intangible objects, just like mummified Egyptians needed real gold in their crypts to buy any items they needed in their afterlife.

But rather than having to wait for that netherworld (to arrive, or be arrived at) we are actively experiencing it here and now. At least in bits and pieces. Sometimes 1 hour a week. Other times less, and most times more.

Is this our participatory alterlife going to be viewed by anthropologists 3000 years from now as ways humanity in the beginning of the 21st century conceptualized of an afterlife. Funnier ideas have been bandied about.

Week 6 Catching up with depeche modular

Finally writing my blog about course week #6 during this week (#7) due to unforeseen circumstances here in the unvirtual real(ity) world.

One of these blended technologies that have been predicted, but as of yet have not come to fruition, is a combination of Google maps' new "streetview" program (wherein you get 360 degrees panoramic streetside views of areas/cities, like Manhattan, for example) with in-car GPS programing so when you drove around in the city you would not only get the usual audible directions, such as "left on the corner of 66th and 5th", but also, on the GPS screen you would see that there's a bagel shop on that corner. After all, most of us really navigate, and drive, predominantly based on visual cues, not necessarily street names.

Week #4 web two point oh, come in, can u hear me?

Really good and informative video of the function/aesthetics of web2.0, and i must agree with Tom that the video is a very postmodernish art piece that perfectly illustrates the fluidity of words/sentences/ideas/significations etc--a very Lacanic/Derridean post-structuralist video.

One of the sites i visited through the awards list was librarything.com. Coincidentally, I had read an article about this site, a few weeks back, in Discover (i believe) and it sounded quite interesting and promising. The premise is, you get to post the first 200 books in your personal library for free (unlimited requires a $20 fee, i think), tag them, rate them, and even write a review of them, and librarything.com will connect you with other people who share the same and/or similar books. It's like a myspace for bookworms (and i mean that as a compliment, not in the word's vulgar pejorative signification). I mean honestly, what is possibly more telling than the books you read and like/hate/champion/loathe. I think your library (or what portions of it we choose to post and what others we choose to omit) can be a pretty accurate litmus test of your personality.

Week#3: Feed Me....please?

Very fun and informational session this week. I really tried not to go into a feed(ing) frenzy, but that ended up being easier said than done, when i realized that i had ended up with 14 feed lines on my newly minted bloglines account. So i whittled away the feeds that i knew, in all honesty, i would never really read and trashed them until my gluttonously bloated account was streamlined and svelte with only 5 feeds. (Dieting in cyberspace; who would have thunk)

Grokker's innovative visual mapping system for information retrieval was interesting and fun. "oooh, big color circle...must press. Ahhh zoom in." The key advantage that i see to this visual a(i)ddition is that rather than being inundated with inane amounts of text, that tend to blur all together, the subcategorization of circles with size/color-coordinated spheres makes us, the information searcher, pay closer attention to individual "hits," in the form of aforementioned colored spheres, while seemingly paradoxically making the searching/scanning of info much faster. Definetly a good tool.

Well, Finally, what would all this talk of feed be without a post of what i serchaed, and found, on a page, in a little blue sphere @ Grokker:

ONION RINGS
1 cup pancake mix
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup milk
1 large onion

Combine pancake mix, cornmeal, salt and milk.
Beat until smooth. Peel onion. Cut in 1/4 inch slices and separate into rings. Dip onion rings into batter. Allow excess batter to drain off. Fry rings in deep hot fat for 2 minutes or until golden. Drain and sprinkle with salt. Serve immediately.

enjoy. and let your feeding frenzy begin.