3D chat programs (week 8)

The first thing I've noticed about the various 3D chat programs such as Second Life and Habbo Hotel is that to truly get the most out of these sites, you'll need to cough up. Of course, as mentioned in the tute task, MSN Messenger is an instant messaging program, with its simplicity being its charm. It's free, easy to install, improved editions of it are readily available, and perhaps most of all, since it is predominantly used for text communication, it's quick. 3D sites are slightly the opposite, and though MSN can drop out at times, it is still pretty reliable. I noticed that some sites during the tute weren't even loading, which kind of defeats the purpose.

When I was trying to register for Habbo world (something which I would never do apart from this course) I had troubles with the name page, with it not letting me use four or five different log in names. The same reason- something to do with numbers and letters- was repeatedly given. Again, why would I bother joining this board when registering is so inconvenient?

Different types of socialising do occur on Habbo World, for instance. You must select your own "unique" avatar, for instance, which creates that character's personality. From there you can interact with the environment, buy swimming in their 'ool or moving to houses. Chat can be engaged, though it's still involved with the avatars communicating, rather than person to person. I believe that due to the amount of gimmicks involved in the program, plus the money involved in gaining full accessibility, it is more of a game than a serious chat program. Activeworlds' main selling point is its 3D environments, which are created by users themselves. Again, you can interact with the virtual environments whilst chatting, though there are more "worlds' to explore than Habbo World.

The 3D does make a difference, creating another layer of depth that exists in IM programs. However, the amount of time and space needed to load the graphics can serve as a deterrent, rather than an attraction. I can understand why people, specifically young teenagers where places like Second Life and Habbo World are aimed at, find fun in pretending to be someone/something else, but when it comes to simple online chat communication, less (MSN Messenger) may be more.

Week 7

I only shopped the above photos as generally I was using the same techniques, and wanted to start familiarising myself with my topic for the assignment, music piracy.

Surveys show that worldwide 35% of music discs sold are illegal copies (http://www.enn.ie/news.html?code=9545022). Defined by dictionary.com as "the unauthorised reproduction or use of a copyrighted book, recording, television program, patented invention, trademarked product, etc." piracy's impact on this industry has massive financial (US$4.5 billion, as estimated by the above link) impact, but also raises questions about potential benefits of it. This report will look into the cost of piracy, the increasing accessibility of it, points of view from various people -including artists- and include relevant data and figures.

Six photos for weeks 5 & 6

Photos

The first one, as I say below, is with a traditional digital camera. The rest are taken with my Nokia 6288.

Friends

This is me catching up with some friends in Sydney before I moved up here. I chose this one as it's actually the best photo from that day quality-wise (it was taken with another person's canon digital camera, not sure about the megapixels of it). It was a great day from what I remember.

University life- my pile of books on the kitchen table, it's usually bigger than this. There's a youth allowance letter there too, very important.

Unconventional: I was stuck with this one for a long time. I thought and thought and thought about it and finally ended up doing a photo of myself on a wierd angle in black and white. If that's unconventional, then I'm honestly stuck.

News: This is the Sunday Telegraph, we moved up here from Sydney and still buy the Terrorgraph most days of the week.

This represents summer, as in cricket. Which is probably the best part of it, playing with my brother, great fun.

High-tech: The house computer isn't exactly high-tech, we got it nearly five years ago, though it's been upgraded since then. I took it with the "negative" image effect on my phone, makes it seen that bit more different.

Tutorial Task 4

1. What is the weight of the world's biggest pumpkin?
1502 pounds, in 2006: http://www.bigpumpkins.com/ViewArticle.asp?id=161&gid=49
2. What is the best way (quickest, most reliable) to contact Grant Hackett?
From his online fan club http://au.groups.yahoo.com/group/GrantHackettFans/ I haven't accessed it as membership is required to participate.
3. What is the length of a giraffe's tongue?
18-20 inches long: http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-giraffe.html
4. How would you define the word 'ontology'? In your own words, what does it really mean ?
Even on this one website, there are multiple definitions for ontology (http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ONTOLI.html) Based on this, and not being ax expert ontologist myself, I'd say that ontology can be defined as a science of being and existing.
5. What was David Cronenberg's first feature film?
1966's "Transfer." http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061114/
6. When was the original 'Hacker's Manifesto' written?
8th january 1986. http://www.mithral.com/~beberg/manifesto.html
7. Why do all phone numbers in Hollywood films start with '555'?
Based on http://www.omegarobot.com/article/555.html, it seems the dearth in legit "555" numbers means that authorities were keen to fill this gap, so encouraging Hollywood films to use "555" solved this problem
8. What is the cheapest form of travel from Crete to Rhodes?
http://www.iexplore.com/world_travel/Greece/Destinations suggets travel by ferry as the cheapest travel, bar swmming, between these two destinations.
9. What song was top of the Australian Pop Charts this week in 1965?
"I'll Never Find Another You"- The Seekers . Shame that unlike the UK, our number one this time 42 years ago wasn't by the Rolling Stones.
http://www.onmc.iinet.net.au/topspot/1965.htm
10. Which Brisbane band includes Stephen Stockwell on keyboards and vocals?
Only the best band ever....Black Assassins http://www.griffith.edu.au/school/art/staff/stockwell.htm



A search engine is a website that specialises in recommending to the user a list of websites that are relevant to that user's needs and wants. I watched a documentary on SBS last year that was based on Google, and one segment was about the way that website sorts the order of its search results. Google came under criticism from that program after it found that the first result from the search "holocaust" was actually a site denying that atrocity's existence. Paid placements (where a company/site pays Google to have its site displayed prominently) are one example of how a search engine may list its findings.

What makes one page more useful than another one is the reliability and accuracy in giving me useful links. This may be as a result of refining my initial search into having a specific phrase or quote. Google is my homepage, I vary rarely use other engines. When I do, it is then yahoo.com.au and ninemsn.com.au in that order. Google is something that I've grown accustomed to, plus it simply offers more accurate responses than yahoo or ninemsn.

A website, http://searchenginewatch.com/ is focused upon informing user about reliability, news and features about prominent search engines. For example, published on March 22, http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3625316 outlines Yahoo's attempts in strengthening attempts at detecting fraud.

Right now, I'm favouring my essay to be about MySpace. This technology's rapid growth is astounding, and with its rise in use has brought about questions about the impact of this technology on some of its users. Is the use of of this website in telling strangers about personal details fair, and is this tool the communication of the future, where the number of "friends" online becomes more important than the number of friends one has in real life?

La Jetee, Mao Zedong and Interpretations

It's blog time, this one is about last week's lecture. In it, the evolution of communication studies in the US was interesting, seeing and reading about how as the 20th century progressed, so did the types of theories and effects. Stephen's example of how in the 1920's a Clark Gabriel ad led to the soar in sales of cigarettes and singlets. I don't know why it stuck in my head, but it did. I liked two quotes that Stephen displayed at the end of the last week's lecture from theorists, in particular:

"Let a hundred flowers bloom;

Let a hundred schools of thought contend."

Mao Zedong
I read about Marshall McLuhan in the textbook, a man who possessed some at-the-time radical ideas, ie. classifying the the "intensity" of various media effects through "hot and cold." Speaking

of radical ideas, there's La Jetee, the film at the culmination of the lecture. My tutor Chris brought up a good point, about how in 1962, when the text was made, the idea of time travel (which the movie is essentially based upon) was as foreign to the director Chris Marker's context as the idea of four decades later the world becoming connected together via the internet.

With the abrupt ending which saw the main character, seemingly a time traveller, shot dead at the airport where the journey began, I interpreted the meaning of La Jetee as time waits for no man, and despite the brilliance of the technology, the man's life was hardly improved by it- it was indirectly ended by it. That wrapped the story up nicely and accurate too.

Though watching a 28 minute short film that was based upon black and white still photos was something I wasn't expecting when I joined this course, I still managed an interpretation of the film. Next week it's Alphaville and I'll be blogging on about the first half of it. Thanks for stopping by :)

Here's some links to other bloggers

http://www.blogger.com/profile/13874834609480512756

http://www.blogger.com/profile/08308208214054519820

http://www.blogger.com/profile/05178811685836506998

Inaugural Blog

Hey all, in case you didn't know (and you probably don't), my name is Dean Kelly, and I'm here to hopefully become a sports print journo one distant day. I am a complete sports nut. But enough about that, I've still got La Jetee in my head. That "movie" was........different. I did French for four years at high school back in Sydney but even that didn't really prepare me for time travel and the rest :) I'm not really much of a blogger, I've got a myspace account though even that's really to use it to see other people's accounts. I struggle to maintain an interest in telling strangers about what's been happening to me in the last few days, but that comes from being very shy. I've read the first four chapters of the textbook, and I guess that the email telling me that it was one of the "easier" books to read was true. Plenty of new words to learn, among other things, but at least they do it in a thorough way. Looks like chapter seven is next on the list, I'm guessing that's got something to do with Alphaville. When I get home (if I remember) I must look that up on imdb (again, if I remember). Steve Stockwell is a character isn't he? In the rare chance that you're reading this Mr Stockwell, I mean that in a nice sense, it's good to see some enthusiasm from the lecturer, because if he/she isn't excited/passionate about what he's/she's teaching, what hope does a first year student have of being interested? It's strange hearing 20-odd people in this room typing all at the same time too btw haha. I'm looking forward to having some more material to blog on about in the upcoming weeks, so until then, thanks for stopping by.