Algorithms

Most of what people were using the personal computer for was something like word processing. After the invention of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee, the ideas for uses of the internet became endless. It was a way to connect using telephones. Using a modem allowed you to do data transfer through telephone wires; you could dial up a main frame. Prodigy Communications Corporation allowed access to an online service that offered its subscribers access to a broad range of networked services, including news, weather, shopping, bulletin boards, games, polls, expert columns, banking, stocks, travel, and a variety of other features. American Online popularly known as AOL, allowed internet access to other people. AOL introduced the social aspect of the internet. But it wasn’t until Google that the internet experience would be altered. What set apart Google from all other search engines was that it had the best algorithms. It had the best logical sequences for searching. The search didn’t just happen as soon as it was plugged in; Google team members would search the web and find the best possible results so that when it came time for a user to search for a specific thing, Google would have already found it before its users were looking for it. Google changed web browsing. Search engines made the web a different environment. In new media work, search engine optimization is the big thing. Google is now working on how to get things up in their rankings. They want to maximize the positive things and minimize the negative things. As many of you already know Google is in the process of perfecting their newest development called Google+. Their plan is to utilize a users profile in order to relate their searches on the internet to be more specific and personalized although this is just one of the many features that Google+ will offer. With other unique developments still in the process, Google has high hopes for the network in these next upcoming years.

Where are we headed?

In class yesterday we talked about the internet and how it grew into what we now use today 24/7. Talking about Internet Explorer, and Firefox, and the many apps Google now comes with, I started thinking about what's next for the internet. People are using it to get directions, for research, to socialize and it seems like we haven't even tapped into all its possibilities yet. One article I found from The Next Web was called Bill Gates Brilliantly Accurate Predictions for the Internet...in 1995. In 1995, Bill Gates predicted some of the amazing things we could expect from the internet: real time streaming, broadband internet, and collaboration across formats (compatibility between Macs and Windows). So, I started looking more into what we could expect in the future. I found an interesting article from Network World called 10 Foolproof Predictions for the Internet. The internet is actually kind of crazy, there's new stuff popping on every day. Who knows where we'll be in a decade?

The Internet, Capitalism, and One Front of the Fight for Digital Freedom

If we trace the roots of what we now call the internet, as we did in Yesterday's class, it is easy to observe that business and corporate profit/marketing were not the initial intended uses [for it]. The young man from the U.K. who "gave away the world-wide-web," was definitely part of a small group of selfless people involved with the web or internet. I believe that he had the right idea...he was almost a Nikola Tesla of sorts; far more interested in progress and betterment of community, far less interested in mundane profits and astronomical wealth. I believe that the decentralization of the internet will help to keep the power in the hands of the people, and I also believe that hacking groups like 'anonymous' and others alike are fighting a righteous battle. Here is an article that really paraphrases (if that) some of these groups' motives, but I picked it because of its relevance:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/20/arrests-unlikely-to-slow-anonymous_n_904747.html

If you are interested in anonymous or groups similar, I suggest doing some more reading; many credible people/institutions are even doing in depth studies on them.

The Future of Robotics is Changing Thanks to 'Kinect Hackers'

The Kinect is absolutely the most jaw-dropping achievement in the "Virtual Reality Realm" that any mainstream console company has given to the masses of consumers. If you compare the Kinect to the PS3 Motion, or the Nintendo Wii, you will most likely agree. Microsoft really outdid itself when it began shipping these $150 add-on hardware units, which work through use of any Xbox 360. In only a few weeks, youtube was loaded with videos of "Kinect enabled robots." The article points out: "None of these projects were sanctioned by Microsoft ... Indeed, for the past few months, if you wanted to use the Kinect on anything other than an Xbox, you had to install homemade drivers cobbled together by a dedicated group of hackers..." It is truly amazing to witness what the network of sharing gives us, especially when the community is driven almost solely by self-motivation and dedication. On an even brighter note, Microsoft has changed any initial negative attitude towards all of this...which will most likely bring some ground breaking discoveries: "...Yet the company’s official response to all this activity has gone from hostility to acceptance to vigorous support. In June, Microsoft expects to release a software development kit that makes it easier for any academic or hobbyist to build Windows applications using the Kinect’s camera and microphones. The company is also granting access to the high-powered algorithms that help the machine recognize individual bodies and track motion, unleashing the kind of power that was previously available to only a small group of PhDs. (Microsoft is also working on a commercial version of its software development kit, which will allow entire new businesses to be built using the Kinect’s technology.)" Pretty interesting stuff...

http://newsmixture.com/2011/07/13/kinect-hackers-are-changing-the-future-of-robotics.html

The pros and cons of the internet

Generally when people talk about the Internet they talk about how amazing it is and how much it has improved everyones' lives. Yesterday in class when we talked about the World Wide Web we talked about all of the improvements it has brought and the new possibilities it has opened. Yes, the Internet is a media that allows us to do almost anything, but doesn't it have some setbacks? I would say the Internet definitely has its downfalls. First off, though it has helped us with communication all over the world, it has also seemed to hinder human to human interactions. It seems that people communicate more via the Internet (e-mail, facebook, instant messaging, etc.) than they do face-to-face. It seems to have made many relationships and interactions less personal. Another con about the Internet is that it has caused a lot of distraction for just about everyone. I find that when I have to do an assignment online i often get sidetracked by links that I see or even by just knowing that there are tons of different things I could be doing on the Internet instead of my assignment. This isn't the case with just me either, many of my friends procrastinate doing work by surfing the web or even just going on facebook, getting just about nothing achieved. Another setback of the Internet relates to a previous blog post I did about the article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" In that blog post I wrote about the article and how I myself find it to be true. The article basically says that the Internet has shaped our minds into wanting information quickly and easily, not involving any critical thinking. Not that it kills all critical thinking and analytical skills we have, but it does seem to have a hindering effect on them. The list of cons could go on but I'm gonna stop myself here and see if you guys can think of any other negative effects the Internet has on society.

The Virtual Reality

In our class discussion I found our debate on crime in the virtual reality to be very interesting. Professor Strate proposed the argument that killing another player in a virtual reality is like cheating on your spouse by having cybersex with another person. I find this argument to be very intriguing because when I’m playing a video game and I kill another player in the game I think nothing of it; on the other hand, when someone is in a relationship and has cybersex, I find this to be cheating. It is a very interesting topic for debate and our class discussion hasn’t been the only time that people have been indifferent on the topic. I think that until virtual reality is accessible to us like a gaming console is, there is no way to find a common ground for this debate. Only those developing the virtual reality have enough information to touch on this topic. I personally would like to see years from now what comes of the virtual reality.

clocks.

Is it important for children to learn the skill of reading an analogical clock? I believe the answer is yes. Though these types of clocks are slowly becoming extinct, it is still important for young people to learn how to read them. Children need to learn this simple skill not only to be able to read a clock but to warm up their brain for others things as well. The same argument could be made about children learning simple math. Why learn it if you can simply use a calculator? What if something was to happen to the technology we rely on every day? Again, we cannot just stop teaching ourselves and our youth because we rely on technology.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yfTibc5Vdg

The link above is an advertisement for Prodigy Services in 1995. Prodigy was the pre-internet service that didn't live up its expectations, similar to many child prodigies that don't succeed when they get older. Back in 1995 people who wanted to go online had limited choices. you either had to use a local BBS or pay a service for nationwide access. Prodigy was a big hit at the time because of its premium service. It was the pre-web service that succeeded in spite of weak long-distance usage. Prodigy had millions of users because it was most people first online experience. people were thrilled because the server offered news, weather, references and sports reports, including emails and advertising.

Prodigy was designed to succeed up until the management decided to censor its content. This began as a good idea to probably reduce traffic, but Prodigy began to start banning negative content such as the word "bitch" as well as take negative comments about advertisers. This eventually got so bad that Prodigy eventually started charging members $.05 per email and flat rate went up to $14.95. Eventually competitors such as AOL took over and was free for users to use.

I see this as a success and failure for Prodigy. Ultimately they failed because they couldn't stay competitive with the newer tech companies, but what they did do was open the eyes to millions of people about online services and to the Internet.

rules of the MMO world

In class yesterday we talked a lot about MMO games and the types of behavior people display while playing. We talked about what penalties, if any at all, should be taken for certain behaviors and actions during gameplay. I did a little bit of research after class to find out what the rules are for some of these MMO video games and found out some things about what people are and aren't allowed to do while playing some of these games. So it turns out that there is nothing to be done about killing in some games, such as the video we saw of world of warcraft. That actually is all part of the game and many people engage in attacking one another. Some things that are not allowed are in these games are harassment of other players, excessive use of vulgar language, use of offensive language such as racial slurs, and the use of outside programs to manipulate the game. Some of these offenses, including the ones involving language, can result in a temporary suspension of someone's account, while major offenses such as using outside programs (hacking), can result in an permanent suspension of someone's account. It seems that although it is a game, people cannot go around doing and saying whatever it is they want to and that there are punishments for people who commit these offenses in the MMO games.

VR

I accordance with what Jamie had mentioned, I personally do not take any interest in the act of killing someone for entertainment purposes in a video game. But with that said, I do see its appeal to some people, and take its nature of simulation with a grain of salt. I can see how video games can evoke moral issues when they parallel real life in so many ways, but I do believe a line must be drawn when identifying oneself with characters in video games and becoming so emotionally invested in these games that are clearly not real life, and should not be treated as such. Furthermore, I think it is absolutely preposterous that people would host a funeral via video game and expect everyone to treat it with respect that they believe it should have. It is far too unrealistic to hold everyone to the same moral code, especially when dealing with something like video games that is seen by many, including myself, as not having a very serious undertone.

Aside from this, I believe that virtual reality is making positive strides in many ways including telepresence, which i thought incredibly fascinating. Wouldn't it be remarkable for a doctor to be able to control a robot or device that performed surgery for him? I think this is a technology that would be so beneficial, and revolutionary for the medical field; it has the potential to change so many lives by providing more precise and less invasive procedures, as well as offering immediate medical attention in absence of a doctor/surgeon. Now that's pretty sweet. (and frankly much more important than video games : )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSF1bVXtdbk&feature=related

killa.

I thought it was an interesting when we started to discuss if murder was a morally wrong though it is in “just a game”. I believe that in some sense it is. I find it disturbing that some one would get joy out of killing someone even though it is through a game. Also as time goes on games start getting more violent and graphic. With this being said I understand what Chelsea was saying about how no one wants to play a game where you volunteer and make donations. However I believe there is still fun in games where killing is not the main objection.

Losing whats most important

As technology advances further and further are we eventually going to forget how to use valuable instruments? Take socializing for example, people are are becoming more antisocial and lose their personal skills through all these new sorts of communication.With this increased access to knowledge also comes a probable loss of communication skills and interactive abilities between students and teacher, and students to peers. These skills are not as necessary in a classroom of computers, where individuality is a component of learning and is encouraged. Aside from learning, conflict resolution and socialization used to be two prominent reasons children came to school. The emphasis now has shifted away from these areas.

The Cyberspace Age. Healthy?

I would guess that the average American person, ages 5-30, sits in front of a computer screen, phone screen, television screen, or any other 'cyberspace related screen' for 4 to 5+ hours per day. I know I am guilty of far higher numbers all too often. What are the consequences of this? There must be a mix of both positive and negative effects. Were our bodies designed for this nearly constant atrophy of most of our muscles? Do we even realize as a national (and in turn global) community what this may mean for the average person's health? This topic needs to be studied more densely and far more often, being as that we are clearly in the midst of what I (along with many) like to refer to as "The Cyberspace Age."

Since Cyber culture is so flexible, people are finding many ways to come up with then next best thing. In class we talked about Machinima and how people are finding ways to use something such as video games, which is so popular in our culture today, as a form of communication. I even rememeber a couple years ago, in high school, I was taking a drivers education class we had to complete a group project. For this project we were required to make a alcohol awareness commercial about not drinking and driving. One group had actually decided to make a machinima using Halo. Back then i just thought that nothing of the video and just looked at it like it was just anyother school assignment. Communication is usually used in commercials to sell a product, but with people being innovators and "remixers", we are able to turn that consumer software into another form of communication.

CyberCulture Take Over

Cyberculture has been mentioned a few times in class and I have found the whole idea really fascinating. Yesterday when we watched the video about the Android who couldn't remember life outside his virtual world, I started thinking a lot about whether or not this is a philosophy that will take over: live in the computer world. Even though I know that video was an exaggeration, I could see something like that really catching on, especially since we're all on the internet all the time anyway. I started doing some more research about cyberculture and found a ton of articles. What amazed me the most though was how long cyberculture has been around. I mean I had heard of Machinima and I played The Sims computer game when I was a kid but it gets so much more in depth than that. Hackers are now referring to themselves as "future culturists" and they have a Future Culture Manifesto. Cyberculture is meant to be information culture, and hackers consider themselves to be information freedom fighters so to speak. The article I read Cyberculture, Technoculture, Future Culture said that this culture is still in its infancy because we still live in a money controlled world, but predicted soon we will supersede that lifestyle. It was pretty interesting in case anyone wants to check it out.

But in case that was way too much like a sci-fi script for you, I found some more funny Machinima Videos :)

space

Cyberspace has several building blocks that allow us to define and better understand it. Looking behind the physical cyberspace that deals with wires and monitors and allow us to equate it to something tangible, the conceptual cyberspace is more difficult to grasp, but rather interesting to explore. Conceptual cyberspace can be explained through a wide range of metaphors, but I personally liked the comparison to a place; although we are not physically transporting ourselves somewhere, we are attempting to reach some sort of destination. Mentally and emotionally we are invested in a a phone call, or a chatroom or skype session with a counterpart, and that live interaction connects us in a way that we are no longer individuals in different rooms or separate cars; we are bound by that means of communication, this particular transaction that creates a very real space between once were moments before, two entirely separate entities. For a certain amount of time that elapses, validating that space on an even greater level, you are coexisting with that person, just as if you were conversing with them next to you, in your personal space. This idea may be better categorized in interactional, or relational cyberspace, but they are all inter-related.

http://www.cybertherapy.info/pages/cyber.htm

I found this psychology article online that defined cyberspace as " the fertile ground for new social, relationships, roles, and a sense of self," which I particularly liked because it specifically deals with this type of interactional cyberspace. I believe it has played such a pivotal role in defining and altering the way we view the internet, and where we place ourselves and others in it. It has changed the dynamic of social interaction and relationships, and broadened our networks so immensely. And I think looking at this relational component of cyberspace gives it much more clarity; recognizing the metaphorical space created between people, makes it seem that much more remarkable.

The Internet and Our Thought Process

During the first half of class Professor Strate mentioned an article by Nicholas Carr titled, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?," which is an article i found particularly interesting. I had to read it for my philosophical ethics class last semester and actually found it very easy to relate to, and maybe you guys would too. The main idea of the article is that the Internet is changing the way that we think as human beings. In his article Carr mentions how he used to be able to read lengthy articles and books quite often and had no problem with it, but ever since he started spending a lot of time online surfing and browsing the web he has noticed a change in his mental patterns. Those lengthy readings which used to prove very easy for him now become a struggle as he looks for something new to do after about three pages or so of reading. His attributes this change in his mental patterns to the way the Internet has shaped it. In the article he says, "As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought." He then goes on to say that the Net is chipping away at his his capacity for concentration and contemplation. Personally, I have always found lengthy readings to be quite a bit of a drag, and after reading this article I can definitely relate with Carr. Whenever I begin a reading I start off alert and able to analyze what I am actually reading but after a couple of pages I begin to lose interest and drifting off, reading the material but not actually thinking about what I read. Instead of staying alert throughout the reading I find myself wondering what I could do besides reading. I definitely agree that the Internet is a huge part of why I find myself unable to concentrate. Not so much because I would rather be surfing the web than reading a book, but because of the thought process that the Internet shapes. We have even mentioned in class how the layout of a web page grabs your attention in a hundred different ways at once. I could be halfway through reading an article on the internet and see a link on the side that interests me, and instead of finishing the article I will go straight to the link and see what it's about. Personally, I feel that the Internet definitely fosters a mind that likes to get information quick and easy, and not spend time reading through a long passage to find out certain information. I wonder if this is the case with most of our generation, having grown up in the age of the Internet. Let me know what you guys think.

Remediation

In the world of digital media, things are happening faster than we have ever imagined. In the beginning of the 90’s we started seeing our first Web browsers, almost five years after that people were making their own web pages and online sites. Soon after came even more advanced work such as computer graphics, virtual reality and social networking. Social networking used a many-to-many level, with groups such as MySpace and Facebook. If we look back to the beginning of communication we would find that it started with speech. Writing was introduced as representations of spoken sounds. Writing becomes the recording for someone’s speech, these characters, letters and symbols aren’t actually “words” per say, but rather representations of words. It is clear when you look at the evolution of media, that when a new medium is introduced no one is quite sure what you can do with it; therefore, everyone does what they did with the old medium first. The idea is known as remediation.

According to Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin this understanding of new media is called remediation. Remediation is the incorporation or representation of one medium in another medium. According to their book Remediation: Understanding New Media, remediation is a defining characteristic of new digital media because digital media is constantly remediating its predecessors such as radio, television and other forms of old media. Bolter and Grusin are continually commenting on, reproducing, and replacing each other with newer media. When a new medium is produced, many people will produce upon the negatives of the preceding medium and will deliver meaning almost immediately. This in fact is not true. Yes, they are improving, but it takes time. Look at our newest media Google+, a social network attempting to replace Facebook. Google+ is at its preliminary stages, and as it appears they are in no way ready to take over such a powerful company and always improving group such as Facebook. In fact, Facebook was in Google+’s shoes seven years ago when they were competing with MySpace. By improving upon a predecessor, new media justifies itself. The rhetoric of remediation favors immediacy and transparency, even though as the medium matures, it offers new opportunities for hypermediacy.

Still in Aw over Machinima

Did you know that Machinima.com had 2.3 Billion web hits in 2010? And in June alone this year had 700 million hits? How on earth had I never heard of Machinima class knowing how popular this medium is?? Machinima is the next generation video entertainment network for video gamers, providing comprehensive gaming-focused editorial and community programming to the hard-to-reach core 18 – 34 year old male demographic. Machinima.com is the the number one all-time Entertainment Channel on YouTube. Machinima.com properties are found across the largest global distribution platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, iOS and Android.

So what exactly is Machinima? Machinima is filmmaking with a real-time, 3D virtual environment, often using 3D video game technologies. It is the convergence of filmmaking, animation, and game development. Starting in the 1980's software crackers added custom introductions to programs whose copy protection had been removed. As a result of these hackers new ideas were prompted for gaming companies to make 3-D demos in real time with little amount of software code. However, during this time period there was little disk storage was available which created a lag in the graphics.

The term Machinima was coined in 2000 by a man named Hugh Hancock, founder of Strange Company. A misspelled contraction of machine cinema(Machinima)was intended to define the actions of in-game filming from a specific engine.

What blows my mind so much about this whole idea of Machinima is how quickly people are able to create these videos within a video game. This stuff just blows my mind that people are able to move characters, such as the ones in Halo Red vs Blue, in a game that is already created. This stuff seems like it would take years to create if possible to at all. I'm in aw every time I watch this kind of stuff.

The rise of digital media

In class on thursday we talked about how most analogical media are being replaced/have already been replaced by digital media. One effect of this replacement which we talked about was how some people are no longer able to tell time on a mechanical clock because they are so used to reading it off a digital clock and never took the time to learn how to read a mechanical clock. This can also be compared with the way people used to do math. Before the electronic calculator came along people had to learn many formulas and methods of mathematics, but now that it is all compacted into the calculator people see no need to learn those formulas. Even some simple math methods that we used to learn as kids, such as long division, are becoming lost along with the ways of doing math without an electronic device. It seems that along with the replacement of analogical media with digital media come the loss of certain skills that were once fundamental to human knowledge in order to complete various tasks. Although digital media does make everything more convenient and easier for almost everyone, is it really worth the loss of these skills?