Digitopia

Latin Cats!!

2008-01-30T10:35:00.000-06:00

Afterworld: Over It

2007-12-12T17:06:00.000-06:00

Afterworld is an online TV series that started a few months ago. At first when it came out I was HYPED. I thought it would be perfect to report on for this class. The basic plot is:

Sometime between 5 and 6 AM EST, the world as we knew it suddenly,inexplicably, changed. After traveling to New York City on a business trip Russell Shoemaker wakes to find all electronic technology dead and more than 99% of the human race missing. Driven by a need to discover the truth and determined to return to his family, he embarks on a journey to his home in Seattle. Afterworld is the harrowing story of Russell's 3000 mile trek across a post-apocalyptic America as encounters the strange new societies rebuilding themselves. Along the way, he is forced to confront his greatest fears while unraveling the mystery of what caused this global event.

Over time, Russel figures out that something called an 'ENP' destroyed everything. Never fully explained, its something like an electromagnetic wave that was able to turn off technology and wipe out humans. But within about 20 episodes, the spastic plot line began to get to me. Every 3 or 4 episodes, a whole new subplot came up. He'd meet someone new, get chased by someone new, etc. Bascially, whoever wrote Afterworld tried to cover every single post-apocalyptic archetype ever written. There are those who respond to the disaster by pumping up their religion, retreating into nature, or just losing it because of a longing for survival. Because of these crazy subplots that just kept piling up I couldn't manage to form a coherent blog entry. Afterworld is a fun series but isn't making any general statement just yet. Any great Digital Age point it could make is lost. Eventually I lost track of episodes and I don't think I can catch up now. Sometimes, the greatest Digital Age attempts just turn to dust.

It's Digital Age Macro Time!

2007-12-12T10:48:00.000-06:00

The general theme for today: when computers go bad!

Digi Playlist

2007-12-11T11:01:00.000-06:00

So here are some of my favorite songs about the digital age. Internet, current culture, ect. if you'd like a CD of them, just ask. You can bring me a blank CD if you feel like it but I have a ton.

Online - Brad Paisley
Download this Song - MC Lars
Don't Download this Song - Weird Al Yankovic
nevergetoveryou.com - Simon and Milo
memory - Alan Jackson (if I put the actual title, http://www.memory/, it messes up the link. sorry)
She Frickin Blocked Me - Josh Tobin
The Emo Song - Josh Tobin (can't find the lyrics)
Snakes on a Plane (Bring it) - Cobra Starship
Internet Relationships - MC Lars
This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race - Fall Out Boy
White and Nerdy - Weird Al Yankovic
and as a special bonus: I Saw Daddy Kissing Santa Clause - Standstill (a hilarious contemporary christmas song.)

if you know of any other cool Digital Age songs, post a comment with them.

Link-tacular

2007-12-11T10:39:00.000-06:00

So, I've managed to write all of the entries I'd planned, which I'm proud of. For right now I'm just gonna post some cool links to check out. If the inspiration bug bites me, there will be a real entry soon.

That was quick! The phenomenon of lolcats

2007-12-07T12:32:00.000-06:00

So I decide to look up lolcat on Wikipedia, so that I can find the mystical origin of these pictures I'm addicted to. And I find something surprising: icanhascheezburger, one of my favorite sites in the world and one of the biggest lolcats sites, made its first entry in January. This January. As in 2007. It's so young! The earliest lolcat instance they can even find is 2005. Phenomena in the Digital Age doesn't take long. One website, one video, can turn into a huge catchphrase in a just a couple of days. Think about all of them: Hamster Dance, Peanut Butter Jelly Time, Brokeback Mountain parodies, Chuck Norris facts, or Numa Numa. Infamy is just a click away. Consider this a mini-entry, just because I was so shocked that icanhascheezburger had only been around for a year. The essay took a lot of my cognitive thought out of me. but here's two bonuses: a lolcat bible and a bonus locat!

Facebook vs. Myspace: The Ultimate Showdown

2007-12-05T09:51:00.000-06:00

Which one wins? I've compiled a list of some basic and extended stats. Then choose which one is pro and which one is con. Two websites will enter... and both will leave! But we'll still like one better than the other. =P

The Basics

Users:

Myspace: 87 million. Facebook: 55 million

Year of Creation:

Myspace: 2003. Facebook: 2004

Money:

Myspace: signed a $900 million deal with Google. Facebook: Google bought a 1.6% share for $240 million

Pro: Myspace

The Profiles:

Blurbs:

Myspace: About Me, Who I'd Like to Meet, Interests, Music. Facebook: About Me, Personal Info, Contact Info, Educational Info

General Look:

Myspace: Able to be edited with html. Possiblities= endless. Facebook: set colors and shape, rearranging and editing are possible.

How Personal?

Myspace: Gender, State, Hometown. Facebook: home address and phone number

Top Friends?:

Myspace: Top 4, 8, 12, up to 24 may be displayed as part of the basic profile. Facebook: Third party application must be added in order to display any kind of top friends

Pictures:

Myspace: Albums now possible, tagging in the works. Facebook: Albums, tagging.

Feed:

Myspace: small chart of friend updates on homepage. Facebook: Mammoth feed on homepage, miniature feed on every profile page for that specific person.

Pro: Myspace

Communication:

Messages:

Myspace: similar to email. Private, but multiple messages stack up. Facebook: Private. Multiple messages with the same person are displayed as a single thread.

Preferred Mass Communication:

Myspace: Bulletins. Mostly surveys, questions, updates, etc. Pictures and videos able to be embedded. Displayed on sidebar of homepage. Facebook: Notes. Tagging available, as well as easy embedding of pictures and videos. Show up on mini-feed, Feed, and profile

Comments on Profile:

Myspace: Comments displayed on usual profile. Comments may be deleted and censored. Facebook: Comments displayed on a Wall. Features include deleting and wall-to-wall conversations.

Etc?:

Myspace: Myspace IM if applicable. Facebook: a 'poke' feature is equipped on every profile. Allows users to poke, get the attention of, other users. Also allows one to access the full or limited profile of a non-friend (if they poke back).

Pro: Facebook

The Extras:

Applications:

Myspace: HTML can be embedded in profiles. Videos and quiz results among top HTML added. Facebook: Third-party applications made available. Examples include Top Friends and Free Gifts

Groups:

Myspace: Not very popular, most users only have 5 or 6 if any. Hard to access. Facebook: Up to 50 groups, easily accessible

Events:

Myspace: None. (post a bulletin if you have to?) Facebook: Event application on a basic profile allows users to invite one another and RSVP

Status:

Myspace: newly added. displayed on profile (somewhere), never expires, also includes mood. Facebook: displayed on profile, mini-feed, and Feed. expires weekly.

Etc?:

Myspace: Extra features include Myspace IM, Myspace TV, Myspace mobile and Myspace News. Facebook: Sponsored groups and third party applications.

Pro: Facebook

Other:

Professionalism:

Myspace: considered much more personal. Facebook: can be used by professionals, with caution.

Age Groups:

Myspace: primary users aged 14-18. Facebook: primary users aged 18 -25

Privacy:

Myspace: users under 18 have their profiles automatically set to private. One must know the last name or email of user to add. Profile pictures always displayed. Facebook: all full profiles are inaccessible to non-friends. One simply adds a friend, and it may either be accepted or declined. Profile pictures and profiles can optionally be set to private.

Legality:

Myspace: Quite a few legal hang-ups, most of which involve sexual exploitation of minors. Facebook: Ongoing lawsuit involving illegal use of concept and source code of rival site, ConnectU.

Pro: Facebook

Winner is:

FACEBOOK!

Now, that's not saying that Facebook is ultimately immaculate and Myspace is the root of all evil. They both have their drawbacks and benefits. But as of this entry, Facebook rules! Oh, and below is a chart of how the users of both sites are growing. See a pattern? I think it reinforces my ruling.

New Digital Age Song

2007-12-03T11:02:00.000-06:00

"Online" by Braid Paisley I work down at The Pizza Pit

And I drive an old Hyundai

I still live with my mom and dad

I'm five foot three and overweight

I'm a sci: fi fanatic, mild asthmatic

Never been to second base

But there's a whole 'nother me

That you need to see

Go check out Myspace.

'Cause online I'm out in Hollywood

I'm six foot five and I look damn good

I drive a Maserati, I'm a black belt in karate

And I love a good glass of wine

It turns girls on that I'm mysterious

I tell 'em I don't want nothing serious

'Cause even on a slow day I can have a three-way chat

With two women at one time.

I'm so much cooler online

I'm so much cooler online.

I get home I kiss my mom

And she fixes me a snack

I head down to my basement bedroom

And fire up my Mac

In real life the only time

I've ever been to L.A.

Was when I got the chance with the marching band

To play tuba in the Rose Parade.

But online I live in Malibu

I pose for Calvin Klein

I've been in GQ

I'm single and I'm rich

And I got a set of six-pack abs that would blow your mind

It turns girls on that I'm mysterious

I tell 'em I don't want nothing serious

Cause even on a slow day I can have a three-way chat

With two women at one time.

I'm so much cooler online

Yeah, I'm cooler online.

When you've got my kind of stats

It's hard to get a date

Let alone a real girlfriend

But I grow another foot and lose a bunch of weight

Every time I log in.

Online I'm out in Hollywood

I'm six foot five and I look damn good

Even on a slow day I can have a three-way chat

With two women at one time.

I'm so much cooler online

Yeah, I'm cooler online

disconnection leads to debt

2007-12-03T10:57:00.000-06:00

Quick: how much credit card debt does a normal household have? Nope, guess a little higher. Close: around 8,000 dollars on average! What is happening to us?

Look at how we handle our money. Online banking, credit cards, checks. Cash is a distant dream. We charge 2 dollar packs of gum, write checks for 4 dollar cups of coffee. Even checks are becoming inconvenient, with the introduction of checking cards. And now the companies are coming out with faster and faster ways to spend your money. You don't even have to sign your name anymore, just flash a magnetic strip.

But this can't be doing us any good. Money is turning into nothing but numbers on a website. It's lacking so much tangibility that we're losing any grip on it. Think about it: you're holding some bills in your hand. A twenty, a ten, maybe a couple of ones. You have to count it to buy anything, you have to separate it and hand it over. You can see the monetary value right there. You hold it, feel it. It's quantifiable. Here's an example: a digital clock vs. an analog. On an analog, you have this metaphorical vision of time, where you can physically see the space between the numbers, how much time you have. It feels different than a plain numbered digital clock, where all the guessing is in your head.

The easier it is to spend money, the more money we spend. Hey, we're Americans! Capitalism rules, right? But putting us further into debt isn't helping anyone. We're not in debt because we have more money or even more to buy. We get into debt because it's so easy to spend money and so hard to keep track of (if you don't have a really convenient online banking system). We're buying everything online, even getting loans on the internet. And you can even get your debt consolodation online! Then you're just feeding the monster even more!

So back to clock metaphor: some people can tell time just as well on a digital, and still are never late to anything. The analog clock is dying and the answer isn't to revive it. We just have to learn how to gauge time on a digital. Put in a little effort, and you'll always be on time.

ELIC photos

2007-12-01T22:43:00.000-06:00

I felt like ELIC just ins't a regular book, and deserves more than a normal blog entry. Most of these pictures I took personally, and I altered them all.

The Lack of an Entry: Crime is Scary

2007-11-26T10:37:00.000-06:00

I was planning on writing a blog entry about computer crimes. You know, the usual: illegal porn, identity theft, soliciting. The thing is... there's some research involved that I'm legitimately afraid to do. I just keep thinking: what if my searches get picked up on some crime scan? what if i end up accidentally on an illegal site? It's all research until I follow that one bad link.

The fact that you can get arrested for an action done on the internet is still kind of mind boggling. For some crimes, its understandable. For things like identity theft and kidnapping, the internet is just a vessel. The crime is committed in real life. But what about things like inappropriate postings or cyber stalking? What's the protocol? How do you know when you've done something that crosses some invisible line?

The invisible lines are what scares me. Ignorance is no excuse, right? There are things done online every day, by millions of kids, that could probably get us arrested. Illegal fileshares like Limewire and Kazaa are rampant. We lie about our age all the time to access websites and offers. When does it become more serious than just some normal misdemeanor? I'd rather not find out. Therefore, this entry is the lack of an entry. I crave the knowledge, but am afraid of what it might turn up. I'm sorry.

I can haz macro?

2007-11-19T10:40:00.000-06:00

I decided to make some macros of my own. ^_^

Laptop vs. Desktop: The End of the Bulky and Stationary

2007-11-16T12:15:00.000-06:00

There's a reason that this picture just doesn't look right. Who has the strength or capacity to turn a mammoth computer into a portable friend? No one. Computers once tied us in place with their heavy CPU's and giant monitors. And therefore, the laptop was born.

Laptops have become a beautiful part of our culture. Teenagers tote them to coffeeshops, college students use them in class, adults can work at home using the same tools they did when they were at their jobs. The revolutionary idea of portability changed our world forever...as well as our wallets.

A nice laptop is a luxury. Popular ones can go anywhere from 700 to 1500 dollars. A very basic one will have you shelling out at least 350 or so. The extremely popular MacBook is 1300. They grow smaller and smaller and still have more and more capacity. Just like every other gadget out there. iPods have more room than some computers and you can hold them in the palm of your hand. And the thinner they get, the better they are and the more money you have to shell out to have one. Our new motto has become in America: smaller is better!

Which is why the desktop is beginning its slow procession towards death. It's clunky, outdated appearance and performance just doesn't suit us any longer. But it's price might. Take this: a pretty nice Apple desktop, including keyboard and mouse, will only set you back 150 bucks. It's got 10 GB internal drive and a 56k modem. It ain't the ritz, but it'll get you from a to b.

But as soon as the laptop emerged it began its takeover. In 2005, 54% of PC users had a laptop. Over the past few years the laptop has revolutionized how we do business, how we connect to each other, how we work. The laptop has unplugged us and allowed our virtual worlds to move freely. With the invention and utilization of wi-fi and long lasting batteries, we can constantly be on the move and still be plugged in...but is that such a good thing?

Laptops have made it easier for us to connect to the internet anywhere. So now, instead of having a reserved computer time, or even a place, we're always online. In places that were once social, we are drawing ourselves away. Kids use laptops in class and surf the internet. College students are more often on Facebook than writing notes for class. Their convenience and power are tempting, but in this laptop takeover, what are we losing?

The real question is: what have we already lost?

Technology + A Need for Convenience = Easy Food

2007-11-12T10:46:00.000-06:00

Online shopping is not something new. It's become common practice to order anything you can find online: clothing, gadgets, cheese sandwhiches that look like the virgin mary, ect. In this process, you usually get your item a few days later in all its shipped and handled glory. But now, as technology progresses, you can get your favorite food items fast and easy by ordering online.

Now, this isn't a very common practice. The idea of getting food online is still a little wacky unless you're ordering a gift basket. Right? Then why is there an entire section of Amazon (my favorite internet mall) devoted to grocery? This isn't just gift baskets. There's everything from cereal and coffee to a can of kipper snacks and boxed milk. The question of why order things online has always been there. Most of the time, its because you're looking for something uncommon online, something that would be very difficult to find in a real store. But we're talking food here. Unless you're ordering canned alligator or something, I really don't see the point in having to find it online. Is the grocery store such a confusing madhouse that you have to have an easy to use search box, pretty picture, product review, and price comparison to get your bag of cheesey poofs?

But that's grocery. Let's take a look at classic, speedy delivery, such as what you get with pizza and chinese takeout. The best general site I could find was campusfood.com, catering to those hungry, lazy college students. You just go online, enter your location, and are supplied with a list of local restaraunts ready to deliver your cookies, onion fries, hot wings, lo mein, and/or pizza within an hour or so. You can even text message your order! Example: let's say you're down in Tuscaloosa, at the University of Alabama, and you decide to order some food online. You can find the pizza place listed in your area, and specifically order a hoagie with lettuce, tomato, but no peppers, and have a small pizza with the left half green olives and the right half black olives. Which makes me wonder... are they really going to honor that? I mean, who cares which half your dang olives are on? The pizza's a circle, just flip it over!

So I found an experiment on a blog about this very thing. In this experiment, two pizzas were carefully planned out and ordered off of the Domino's website. Were they honored? Read to find out.

I guess my big question is: does ordering food online go too far? Have we slipped so far into the black hole of the internet that we can't even go to the grocery store? We can't even pick up a phone to order anymore. And why do we need our pizza toppings so perfectly distributed?

White Teeth: Digital Age?

2007-11-07T10:07:00.000-06:00

Go FutureMouse! Next up: FutureNovel!

To me, reading White Teeth felt like flipping through the TV channels and researching every show online simultaneously. White Teeth can be seen as a Digital Age novel, in my opinion, because of its spastic storyline, excessive multitude of characters, and its basic randomness. It satisfies the Digital Age's rampant ADD, running a story until its just about to bore you to death then switching pace, switching characters, throwing something new and exciting in. The novel was dense, but in a very different sense than Ivanhoe or something. It flashed its plot like pixels across a screen, information being lapped up and stored and filling us to the brim.

Then, of course, there's always FutureMouse. Everything from this genetic marvel's tail to his whiskers is Digital Age. Our fascination with genetics and playing God is emphasized in Marcus's big project. And the issues with these things are brought up by illustrating Millat and Joseph's problems with it. On Millat's side, there's the issue of creation: can and should we play God? And on Joseph's: should we really exploit innocent creatures in order to further our understanding?

Okay, this really excited me. As I was searching for something on Google, I stumbled upon this: White Teeth was turned into a four-part television show! Who votes that we should watch it in class? *raises hand*

Inventions: The Speed of Technology

2007-11-03T20:42:00.000-05:00

Today in the mail I received my new issue of Time, and on the front was a lovely rendition of the iPhone promoting the "Best Inventions of 2007". Needless to say-- I was quite excited. Here's a link to the online-version of the article.

It amazes me how fast technology is moving. I mean, bendable computer screens? Processors that are measured in nanometers? A machine that can convert blood types? Ideas are being churned out at top speed, with astonishing creativity, design,and often practicality. (Often being the most important word: advertised near the feature article in Time was a toothbrush that tells you how to brush. Since when do we need that?) I think The World is Flat is right: right brain thinking is essential these days. With so many new, innovative ideas, you have to be extremely creative to be successful.

As technology grows and speeds up exponentially... I wonder how this is going to affect us. It's been said that new proffessions will emerge faster than we can learn about them. I think our problem is that our carraige is edging up on our horse (to use an ancient metaphor) Pretty soon, the speed of technology and design will get so fast that the consumer, the inventor, and the big companies will barely be able to keep up.

So how do we fix this? Which is the better solution: to slow down the carraige, or speed up the horse?

In honor of Halloween

2007-10-30T19:55:00.000-05:00

A really great list of facts about our beloved Frankenstein.
Also, some really crazy pumpkin carvings! (The Giant Squid one in 2006 contest winners is my personal favorite)
Top 25 Horror Movies, by Time Magazine, and Top 10 by Listverse
What's with all the six year olds in sexy costumes?
Why we think we see ghosts
And finally, the coolest costumes for your dog, cat,kitten, and... guinea pig?

Good Moon Night

2007-10-26T23:26:00.000-05:00

Tonight, as I was driving home, I noticed how beautiful the moonlight looked on a road ahead of me. It was breathtaking. But the closer I got to it, the farther it seemed to move. My artificial, blinding headlights kept blocking it out. I became so set on seeing it, I finally waited until I was on a lonely road, stopped, and turned off my lights.

The full moon on the grey asphalt and against the trees was like full blown, capital Nature calmly settling over man's creation. It made the road look so perfect: pale, illuminated, unlined. It made me feel content and simple. Carefree. And, I guess, free of the restraints the Digital Age had placed on me

No off-yellow headlight could ever match that moment of moonlight. It made me wonder how many other great beauties we're missing. Kids don't see the stars anymore. Almost none of us do. We don't see many great (English?) landscapes or pretty sunrises. We've lost them...almost. Even though I don't ever see the stars or marvel at sunsets, there's still one thing that leaves me awestruck everytime: clouds. Cirrus or stratus, bathed in sunlight, hanging from the cieling of the sky. I personally believe that they are the most miraculous, majectic aesthetic objects the world has to offer. If I was religious, I'd say they were proof in God.

But what happens when we lose this natural wonderment? What beauty are we missing, how much will we let slip by us as we further our factories and lights? How much will we retreat from nature? Are we really getting rid of it as a byproduct... or is there some deeper level of us that wants it to be gone from sight? Is the Digital Age pushing us away from natural beauty and drawing us to pretty colors, artificial images? What must we do to gain it back? What must we do to gain back our wonderment, our awestruck eyes, our overwhelmed hearts? I wish I could say.

And YES I couldn't get the post to work again without these little bullets. I apolagize. Just imagine them as itty bitty full moons.

P.S: Emma? Ms. Bolden? Ms. Emma Bolden? Whatever I should call you: You are by far one of my favorite readers. :]

"...the kind of people who think writing is therapeutic."

2007-10-24T09:54:00.000-05:00

" I never attended a creative writing class in my life. I have a horror of them; most writers groups moonlight as support groups for the kind of people who think that writing is therapeutic."

Our Creative Writing classes are a happy anomaly. We look at writing in a completely different way than a class at any run-of-the mill highschool. It's beause of the way we approach our writing.

I understand exactly the kind of person that Smith is trying to express. In the digital ase, these are the people who's poetry usually ends up being a story of their life set to rhyme. For the younger crowd, it's usually something to the affect of:

"My life is dark,

my heart in flames,

is this just

another game?

Does he love me?

Is it for show?

Tell me, will I

ever know?

Bloodstained razor,

broken heart,

I've lost my love,

now I depart."

Inset dramtic sigh, and/or weeping. These days, we call this Emo poetry. A lovely new label that's spread like wildfire and is tossed around in any conversation, Emo is the general term for someone who is melodramtic, pessimistic, and depressed. It's usually used in vain, as a joke. Now imagine a group of these stereotypical kids in a room together, learning about writing. I can imagine their critique... "This poem shows that you're really sad. I'm sorry. Have a tissue. *pause* Oh, no, don't change anything about it. It's great the way it is, of course, because it just shows how sad you are. *hands over another tissue for weeping kid.*"

Because this is what happens when poetry becomes therapy. Then it's all about the feeling and not about the work. That's what Smith is trying to say, I think. That the kind of people who think writing is therapeutic see writing in a completely different way. They don't see it like those of us sitting in our well-decorated cubicles. We see it as an art form, to be mastered, improved, perfected. It's about quality of the pieces -- and to the others, it's about quantity of the emotions. They can get their feelings out on lined paper in little couplets, formed into quatrains, with drawings of blood drops, or maybe little hearts if they found a new girlfriend.

Moral of this story: Writing doesn't equal therapy and here at ASFA we're pretty darn lucky.

Moral of the emo poem: My life is a black abyss. No one loves me. *tear*

Resist the Feed: A Book Report

2007-10-20T14:31:00.000-05:00

Feed by M.T. Anderson is a chilling portrayal of the future. Set in a time where there are layers of suburbs and great bubbles around every home, it introduces us to the ultimate gadget, the Feed. The Feed is basically a computer implanted into the brain. It can wirelessly chat with other Feeds, order products off the internet, show television programs, play music, and is constantly streaming advertisements, like this:

"Images of Coke falling in rivulets down chiseled mountainsides...a hand extended toward the lemonade like God's at Creation; boys in Gap tees shot from a rocket... Nike grav-gear plunging into Montana... friends clutching at birds made of alloys; law partners jumping fences; snow; altitude; tears; hugs; night."

The narrator, Titus, describes how the Feed has a customer profile for everyone, and can guide people in purchases, even telling them when they like a new product before they even have a chance to form an opinion. Big corporations have unimaginable power with the Feed, churning out more consumers with ease.

The Feed has also rendered the population blind to the world around them. Meat is now grown in huge fields of muscle tissue pumped with nutrients through tubes. Huge hoards of of cockroaches live on top of the bubbles around suburbs. The ocean is toxic sludge. There are huge air factories. People go on interplanetary vacations, but they're super lame.

Titus is ignorant to all of this until he meets a girl named Violet. She's unlike anyone he's ever met. She lives in a home without a bubble. She lives with only her father, and they are very poor. She got a feed at an older age than most everyone else. She wants to rebel against the customer profiles, mess up the corporate world.

But things begin to go wrong. After a hacker messes with their feeds while they are on vacation at the moon, Violet's out-of-date Feed starts malfunctioning. She loses feeling in her limbs for hours at a time. But when she begs the help of the corporations who power the Feed, they turn her down, for she isn't a valuable enough customer.

Although it's a young adult novel, Feed makes serious, mature comments on technology,our attitude towards the environment, and human connection. It delves into what the Digtial Age may make of us.

Grab-bag of linkage

2007-10-11T10:41:00.000-05:00

So, every once in a while, you need a blog entry that's just plain fun. I've been browsing all kinds of articles on my favorite websitesand have collected some random, intriguing links I wanted to share:

Hungry Planet: One, Two, Three
Breaking News: Alabama picks a bible textbook!
Nobel Prize for Physics: How we make our gadgets so darn small
iPhone addiction
Online DNA testing?
Do you want to have a microchip inside you?
How much should music cost?
The return of the 188$ laptop.
What the heck is a Googleganger?
The 'hobbit' hominid discovered three years ago was human
What happens in technology... cheap telescope may be outperforming the Hubble!
Kinectic artist's talk with TED video
Hey... how long would it take you to fall through the center of the earth?

And here's the blogs/sites that brought them to you, or ones you should definitely take a look at:

Digital Age Cats: Garfield vs. Hobbes

2007-10-07T16:20:00.000-05:00

Hobbes and Garfield are two iconic comical cats that reflect opposite ends of the spectrum. While Hobbes is the imaginary pet tiger of a zany young boy named Calvin, Garfield is the lazy pet of a lame middle-aged man, John. We'd all love to be like Hobbes. He's our ideal. Carefree and blissful, the simplest things can make him happy. Hobbes is intellectual, but doesn't lose his childish charm. He's all about nature and isn't the least bit interested in computers or cell phones. Although he and his counterpart Calvin can be found in front of the television often, they always seem to have more fun when they have adventures in the outdoors. Garfield, however, is our kindred spirit. He's shamelessly lazy, loves to eat, and is obsessed with television and convenience. Garfield is a unapolagetic cynic and is often quite moody. He hates Mondays and loves sleeping. The closest he ever gets to nature is occasionally catching a few birds from his yard. When it comes to technology, Garfield is in love. He's the type who'd buy an iPhone and a high-definition TV set, plus buy everything online. He loves and embraces every new advancement. Hobbes however, doesn't even think about technology. He wants to jump in a puddle, climb a tree, curl up in front of a fireplace. He's simple minded and easily entertained. Hobbes is a representation of all those things we miss: childhood, nature, innocence. Garfield however, shines a humorous mirror on current life. And although I'd love to be a Hobbes, I think most of us are guilty of being Garfields. Which one are you? <3

Technological Monolith

2007-10-04T18:40:00.001-05:00

This was just too good to pass up. What you're seeing is an art piece which recreates the monolith from 2001 with a gigantic sculpted rendition of the movie's VHS (remember those?)The artist, David Herbert, unfortunately didn't have any kind of comment or explanation to accompany this on his website. This piece screams 'technology'! It appears and changes the world! The use of a very outdated technology gives it a deeper affect, making us tilt our heads and really think. I'd go more into it, but honestly, I'm no art critic and feel out of my element making any comments. I just thought that this was an amazing image for this class. I think it could be our icon. It's got Digital Age written all over it.

Digital Age Diet

2007-10-01T10:20:00.001-05:00

Hungry yet? According to Time Magazine, you probably should be. In a photo essay about what makes us eat more, sight is listed as one of the biggest triggers. Just seeing a certain food you like can set off your hunger. And this can be pretty handy for advertisers, or even the companies with food on the grocery store shelves. You weren't really hungry before, but when you saw that hot dog... you've just gotta eat.

What has become of our eating habits in the digital age? Although trends like diet foods and organics have become popular, the old archetypal junk foods just won't die. Our classic drug of caffeine is gaining even more popularity, childhood obesity is skyrocketing, and we're all in a sugar-coated downward spiral. So here are some fun, sometimes frightening facts and statistics about our Digital Age Diet:

Many babies begin to overeat by the time they reach their second birthday. At this time, they start ignoring the pangs of fullness and follow social cues
26% of 2-to-5-year-olds are at risk of becoming overweight, and 14% are already overweight
Size of utensils or plates, and fullness of containers easily influence the amount you eat. If given a bigger utensil, you're likely to eat about 15% more. A bigger plate, 25%. When trying to pour a shot into a wide glass instead of a tall one, you usually overestimate by about 50%. And if you pour from a full container of liquid, you're likely to pour yourself about 10% more than a half-full one.
There are around 170 million caffeine addicts in the U.S. 55 to 90% of citizens consume caffeine every day.
The most caffeinated soft drink in Pepsi max, at about 80 mg per container. The most caffeinated energy drink is Powershot, packing 1200 mg per container. A harmful dose of caffeine can be around 750 mg.
Additives and dyes have been directly linked to hyperactivity in children (big surprise there). Some children were even shown to become hyper after consuming the dye equivalent to just 4 oz of candy.

And these are just a handful of the facts I found. They all led to more consumption, higher rate of obesity, more money on fancy weight-loss programs... a vicious cycle. More of an emphasis has been put on health, but when will we start following it? Will obesity rates ever start declining, or will our waist sizes increase even more in the years to come?

Coming soon: hopefully some more cool statistics (the internet kept giving me error messages, delaying my research), and some relations with food + technology.

Laptop crashes? Ka-ching!

2007-09-29T10:39:00.000-05:00

So here's a familiar situation: your computer is messed up, broken, and/or FUBAR. This basically means it's either doing something you don't want it to do or its not doing something you want it to do. Here's my personal example: This cute little bar has become the bane of my existence. Supposed to be nice and convenient, its causing me nothing but trouble. It's made my volume control and scrolling capabilities dissapear, and as much as I try to fix it, it seems impossible. Thing is.... this isn't the first time something like this has happened. I've had a lot of things go wrong with my computer and I just end up dealing with them. A few weeks ago, my Internet Explorer went suicidal and decided it no longer wanted to exist. To fix this we just installed Firefox and I've been slowly getting used to it ever since. About a year ago, I somehow moved my Taskbar to the left side of my screen. I couldn't figure out how to fix it, but decided to just leave it there. Now, I'm so used to it that when I got my new laptop I decided to left align the Taskbar. And if you move it... I'll go OCD on your butt and switch it back in a nano second. But I know everyone can't be like me, just getting used to the little errors that happen on a computer. We want our computers to run how we like them, right?

So do you ever realize how much money little annoying errors like this can make? Let's face it: when it comes to computers, I'm spoiled beyond reason. I have a grandfather who fixes them for fun, and knows every little thing about them. But for usual people, a service like GeekSquad is required for errors like mine. A basic diagnostic, if you bring your computer in to the store, is 60 bucks. An advanced diagnostic with repair is a 150. Even if you only have to do this.... twice a year, it could add up from 120 to 300 dollars. Troubleshooting a network is around 160 dollars, and installing some security features can run you up to 220. Then there's the most expensive one: Data Recovery. To recover "accidentally deleted or formatted data from a working hard drive" costs 260 dollars. To recover it from a failing harddrive, it shoots up to 520 dollars. Here's the kicker: to recover data from a 'severely damaged' hard drive.... 1600 bucks! There's a lot of money involved in this crazy world of computer repair.

Now the big nerd you made fun of could be your only hope if your computer crashes. Having a good techie knowledge can be extremely beneficial. Even knowing HTML pretty well or being able to make Myspace layouts can increase your cashflow. So as technology becomes so prominent in the digital age, the jobs connected to it are becoming essential and rather well paid. We love our computers and will do whatever necessary to have them fixed, including shelling out an inordinate amount of cash.

So in the future, will these geeky jobs be valued as much as say.... doctors? lawyers? Will a computer analyst be earning the six-figure paycheck we all dream of? Better start retaining all this digital age information, it might just come in handy.

iMourn the DigiDeath

2007-09-27T09:11:00.000-05:00

Imagine this. You get a text message from an old friend of yours, "Did you hear about so-and-so?". So-and-so, let's just call her Jane, is an aquaintance of yours from middle school. Slightly confused, you decide to go to her Facebook page to see what's going on. Well, there's nothing on her profile or status, so you look on her wall. Listed there are 10 to 15 posts, and counting....

"I never really knew you, but you were such a great person."

"I love you and I will miss you so much."

So what's going on? This is Facebook Death.

This is what happens when someone who has a Facebook dies. In this case, your old aquaintance got into a car accident just the night before and passed away. Word got around, and before you even know it, her Facebook has become a virtual memorial.

People are leaving Wall posts like flowers on the roadside. They change their statuses to "missing their friend" or "knows she's in heaven now." They might even switch their profile picture to any photo they may have taken with Jane.

This is mourning gone Digital Age. No longer do we have a candlelit vigil. We leave a post on Jane's wall, maybe have a picture up, and be done with it. The information for the funeral will be put up in a group or an event. Most likely within 24 hours there will be some kind of group devoted to mourning Jane, where people will write about how much they loved her, post pictures, disuss favorite moments.

What has happened to us? The one thing that seems like it could bring us out from behind our computer screens is becoming just another online event. Not even death can tear us away from our internet customs. Usually, it seems like a tragedy like this would tempt us to pick up the phone, cry on a best friend's shoulder, get together with people and work through the pain. But instead we join a group and type up empty memories. We message old friends. We browse through pictures, click after click, to remember our friend.

Their page will remain up, possibly forever if no one knew their password. Facebook pages turn to gravestones. Jane will be immortal on the internet. To anyone who didn't know she had passed, they could browse over her page and have no idea that the person they just friended will never friend them back.

Promise me, if I die, you won't create a group for me. Take the money from my old wallet, I won't need it anymore, and go to dinner with everyone. Promise me that you'll put flowers on the roadside, not send me free virtual ones as gifts. Promise me, if I die, that you'll all write letters of real memories, and throw them one by one into a fire. I would much like to be remembered this way. I do not want to be a Facebook gravestone. If I die, I want you to get in your cars and bring my mom a casserole, or all gather in my old room, or have any kind of human contact. Promise me that you'll forget about the internet, just for a day.

I can has semester project?

2007-09-24T10:21:00.000-05:00

Semester project? You're looking at it! I decided to do a blog because it seems so essentially digital age. We're all about "weblog[ing] our fears, our hopes and dreams" in this iGeneration. Why not reflect the times? Only problem is... I never read blogs, they're pretty much a foreign world to me. I'm totally winging this and I just hope it turns alright.

I've got a few ideas of something to do besides writing about my oh-so-exciting life in all its digital age glory. I'd like to do something with the new god of the internet: Facebook. It's such an open world... Facebook has bloomed into a true community, combining the basics of communication with photo sharing, networking, and entertainment. What's not to love? And more importantly: what's something I can toy with?

And I've got a scary idea. One that I'm pretty terrified to even think about. What if I gave up my laptop for a while? No Facebook, Myspace, AIM or Livejournal. No Neatorama, Cute Overload, or I Can Has Cheezburger. No Questionable Content or games of Tetris. No Google or Word processing. Could I survive? What would I do all afternoon? The truth is, this idea stemmed from a real situation. A good friend of mine lived for months and is still living without a home computer. Although being without her Facebook and Myspace was a tragedy all its own, still worse was living without basic research and typing capabilities. In school, these things are almost essential. We had an assignment due that truly required a computer, and she just couldn't do it. I ended up typing and printing it out for her. But think about how many people must have to live with this. It's just assumed they have a computer, and they end up falling behind. Going to the library is always an option, but some either don't have time, or computers are filled with kids on Myspace or playing games. If I gave up my laptop... What if I lose points for a missed assignment? What would I do to occupy myself once my homework was done? If I tried to write a poem or short story, would it turn out different? Would I run out of things to do and end up knitting a tea cozy?! Hey, anything's possible. I'm admitting outright that this idea could fall into the realm of unfinished, undone projects (mostly because I may not be strong enough to go through with it). But I might as well ponder on it.

So maybe this semester project blog will go beyond the blogosphere. Or maybe it will stay here: nice and comfy in its typeface and cat pictures. But at one entry every few days it seems to be getting off to a nice start. Hopefully this pace, or something close to it, will continue as the class progresses. Who knows what kind of wacky ideas and entries might show up? Technology in the war, digital delusions of downfall, iSuicides or Matricide Nanos...tea cozies! Imagine the possibilities!

Shall i compare thee to an external hard-drive?

2007-09-20T10:34:00.000-05:00

For the longest time, I've been trying to write a poem about technology. I tried to write it about computers... an ode to my iPod... maybe about my laptop, a silicon chip, circuitry, anything. But I just couldn't. I was in a rut with my writing, couldn't get anything onto paper.

And then I watched a documentary on bioluminescent deep sea fish. I was inspired. I wrote two poems, began on a short story. All from watching something about jellyfish that glow.

Why? Because nature in inspiration. You just don't see that many poems about computer chips or the internet. I think at the heart, we still draw our inspiration from more natural things. Love, flowers, the human condition. The internet is just too.... heartless for us. Computers and websites and cellphones, theyre all just a method for communicating and spreading that which is primitive. We want basic human connection. We want to talk about our emotions. We want to see other's stories, fall in love, and share it with the world.

To me, a fish that somehow lights up is more fascinating than an LED flashlight could ever be. I want to be at the zoo, learning about rear-fanged snakes or chinchillas with a hundred hairs per follicle. That's what drives me. It seems like however great technology is and will be, it can't overpower nature. There will always be something about the natural world that intrigues us more than wires and electricity. We can marvel a TV set, but its hard to understand how in the hell it works. With animals, plants, they're like us. They have hearts, they breathe air, they move and maybe even feel. We connect with them.

Will technology ever connect with us that way? Will computers ever fascinate us the way a jellyfish does? Can a silicon chip or an iPhone ever bring to us the beauty of a landscape?

I prefer my sunrise to a TV set, thank you.

iGeneration by MC Lars

2007-09-17T09:52:00.000-05:00

And people tried to put us down, when iTunes bumped a post-Cold War sound.

My generation sat the at mecca of malls, Times Square, I'm there, Viacom installs.

So we hit the net while the Trade Center fell, we laughed out loud and ran like hell

No Vietnam for us, yo, Iraq it's on. So who agreed upon this cowboy Genghis Khan?

The choice made, baby. Hey we take it back, logged in dropped out, MTV took track.

They sold it back to us and claimed no correlation. The iMac, iPod, iGeneration.

And I'm waiting for the day we can get out. The world is ours, that's the story no doubt.

Want to be more than info super highway traffic, want to be more than a walking demographic!

Hey! You're part of it. Talking about the iGeneration.

Yeah! You're part of it. Talking about my iGeneration.

The iGeneration new organization meant optimization and unification,

When imagination gave participation in creation of culture a manifestation.

The Berlin Wall fell and out we came, the post-Cold War kids laid claim to AIM.

LOL, OMG, yo, BRB. Space, colon, dash, closed parenthesis.

We sat at our laptops and typed away, and found that we each had something to say.

Web-logged our fears, our hopes and dreams. Individuated by digital means.

Fiber optic lenses, DVD, Coca Cola, Disney and Mickey D's.

Flat mass culture, the norm that took hold; I hope I die before I get sold

This is the I-N-T-E-R-N-E-T ge-ne-ra-tion, see?

I found this song on a file-sharer, put it on my iPod, then Googled the lyrics and put it on my blog. I'm more a part of this generation than I'd ever like to admit.

The Recent Evolution of Gender

2007-09-13T16:08:00.000-05:00

To the left is the Transgender pride flag. Transgender is a recent development in the... non-heterosexual community, you could say. It used to be gays and lesbians, then bisexuals, and now transgender.

But Transgender is the most complicated of all the non-heterosexual labels. Besides defying one of the most basic human principles--that your sex and your gender are the same-- Transgender also has many 'identities' within its big blanketing term. Let's look at a few:

So, you have your basic Transgender. Transgender has to do with gender identity. If you were born as a male, but feel inside as if you are a female, you are Transgender. Transgender people sometimes choose to physically alter their sex in order to match their true gender. Usually, this is referred to as Transexual.

Then, you have your Bi-Gender. Basically, when one switches between genders often. One day they're exclusively masculine, the next they're utterly feminine.

And after that there's a whole slew of terms for those above, beyond, between and outside of gender. Genderqueer, Pangender, Androgyne, Third Gender. All these terms have complicated definitions, often overlapping with other labels.

There's also a brand-new term: Cisgender. You know what that means? It means... i resist the urge to use the word 'normal'. It means you aren't transgender. It means you align yourself with the gender of the sex you were born with. Did I miss something? Did we need a term for this?

Is it just me, or is this getting way too complicated? Before we had BOY and GIRL. Maybe BUTCH and FEMME, within Boy and Girl. Transgendered was a big step. And now there's a million little gender labels. What does it all MEAN?

It means gender is more important. It means we are evolving, moving past our clearly drawn lines, our perfect roles. The way I see it, gender has always been an essential part of our lives, but as we drew towards the 20th century, it became more than that. Through the emerge of women's rights, gender was suddenly something to take pride in. It was something that truly mattered, and that even if society said it had to act one way, well by golly it could go in a whole 'nother direction if it felt like it! And as time went on, people began to stretch the limitations of gender. They tore down the walls that confined them and did their best to run free. And as that became alright, and as it became common, so did our re-thinking of gender itself.

I'm anxious to see how gender will evolve over the next decade. When you fill out a form, how many boxes will there be under 'Sex'? Will they change the wording to gender? How many people will emerge as Third/Pan/Bi-gendered? And how will the world react to them? I wonder sometimes how accepting we can be. This idea, the basic idea of having something beyond male and female is completely out of this world. How long before the boxes on a form read out "Male, Female, Other"? How long before we craft new pro-nouns to accommadate them?

Is this the next big movement? I sure as heck wouldn't be surprised.

(sorry about the bullets, it was the only way i could get the post to work)

TED's Idea Come to Life

2007-09-12T09:24:00.000-05:00

So remember the man at TED with the super-cool, multi-touch screen? Well that was all the way last year, just look at what this concept has become! and here's a second, equally amazing video: I can just barely believe this. How is it even possible? I'm used to not understanding the technology around me. But usually I have a little basic understanding. Computer chips meet wires, ect. But this? This surface thing? No idea! I easily see this as the next big step. How could it be resisted? It's the new cool. It's the new Macbook, the beautiful brand new technology that will shift how we even work with technology. This has real potential. This could go anywhere, it could go everywhere. Welcome to the future. Dinnertables that shuffle pictures, information imported onto iPods and cellphones just by putting them on the table. How does that work? How can you get information from a screen to a gadget with no wire, no anything? I'm puzzled! But that's how it goes. Technology will always puzzle us, but we love it just the same. P.S: I really want one of those.... im buying one for my future coffeetable.

What Happens in Technology

2007-09-10T09:24:00.000-05:00

So, the new god of technology, Steve Jobs, has decided to subtract a hefty 200 bucks from the original price of the iPhone after only a few months. According to an investment banker quoted in The Australian, this was "a sign that Apple wants to be a bigger competitor and faster than originally anticipated".

I can see that. Because honestly, with such a high price tag, the fancy new gadget was out of reach, even for those of us who already own Apple products.

Apple is pretty damn smart. They've already gained a leg up with the iPod+iTunes -- which monopolize the MP3 player industry. After the first iPod hit stores, suddenly every new release just had to be bought. "Mom, i want the new mini/pink mini/video/nano/shuffle/NEW shuffle/NEW nano!!" People who already had iPods needed more, they needed the new, different ones. And soon, the new ones were leaps and bounds ahead of the old generation. Take this: when the iPod nano first came out, it was 150 dollars. This 150 bucks gave you a a 1 gigabyte, tiny iPod that came in either black or white. Fast forward to right now, the current release of the third-generation nano. That same 150 dollars can now get you a small 4 gigabyte iPod with a 2 inch video screen. See why it pays to wait?

So what's the point of this? Technology is in a constant, hyper-speed evolution. If you buy the newest version of something... chances are, a hotter, more efficient version will come out a year later. It's a perpetual guessing game of what to buy now and what to wait for. The consumer falls victim to every step forward the company makes: they're the ones shelling out hundreds upon hundreds of dollars every year or so for the new, the advanced. It's "what happens in technology", says Jobs. Yeah right. It's what happens in the business of making money!

I love the fact that technology is always getting better... but sometimes I just wanna press the pause button. I've only replaced my personal iPod once... and the one I've had has lasted me for about two years now. I've also had my same cellphone for around two years. Now in that 730 day period, there were loads of new cellphones and iPods I could've bought. I could've begged for a Razr or a Chocolate, maybe a new nano or shuffle. But I was content. I didn't need the brand-new to make me happy. As long as my phone still made calls and my iPod still played music, I was perfectly fine. I'd run them until either they got lost or broke beyond repair. I just wonder... do I reflect the majority? Are most of the consumers today alright with keeping their "out of date" gadgets? Or am I in the minority, an old-schooler who won't be torn from her aging technology? Is everyone conforming to the new buy-it-the-second-it-comes-out attitude, or are we starting to rise above the market?

Addicted much?

2007-09-07T17:19:00.000-05:00

I decided to count up the amount of information I usually acces within... around an hour and a half of getting home. Here's what it averagely looks like:

Blog Entries Read/Viewed:

- Neatorama: 21

-CuteOverload: 5

-I Can Has Cheezburger: 5

-TechEBlog: 4

-Daily Puppy:1

-- Total: 36

Comics Read:

-Questionable Content: 1

-Yu+Me: 1

Communications:

- Emails recieved: 4

-Facebook messages: 2

-Facebook Friends Requests: 1

-Myspace messages: 1

-Myspace bulletins read: 5

-Livejournal entries read: 2

- Instant Messaging conversations: 4

Miscellaneous:

-Links followed off of Ebaum's World: 2

-Videos watched: 1

-Games of Tetris played: 1

That's quite a lot of information to absorb, especially everyday. And being a true digital age kid, I don't even read what you'd call real blogs. TechEBlog is the closest, reporting technological advancements, such as new games, cars, cellphones and MP3 players. Neatorama is literally a random blog, with links, pictures and videos. And the rest are nothing but pictures.

The way I see it, many of us digital agers approach the internet much like television. We want quick, spastic entertainment. Why focus on reading a lengthy entry if we can just skim it? Why actually read at all when we can look at pictures and watch videos?

I've also been thinking: how has this attitude affected my writing, or the writing of those around me? A recent poll showed that one in four Americans read no books in the past year. We're more interested in movies and television for our narratives. If we want to read, we'll skim a magazine, maybe read a short blog entry. Even as a writer I've found myself becoming lazy. I know for a fact I don't read near as much fiction or poetry as I should. Is the Digital Age slowly sapping our love of writing? How will writing, and writing habits, be changed as technology evolves? Can't they just work together and get along?

Innocent to the Blogging World

2007-09-06T20:36:00.000-05:00

I've never known much about blogging. I've been onLivejournal for going on three years now, but something tells me this will be a lot different. The internet has been a part of my life for as long as I can properly remember. I had a computer in my room at the age of seven. I quickly learned how to email, and used to correspond with my first-grade teacher. By fifth grade I was reading forums on BuffyGuide.com, by seventh I had my livejournal, and by ninth I was a religious member of Myspace and Facebook. So basically, I've been a digital age kid since before I even knew what it was. I've always loved the internet and everything that goes with it. Blogging's just a new, fun world to play with. I'm ready. Beam me up.