Cyberspace Essay

The idea of the internet as cyberspace has been a part of our contemporary culture for some time, particularly in the popular medium of film. But is the concept of cyberspace still relevant to our contemporary society? Discuss with reference to your own experience of contemporary media.

A mission of computer subterfuge, executed by a group of criminal experts, in a world of highly advanced technology and fierce crime; a virtually created world. [1.] Cyberspace. The concept of cyberspace portrayed in Neuromancer, a novel written by William Gibson 25 years ago in 1984, was a shocking one when it first emerged. Published back in the days when computer technology as we know it had just begun, no one wanted to think that it could ever be as it was in the book.

Now, society seems to be drawing ever closer to this very concept of virtual worlds. Cyberspace, as it is today, is defined as a non-physical environment, created by computer networks. [2.] This virtual space, where so many of the world’s citizens reside, is often described as an actual “place” with terms like electronic frontier and information superhighway being implemented. [6.] None of them, however, are quite as popular in present times as the term cyberspace when describing this rapidly growing virtual world, a world in which the interaction of people has no requirement other than that of directing a mouse and hitting some keys. Gibson described it as a “consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators” (p. 51)

There are many sub environments in this vast non-physical realm, where you can buy most things online and have them delivered straight to your home, where you can socialize on the vast array of sites created purely for the purpose of social networking, where you can watch almost anything you want, where you can be anyone you want and no one can really stop you. More and more of the physical world embodied in our corporeal lives is becoming ever so swiftly embedded in that of the digital world instead. [9.] Soon everything, even the most human of activites, will be done through virtual reality, like the act of sex is in the movie Demolition Man (1993).



The possibilities that cyberspace offers its users, the ability to access information and communicate with whom they want, to be“freed from the material and social constraints of their bodies, identities, communities, and geographies” mean that these technologies are regarded as a potential form of liberation for those who are at a disadvantage, whether it be socially, materially or physically. [7.]

World of Warcraft (WoW), the fourth title in the series of a massively popular MMORPG franchise that began in 1994 [4.], is by far one of the most notable and widely played games in the world today and exhibits perfectly how a user has the ability to be freed from their constraints, to become whoever and whatever they want no matter what they are in real life. Over ten million users across Australia, Europe, Asia and the U.S.A play this game, a lot of them for a surprising 20 hours per week. And the concept is rather basic, too. You get a character, who you raise or “train”, and abandon the real world to undertake heroic quests in the “World of Warcraft” where as well as embarking on such quests, you earn money, traverse the world and interact with others doing exactly the same thing as you.



Then there’s Second Life, which is another form of escape into the cybernetic world where, just like World of Warcraft, you can be whoever you want to be. It differs from Wow in that it is more like “real” life, similar to The Sims, though much more widespread and more easily real-character interactive. Just as its name suggests, it’s like having a second life. You get a job, you go to the gym (I assume), you eat and such (I would expcet, if it’s anything like the Sims) and you go on dates to “fall in love.” [5.] How the last of these is achieved online I am quite unaware of, but the rest seem to be pretty average, mundane activities that one must perform to progress, just like in the real world. Except all online.



The Matrix (1999), a film made a decade ago, encompasses all the activities mentioned in the last few paragraphs (even the Demolition Man reference there) in that the characters’ entire reality is a virtual one. Everything they do, all that they feel and smell, touch, see and hear is not through the “real” world, but through a network that everyone is “jacked-in” to, created by machines that use humans as an energy source. In The Matrix “a reality of millions is declared to be due to cognitive manipulations effected by machines and computers.” (p. 107) [8.] Much of the film revolves around what is reality and what is not, and how to overcome the limitations of the cyber world. It brings to the forefront of our minds the possible idea “that the world we inhabit may, in fact, be an illusion, a projection, or a simulation.” [10.]



The concept of cyberspace is still relevant in the real world; things like The Matrix and Neuromancer are still being produced and continue to be popular with society because they are a prediction of where our internet addicted culture is heading in the not-so-distant future. And games like World of Warcraft, but especially Second Life and The Sims, give us a glimpse of what to expect: more and more of life will be lived online. Hopefully the real world won’t just simply fade into the background of such an existence.

Resources/Bibliography

1. Neuromancer Plot Summary and Quotes, Bookrags, viewed 23rd October 2009, <www.bookrags.com/Neuromancer>

2. Kayne, R 2009, What is Cyberspace? wiseGEEK, viewed 23rd October 2009,
<http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-cyberspace.htm>

3. MacKay, M. 2006, History of World of Warcraft, Buzzle, viewed 23rd October 2009, <http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/1-27-2006-87479.asp>

4. 2009, World of Warcraft Basic Guide, viewed 23rd October 2009 <http://www.supermandoc.com/world-or-warcraft-basic-guide>

5. What is Second Life, Second Life, viewed 23rd October 2009 <http://secondlife.com/whatis/>

6. Cyberspace and Virtual Places Paul C. Adams Geographical Review, Vol. 87, No. 2, Cyberspace and Geographical Space (April, 1997), pp. 155-171 Retrieved from Jstor 23rd October 2009

7. Cyberkids? Exploring Children's Identities and Social Networks in On-Line and Off-Line Worlds Gill Valentine and Sarah L. Holloway Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 92, No. 2 (June, 2002), pp. 302 Retrieved from Jstor 23rd October 2009

8. Botz-Bornstein, Thorsten 2008, Style and Substance in the Matrix [Review] in Film-Philosophy, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 107-116. Retrieved 20th October 2009 from Google Scholar


9. The Ontological Crisis of Melancholia, Christopher Parsons, 2007 Accessed: 23rd October 2009 <http://www.christopher-parsons.com/Academic/The_Ontological_Crisis_of_Melancholia_(3_1_for_web).pdf>

10. Woodward, Steven 2008, “The Matrix Trilogy: Cyberpunk Reloaded” in Quarterly Review of Film and Video, vol. 25, no. 5, pp. 442-447. Retrieved 21st October 2009 from inform world

11. Sponsler, Claire 1992, “Cyberpunk and the Dilemmas of Postmodern Narrative: The Example of William Gibson” in Contemporary Literature, vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 625-644. Retrieved 23rd October 2009 from JSTOR.

12. The Matrix 1999 (DVD) Feature Film, Warner Brothers, United States

13. Demolition Man 1993 (DVD) Feature Film

Lecture 9.0: Studying Video Games

Studying, to me, equals student + dying. It's a Facebook group I joined. However, studying video games? Now that seems like something I could enjoy. In fact, this lecture was one of the very few I paid 100% attention in! I didn't even think it was possible, but as an avid gamer it's really no surprise that I did.

So there are different types of mediums for games, these include:

PC
Consoles (like the PS3 and the XBOX360)
Arcade (Timezone, anyone?)
Online (World of Warcraft... just typing that name makes me shudder)
Mobile (stuff you get on your iPhone etc)

And then there are the various genres, like RPG's and fighting and racing games (all the main ones I own hehe) and FPS's and platformers (those are the ones I cannot STAND ew).

Anyway, there's this stereotype of the gamer that's been around for ages of the guy (aged 18- 25) who sits alone in his room at his parents house being an anti-social loser mashing buttons. Now while this may be true of some gamers, its not true of all of them. A study done prior 2005 stated that 80% of gamers were the aforementioned losers. I don't think that was ever true. But anyway, studies done rather recently show that its closer to a 40/60 split between female and male gamers nowadays. And that females tend to go for the cutesy games like Pokemon (where nurturing and touchy feely feelings are involved) and males go for the blood and gore and the explosions. Guess I'm a guy then, since I like blood and gore (Mortal Kombat on the PS2 where one of the challenges was to impale your opponent with your weapon and he had to bleed a certain amount of blood before you could move on) not that I didn't enjoy Pokemon...

Also one other thing I got from this lecture... GAMERS HAVE SUPERPOWERS. Ahahahahaha. No, seriously. We're meant to have better peripheral vision and more manual dexterity, faster reflexes and quicker decision making times. Ha, BEAT THAT. Unless I just heard what I wanted to hear? Haha.

Another Scavenger Hunt Dealy-o

E-Petition
I signed this petition: STOP ANIMAL TESTING. You should too. There's no point in animal testing, seriously. They don't even react the same to major substances that we do! You know that rats or something aren't allergic to arsenic? Its not deadly. Pretty sure it's deadly to HUMANS. Ugh.

Respond to a professional blogger on a major news site
Haha, yes, "major" I'm choosing to take that to include www.pocket-lint.com
It is major in the gaming world, I think... And so's Gamasutra. Haha, I love it!

Anyway I commented on this news item: PSP Sales Rise 300%

This was my valuable response to the article:
"It still sounds pretty pricey to me... And it just looks like an upgraded version of a GBA. Which makes me wonder... what ever happened to Nintendo? After the last GameBoy, their position in the handheld market just plummeted. Don't even talk to me about the DS, that thing is crap."
I left my name as "Anonymous" cos I'd rather not be abused for my controversial views, ha. Free world my ass.


Barack Obama
Oooh, look, he's got a TWITTER. My respect for the first black (well, half) president of the States just plummeted. Not that I had much respect for him anyway, he's american. Ahahaha, just kidding, yanks aren't that bad. It's just dumbasses, like George Dubbya Bush, who give them a bad name. Anywhoooo, B.O (haha) was tweeting about supporting the health reform in the U.S. I agree with Ling on this one, it is nice to know that the big man up top can take time out of his busy presidential duties to chat to his peeps :)

Local, State and Fed Reps
Local - Ron Clarke - tis the Mayor!


State - Anna Bligh


Fed - K-Rudd! - He kinda looks like the Milky Bar kid!


Last time local member spoke in parliament

Oh, Ron Clarke, wherefore art thou? You didn't pop up anywhere. Not that I searched very hard. But wait, your name appears in here somewhere, if you search "Ron Clarke" in the Hansard link:

Queensland Legislative Assembly

Good enough (:

Let your local member know what you think about their last speech

Couldn't find anything about this either, surprise surprise. But, turns out he thinks the Gold Coast is a wonderful place (well derrr, he is the Mayor, he kinda has to say that, but shh) and I just so happen to agree. Here is what he says about it exactly, if you're interested. Seems a bit too "Gold Coast is fantastic" to me but I'll still agree, cos I think it rockssss my socks man.


Clean Feed
This definition is brought to you today via No Clean Feed

"The Australian Federal Government is pushing forward with a plan to force Internet Service Providers [ISPs] to censor the Internet for all Australians. This plan will waste tens of millions of taxpayer dollars and slow down Internet access. Despite being almost universally condemned by the public, ISPs, State Governments, Media and censorship experts, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is determined to force this filter into your home."

I'll tell you something, he ain't forcing nothing into myyyyy home, uh uh. I'll move overseas where they have fast internet, lol. Okay, I will agree that if it stops pedophiles and people with crush fetishes from getting their rocks off then yay for that, but I still think those kinds of people should be castrated (hey, its a hell of a lot better than this censorship bullshit, and HELLZ CHEAPER) since they'll just find a way to get around the censorship (cos they're freaks) and/or other means of getting what they want. Plus, I'm pretty sure its not just the illegal stuff they're censoring. If it's not illegal... why bother slowing our net down to block it?

Maryman's Art!

One of the most painful, excruciatingly time consuming forms of drawing is with... dots. Ha, this took me like a week and half to do. Mainly cos I was slack and only did it when I had art class, but hey, it was the "dumb" art class, and nothing was expected of me. The teacher even seemed surprised when I turned up. Anyway, keep in mind this is made entirely from dots. Appreciate my art GODDAMMIT!!!


Hmm, it looks kind of fatter and unrealistic now that I've scanned it in and cropped the picture... See, this kind of art just looks better on paper and not on a screen :)

Lecture 8.0: Political Possibilities

Yup, as the title suggest in the 8th lecture we had Stephen Stockwell speak about the Political Possibilities of the net.

Democracy is... basically free speech.

Stockwell explained the two very different forms of internet politics: eDemocracy -the contribution of the internet to real world politics - and CyberPolitics - the polictics of the net.

There was also mention of the gaps in mass media, and the internet being a very suitable, if not the only, medium in which the gaps can be filled. Power to the people? :)

My Venture Into Freeware Apps

Kay, so I'd never used a freeware app before, as far as I know... which isn't very far when it comes to computers and stuff. Since I'm useless. Almost as useless as I am at being a lesbian. AHA. Which is kinda funny considering what Danielle said about me [here] :) Looks like I fail at anything that's not sitting on the fence. Ahahahahahah.

So I downloaded OpenOffice. Do you know how horrible doing that was? It slowed my net down to a snail pace for like 4 and a half hours cos my net's been a #%#$ for the last week or so, and I thought to myself "Oh OpenOffice, you'd better be worth this!"



Anywho, OpenOffice, as it turns out, is basically a free, yes free, version of Microsoft Office. It does almost all the stuff that Word etc does and it does it for... yep, my favourite word... FREE :) As in, I didn't have to pay for it. I'm so glad I put off buying Microsoft Office for like a year until I went to this lecture and heard about OpenOffice. Defs using it from now on. Huzzzzzah!

Lecture 7.0

Jason Nelson once again was entertaining enough not to put me to sleep. It was quite nice to stay awake for an entire lecture for... oh, this would have to be the 2nd time this year. Pretty amazing, right? He's a funny, funny man... and I still haven't figured out who he reminds me of.

Anyway, today's lecture was about open source software. Open-source software is apparently "transparent" which I think means you can have a look at the source yourself, and if you see any errors or whatever you can fix them up yourself. However, if you're like me and lazy as well as completely computer illiterate, its not so good cos open-source stuff doesn't get updated all too often.
But yeah, you know the stuff I'm talking about here, yeah? Visit download.com and you'll get the picture. Speaking of pictures, there's an open-source rip-off of Photoshop out there (surprising I know) called... Gimp. And an animation program or something called Blender, that apparently is pretty good considering it's free and all. There's also Open Office, which gives Microsoft Word a bit of a run for it's money and which I'm also downloading as we speak - 3%... C'mon, HURRY UP! Jeez - since Microsoft and Dell were too stingy to include Micro Office on my computer and I would've had to fork over like $150 or some shit for it... Money better spent on food and booze. The 2 best friends of... well, me. But, uhmmm, yeahhhh, Open Source = Good (if you're not a lazy tool like me!)

xoxo Gossip Gir - I mean, "Maryanne"

Technology Wars: Attack of the Phones

I was thinking about BSG and how the Cylons took over and wondered... what would happen if toasters and mobile phones actually did attack us... we came up with this and posted it on iReport, as was outlined in the task:



Filming (badly done): Me & my uber sexxii phone ;)
Concept: THAT WAS ALL ME BITCHES, ALL ME.. and BSG... lol and maybe the others helped too lmao
Editing: Angie & Me using her confusing Mac :/
Starring: Angie & Allen

To see Part 2, in which I actually star please go to Catherine's blog.

Fun on the Net Pt 2

http://www.polyvore.com/
Using this useless site, I created this, its meant to scream "tranny" kay? So like my taste aint that bad... but don't you think anything is an improvement on Callum's flanno?
So yeeeeah, you can create your own outfits with it. Still useless but. To me anyway.

http://turbulence.org/
This is a site for... um... artists? I don't know what you're supposed to do on it. Although, I did try, very hard, to figure it out. All I managed to get out of it was that it "commissions and supports net art." Probably not completely useless.

http://rhizome.org/

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php

Lecture 6.0

I'm finding it harder and harder every week to muster up some enthusiasm for this... at least I'm here though, writing this and whatnot.

The lecture was about... consumption and production. We consume media, like the big screen mediums of cinema, television and PC's and the small screen mediums of mobile phones/smartphones and personal media players (eg. iPods) As for producing, there's stuff like The Trailer Mash (a webby totally devoted to re-cut trailers and trailer mash ups) and FanFilms (a site devoted to... can you guess? fan films!) which just helps the cycle of consuming and producing along which gets the amateur film maker more exposure and even though it doesn't make you any dosh, it might get you some recognition and some money later! And last but not least, mobile phone production is pretty useless unless its for catching random stuff that happens that you aren't all that prepared for. If you capture something good though, you can upload it to iReport or something like that. Niffffffty.

Fun on The Net... and no I don't mean porn :)

First we went to http://personas.media.mit.edu/personasWeb.html and as it turns out... There's nothing on the net about me. There is, however, a lot on Emily Pugin...

Thennnnn, I made my own map on google maps :)


View Maryman's list of places to go in a larger map

I can draw okay. With a pencil. Not a mouse. But its still recognizable as a badly drawn Dragonball Z-ish character. XD

Short Films, yeyeah!

Black Button - Basically, I liked the concept. And the fact they just whited out the background. I found that amusing most of all. Oh and this:
Guy who pressed the button: Who did I kill?
Guy who gave him the option: I will be seeing him next.
Hahahah no one before him picked the key so it's like just a chain he's a part of and that he's continuing. Pleasantly morbid, right?



Twist of Fate - Ahahaha, it was so awesomely bad I just had to put it up. It was cliched, the acting was awful and the filming seemed a bit dodge to me. I'm not in a position to judge on filming though. I mean, have you seen the iReport I filmed? Haha good times, good times.



Lovefield -Filming, like the effects etc, were brilliant, I was really impressed since all the other short films I could find on Youtube sucked ass in that respect. Nowww, as for the story... Was it just me or was the ending like totally unexpected??? I honestly thought it was just another dice and slice serial killer thing. But it turned out sweet! I was actually kind of happy it did. Weird, huh? Maryanne has warm and fuzzy feelings.

(:

Lecture 5.0: Jason Nelson Screwin' Around

I have nooo idea what the point of this lecture was, to be perfectly honest. The lecturer though did remind me very strongly of someone. But I couldn't put my finger on who. It's STILL frustrating me, a full day after. He was entertaining though... Back to the lecture though. I think there might've been a point after all, I'm not sure ;)

We were shown some examples of visual data representation, which was followed by lots of chit chat about the "Dot Com Boom" and its subsequent crash. Some chick went from being worth $18 to 5 million and then back to $19 in the space of a year. Sad. She should've got out with her 5 mil. I know I totally would've been smart enough to do that XD

AOL rose and fell, as did Yahoo, who's now partnering with ol' Bill Gates to compete with Google, just like Myspace keeps (sadly) trying to update itself to compete with Facebook. Facebook's better. No reason why, maybe it's just cos for some reason I don't see as many skanky stupid 16-year-olds on there? They are catching onto the new "trend" though, and I don't like it :( As for Twitter, you know what my News&Politics tutor said about it? It's like having a lot of birds twittering in the background. What do you do to birds twittering in the background? You block them out. Which is eventually what's going to happen to Twitter. THANK GOD. And while I'm on the topic of Twitter, I would like to express my PROTEST at having had to get an account for my N&P class. I hate Twitter. And I'm not too fond of N&P either.

Lecture 4.0: Big To Small

Another run down of yet another lecture. Again, this will be brief.

We were **educated** on early cinematography, timelines and such were incorporated, and how the television came in and no one thought it'd be that big, but as it turns out... it was. And Hollywood jumped on the band wagon after a while, and then TV became this huggeeee thing. I honestly don't see the big deal. I could live without TV. That's what the internet is for hahaha. Which reminds me, there was also talk of how the internet is the "new" TV, and Hollywood just isn't keeping up, tsk tsk. The internet is, would you believe, a great medium for amateur film-makers to "express" themselves. You get a lot of crap, but somewhere in the rough, you do find a diamond every now and then. Like this Star Wars parody short film made quite a while ago I think. Uber amusing.

SCAVENGER HUNT! (Ugh)

Not using google or wikipedia, here are the answers to some random questions. This is the task for this week's tutorial, seriously, I wouldn't be doing this otherwise... Although, I did already know the answer to number 3. Not that I'm admitting that.

1. What is the weight of the world's biggest pumpkin? How long did it take to grow?
1689 pounds. Didn't say how long it took to grow. (H-Ref 1)


2. Best (quickest, fastest) way to contact Lily Allen?
0416 566 165. Lol. ;) Alternatively, Facebook or Myspace (http://www.myspace.com/lilymusic) (H-Ref 2)


3. How long is a giraffe's tongue?
21 inches. That is totally from my own general knowledge. Hah. (H-Ref 3)
Look at those things go!



4. Define "glycomics" and in your own words, what does it really mean? What does the term seagull manager" refer to?
"Glycomics involves the study of the glycans and glycan-binding proteins in various biological systems, and the design of novel drugs and vaccines." (H-ref 4.1) In my own words, it means a lot of mumbo jumbo. Hah. No really, it sounds far too complicated for me to fathom without someone explaining it to me in dumbed down terms. Maybe the study of sugars or carbs or something like that yeah?

As for "seagull manager" I take it to mean "a manager who only interacts with employees to criticize their work or when a problem arises." (H-ref 4.2)

5. What was David Cronenberg's first feature film? Which of his films had "Blondie" in it?
Transfer (1966) and Blondie was in Videodrome (H-Ref 5)



6. When was the original "Hackers Manifesto" written?
January 8, 1986. (H-Ref 6) But who cares about that? When I hear "Hackers" I think of that movie from years ago, I think it was 1996 actually, with Angelina Jolie at a time when she had short hair. She's definitely had more attractive hair cuts. I don't think I ever watched that movie... any volunteers? I read the book though, and that was good. I think the movie would be better though, it has Angelina Jolie in it after all. She ended up marrying the lead guy of that movie, in fact, but dumped him for a (female) supermodel. Hehe, nicely done.



Heh, close enough. ;)

7. Why do phone numbers in Hollywood films always start with 555?
Hollywood films have been restricted a set of 555 numbers so that apparently no one gets millions of prank phone calls asking for "God" (Bruce Almighty anyone?). These particular 555 numbers don't actually exist or some such drivvel. (H-Ref 7)

8. Cheapest form of travel from Gold Coast to Sydney?
Hitchhiking. Otherwise, $59 by plane. I'm assuming that flying would be the cheapest way because unless you're going to hitchhike it, you'd have to pay for petrol or for a bus ticket or something and yeah. Don't argue with me. (H-Ref 8)

9. Top song in the Australian Pop Charts this week in 1965?
Normie Rowe & The Playboys (H-Ref 9)

10. Which Brisbane band includes Stephen Stockwell on vocals and keyboards?
The Black Assassins. I stole it off someone else's blog so sue me. Technically, I didn't use Google or wiki. (H-Ref 10)



Bibliography
H-ref 1 - http://pumpkinnook.com/giants/giantpumpkins.htm
Found via - Yahoo
H-ref 2 - General Knowledge
H-ref 3 - General Knowledge
H-ref 4.1 - http://www.griffith.edu.au/science/institute-glycomics
Found via - Yahoo
H-ref 4.2 - http://www.wordspy.com/words/seagullmanager.asp
Found via - Yahoo
H-ref 5 - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000343/
H-ref 6 - http://www.mithral.com/~beberg/manifesto.html
Found via - Dogpile
H-ref 7 - http://thewhyoftheweb.blogspot.com/2009/05/immersive-entertainment-and-damn-555.html
Found via - Ask Jeeves
H-ref 8 - http://www.flightcentre.com.au
H-ref 9 - http://www.poparchives.com.au/feature.php?id=101
Found Via - Ask Jeeves
H-ref 10 - http://blackassassins.net/
Found via - Dogpile and someone else's blog

Shots As Words

So, for "homework" we had to go home and watch a movie. Well, I went and watched My Sister's Keeper. Bit sappy for me, I think I fell asleep from boredom for a while.

Oh, and then, we had to pick a show and get shots as words from it or whatever. So here they are?

Smallville, cos I conveniently had them in another post. Hah.

Who - look, it's the ever so sexy Lana Lang!


What - Chloe smashing Lana a good one, always good to see a bitch fight ;)


When - since its in the school, I'd assume it's school time?


Where - oooh girl's dressing room. Nice.

Lecture 3.0: Cine Speak

So I was meant to do this the week of the lecture. This was Week 3's lecture summary, here goes:

Firstly, we discussed the 8 different types of shots used in photography and filming.
I found out that we can use shots as words. Like, the CU answers the "who?" question by providing us with a close up of the main person(s) in that scene and the LS generally answers the "where?" question at the beginning of where they are. Go figure.

There was also talk of head room, talking room, the 180 rule and the rule of thirds. All pretty simple stuff, I'm sure you can figure it out on your own... or can you? Haha.

Inserts and cutaways provide extra tidbits of info inside/outside the screen. They can be pretty helpful I'd assume. Another interesting point, that I totally never would of thought of on my own (mainly due to the fact that I DON'T CARE enough to think of it in the first place) is that every shot needs to drive the narrative forward.

And there you have it: Lecture 3.0

There's another couple of minutes of your life I just stole that you'll never, ever get back. But wait, if I stole them, does that mean my life lasts those couple of minutes longer? Heheheheh.

Language of the Screen

Shot composition stuff. Exciting, ne?

ECU - EXTREME CLOSE UP - shows part of an object in extremely close detail. (H-Ref 1)

BCU - Big Close Up -Very intimate shot. Great in dramatic moments when the actor is giving their all. (H-ref 4)


CU - Close Up -You can see the look of concentration in a shot that is "full face". Sometimes used for interviews - especially when things are getting personal. (H-ref 4)


MCU - Medium Close Up -Between CU and MS. Cuts off a person around the "breast pocket" (H-Ref 4)


MS -Mid Shot - shows more detail than a long shot, but not as much of a close-up (H-Ref 3)


MLS - Medium Long Shot - The mid shot cuts off at the waist. It is a good shot to introduce people to your audience. You get a good image of the subject and their surroundings. (H-Ref 4)


LS - Long Shot -The long shot takes in the whole height of the person. It doesn't show as much background as the VLS but it does show enough to know the subject's location. (H-Ref 4)


WS - Wide Shot - covers the action of the scene in a wide or panoramic view. (H-Ref 2)



Aww pretty kitty... er... yeah...
And now, here's me killing time, with a guest appearance from Butters:



Bibliography
H-Ref 1 - English Online
english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/units/piano/film_terms.html

H-Ref 2 -Video Boot Camp
www.sfusd.k12.ca.us/schwww/sch634/medialit/video/camera.html

H-Ref 3 - Australian Screen
http://australianscreen.com.au/glossary/

H-Ref 4 - Shot Sizes
http://www.urbanfox.tv/creative/shotsizes.html

History of Computing and the Internet

So this here's a pretty basic timeline of the history of computing. You're excited, I can tell.

* Abacus: c. 3000 BC
* Transistors: 1947
* Apple II: 1977
* IBM PC: 1981
* World Wide Web: 1991
(H-Ref 1)

Told you it was brief. Okay, so maybe a little bit more information is needed about the "big" events in history, yeah?

Alan Turing, born in England in 1912, did most of the serious work for the development of the computer. After the War, Turing investigated "programming, neural nets, and the prospects for artificial intelligence." (H-Ref 2)

In the 1950's, IBM produced the first commercially available computers. Impressive, huh? Not as impressive as the gigantic, monstrous machines that they were though. Ugly, but impressive.


Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak got together to create that well-loved company we all know as Apple. They made this "thing" (I'd hardly call it a computer) called the Apple I - a primitive machine with a single circuit board, no case and no keyboard. It cost $USA666.60. Oh, the devil's number, could it be a sign? They came back with the Apple II after the flop of the Apple I, which basically made them a fortune by 1978. (H-Ref 2)


As for the internet... well...

*1969: something known as the ARPANET was brought online. Basically, it allowed computers to share information with each other across military and scientific fields.
*1972: Ray Tomlinson adapted e-mail for ARPANET
*1981: BITNET connected IBM mainframes around the educational community and the world to provide mail services
*1986: the National Science Foundation funded NSFNet as a cross country 56 Kbps backbone for the Internet
*1991: the first really friendly interface to the Internet was developed at the University of Minnesota.
*1998: Bill Gates releases Windows '98 with the internet browser well intergrated into the system
*Today: Wireless has been in for a while; internet speed is phenomenal when looking back.
(H-Ref 3)

Bibliography
H-Ref 1 - Triumph of the Nerds
http://www.pbs.org/nerds/timeline/

H-Ref 2- NCT 09 GC Blog
http://nct09-gc.blogspot.com/

H-Ref 3 - A Brief History of the Internet
http://www.walthowe.com/navnet/history.html

H-Ref 4 - Big Computers
http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/Shustek/37-Xerox-Alto.gif

H-Ref 5 - First Apple Computer
http://www.vintage-computer.com/images/apple2e.jpg

Convergence and Examples

So according to the Apple dictionary on this very computer, "convergence" is the "process or state of converging." Uhhhm, well even I could of told you that much. In this particular instance though - the instance being this class/course - I think they are referring to the merging of all necessary (necessary to us that is) modes of communication or functions into one handy little gadget. Like a computer. Or my phone. Oh, my phone. How would I live without it?
Which brings me of course to some of my favourite/not-so-favourite examples of said "convergence."
Firstly, smart-phones. You know, like your uber lame iPhone. Or my super cool Samsung thingy. They do almost everything a computer does, all rolled into a cute little package. Except for the iPhone. It's ugly. And is the brick-phone of today, I swear.



See, what did I tell you? It's ugly.

Next is, would you believe, Anti-Social Networking sites. Oh, oops, my bad... I meant Social Networking sites. Like Myspace and Facebook. I won't get started on the debate, even though Facebook is clearly better than Gayspace. I mean Myspace.

VS

Then there's these retarded Artificial Intelligence robots the military have created. Seriously, you should see these things. Apart from the one that moves like a horse, they're pretty damn creepy.

No. Not that. That was me getting distracted during this post. Original here.

I meant this:







And last but not least, my final example. Those new "smart" car things. You know, with the sensors that don't let you hit anything. And the sensors that don't let you speed. And the sensors that recognise when you're drifting... I mean, skidding wildly and horizontally out of control, and automatically readjusts itself to get you out of such a sticky and not... fun... situation. Yeah? They're the cars that are environmentally friendly. And ugly. Just plain ugly. I mean, sure, they have low carbon emissions or whatever and are unable to cause damage to themselves, to you and to anyone or anything else on the road (and not on the road), but do you want to know why else they're so damn environmentally friendly and safe? BECAUSE NO ONE WILL DRIVE THEM. Because they're ugly. And stupid. AND NO FUN WHATSOEVER. I mean, look at this thing.



It drives itself. Imagine when they become mainstream and affordable? Call me old fashioned, but I actually like to drive when I'm driving.

So yeah, you can tell I'm a bit mixed when it comes to new technology... But I guess it's up to the individual consumer though, right?

Blogs, People, BLOGS

Who needs a journal when you can rant in a blog? And who needs a blog when you can, as a very wise friend of mine pointed out on her blog, just post it in a Myspace or Facebook status. Although, some Facebook statuses (like my most recent one) tend to end up being a mini-blog anyway. It's like half a page of junk in one status post that nobody (except stalkers... wish I had one of those) pays ANY attention. I think my Facebook and Myspace "friends" only keep me as a friend to read about how tragic my life is these days. Although, fair is fair, I guess, since that's the only reason I keep the majority of my Social Networking friends as "friends." I mean, honestly, if they were actually friends... I'd well... see them in the real world (oooh there's a scary thought! Heaven forbid we live there!) and talk to them... wait for it... FACE TO FACE. Oh shock horror. Just like walking, talking is going straight down the toilet.

Anywho, first lecture in 1501HUM, which is what this blog was created for (can you believe this is my assessment? I think I've found my new favourite class hehehe), was basically just an introduction to the class itself. We went over the course outline, then old and new forms of technology, like... newspapers, and the television classify as old and smart-phones and Facebook are new. Even though Facebook isn't really that new to me... it's been around as long as I can remember... which is like... 3 weeks ago but shush.

Nothing else of note really happened, so uhm yeah... I'm going to like... leave it at that. (: