Mandatory Blog Post # 22 - Floating Mind Bodies

When on the web, we may as well just be floating consciousness. Sure, there is a person typing all of things we read, but the words themselves are a manifestation of our individual conscious. In theory, we are bodies talking to other bodies, such as the way we normally communicate with our friends, but on the Internet, there are no visual cues to work with. As I type this, you have no idea what I could be doing while you read this. I could be juggling flaming chainsaws or sewing my hands  together, but you have no clue. All you have is the prose in front of you.

That separation, however, is coming to a close. One day, and it is inevitable, we will be greeting each other with handshakes in a virtual realm. What will be strange is the fact that it is still very much a floating conscious, just manifested and shaped into a human. That seems pretty existential if you ask me. That deep integration will be, at its core, the same as it is now. The only difference will be the fact that there is a computer generated version of you or your avatar.

Imagine how weird it would be for you to see me actually talking to you in a VR blog where you can see what I'm doing as I type. It sounds a lot like a webcam, but what if you saw me and I was a purple dinosaur? What if that purple dinosaur could interact with your avatar, who is a hamburger, and you could be a part of my blog? Why would you ever want to leave such a perfect world?

The first reason would be to eat, then to go to the bathroom. Besides that, we need to note this change of separation. Is it a danger? Probably not, but I think it is more important than ever to make that separation between the physical and digital self because they are different. We do not want them to become one, or one to become both. Things would get even more existential than they are now. Eventually philosophers will be talking in a VR chat room about the world that may exist outside of the chat and whether or not it really exists.

Alex Grey

Mandatory Blog Post #21 - Art is the definition

Why do you think people constantly argue the definition of art? Is it because we are all moved and affected by it? Or is it that we truly don't know what is to be considered art anymore? Did we ever know what to consider art? Who knows, but what I do know is that the only thing that has changed about art is the process in which it is created.

There are too many similarities between a digital painting and a hand-painted ones to say that one is more art than the other. There is a medley of colors, brushes and techniques, and the only difference is how they are used. Instead of constant watering down and layering of paints, an artist can now simply choose the color they want from a gradient. Is the artist any less talented and the product any less of an art?  Of course not. The two artists could create virtually the same product, the only difference being the material used... and a physical copy. Maybe people think a painting is more prestigious? I will admit how cool it is to go in a museum and look at some thickly-painted pieces of work, but that does not make it more arty than anything else.

Most people tend to give more credit to artists who have been noticed by scholars and written about, but many internet artists have it the same way. These artists can get just as much, if not more, exposure and feedback when their audience consists of the entire digital world. If anything, I'd say the digital artist has more of a chance and deserves to be written about by "professionals." Anyone can be an artist and everyone should be an artist.

The way I look at art is this: the final product should reflect the effort put into it, not how people rank it or how it is produced. If someone wants to make a realistic face from java foam, let em and then let them frame it and put it online. The Internet is the best museum because it can hold some of the best art any eyes could ever see. It may hold a bunch of crap too, but so do some real museums. To conclude, I leave you this piece of art.

Mandatory Blog Post #20 - Weinberger Hyperlinks

Hyperlinks are neat Things.They lead you to other places where you might find related, but different Material. Weinberger claims that these are distracting and can lead someone on an endless, convoluted path, but I think he is Wrong.

Isn't it great that we can hop from subject to subject, site to site and forum to video on just a whim? It is so simple to find connections among all of the things that you want to learn. Is it too much information available all at once? Of course it is, but that's the beauty of it. I've never had my brain fried by clicking on link after link, and neither has anyone else I know.

It is true that everything being hyper-linked to everything else can create an endlessly scattered path of knowledge, but is it really any different than being in library? All those books have so much information and many of books could reference each other; the only thing stopping you from getting up and reading those references is all that work of standing up and looking for it. With hyperlinks, it's right there. That is what Weinberger believed was the cause and he is right about that, but it is not a problem at all.

I like to think of the human brain as a set of hyperlinks. There are tons of neurons leading to other related neurons. Our brain handles all of that information quite well without burning out. Sometimes people go crazy, but that's besides the point. Our brains work pretty good and so do hyperlinks.

You wouldn't want to think your brain is making you crazy would you?

Hyperlinks are cool and hip. They are a party that never ends.

Mandatory Blog Post #19 - OBAMA IS AN ISRAELI TERRORIST FROM KENYA!!!11!!!!!

Did the title get your attention? If it did, than why? Was it that everything was in caps? The actual title itself? The way it ended with exclamation points and numbers? For most people, it was the combination of all three.

It's a simple manipulation of the audience through rhetoric. The caps give it a sense of urgency, the message is wild and outlandish, and the punctuation gives it a sense of excitement. This presentation is not acceptable if you want to be taken seriously, but it will get attention, and sometimes, that is all you need.

This is a tactic that has gained popularity recently, due part to Internet. The example I will use is the titles of YouTube videos. I'm sure you are all aware of those videos by various Vbloggers and Let's players where the titles are as extravagant as mine and the thumbnails have hardly anything to do with the content.  Like this video by Shane Dawson. (I don't recommend you watch it, but you can if you want. I was just giving evidence.)

Personally, when I see a title like "13 and PREGNANT?!" I know that it is going to be a complete waste of my time. The same goes for the thumbnail of the video. But in reality, part of the reason why these YouTubers get so many views, is exactly what I have shown you. Their content may please a particular audience, but first they build that audience by using rhetoric.

My particular title is not too outlandish as we have actually seen people believe such statements. I'm actually curious if I will receive readers outside of my class because of the title. I also wonder if I'll get more views from the class because of it. It would again show that titles can be manipulative.

If you want to be taken seriously, don't do what you have seen here. Make a creative and accurate title. If there are any images, use ones that re relevant. Also, make sure that your content matches the title.

Mandatory Blog Post #18 - The room is a genius

So, as we all know, the smartest person in the room is not actually a person at all, it is the room itself (Weinberger). Before the Internet, everyone was dependent upon experts to solve their problems. If you need to sue someone, get a lawyer; if you need to understand terms and conditions, get a lawyer; if you need to get out of jail, get a lawyer. Lawyers are professionals and experts of technical language and law. Once you meet with you lawyer in his office, he was the smartest person in the room, not you. Now let us imagine that you have a smartphone or a laptop with internet access.

You can now go on a forum where people have asked legal questions and people with experience in your situation and even lawyers post answers online, for free. Outside of getting out of trouble and suing someone, why would you ever pay $100/hour to understand a legal contract ever again? The value of the lawyers work has just gone down, along so many other professions: publishers, critics and even mechanics. The average-Joe (he he), can now accomplish what only experts could before.

Now, are the people responsible for the current state of professionalism on the Internet, or is it the Internet itself? Well, people are responsible for the Internet, so they are the ones responsible. It isn't the individual that allow for such vast information, but the insanely large amount of information that is available overall. No select group of people could create this much knowledge. It was a collective effort by millions of users and that effort has created too much information. That is not a bad things by any means; it just means that we have more knowledge to choose from. That cannot be a bad thing.

The Internet isn't sentient...yet, so it cannot be the smartest person, but it is the smartest place. I think libraries look pretty smart and I'm not sure that the Internet itself would look as smart, considering pornography and stupid opinions, but under its harsh and dirty exterior is the smartest place you will ever see. The internet is so smart, that libraries are now dependent on it.

When the Internet does become sentient, it will do all the thinking for us and maybe it can organize all of this information. Until then, it isn't that smart, it's just a place where smart things happen. It serves a great purpose now and will serve a greater one in the future.

And speaking of purpose (skip to 1:44 if you want to get to the part)...

 
 
   

Mandatory Blog Post #16 - Welcome Back Class

Hello everyone,

Welcome back for break. I don't want to be academic or thought provoking this post. This one is just for fun.

I hope you has a break void of too much academic use of technology. May your break be full of Facebook and YouTube and not of papers and EBSCO. We deserve a break from it, even if we can't avoid it anymore (see last blog post)

See you in class and see you in a more academic post later in the week.

Mandatory Blog Post #15 - What A Webcomic Can Do For You

Since it is nearly free to publish anything on the Internet, creative people have taken full advantage. With websites like DeviantArt and Tumblr, artists have found a place to publicly post their art. Before the Internet, an artist had to get noticed by selling their art on the street or doing some crazy performance art. Now, even without people buying the art directly, artists are able to make money through commission and ad revenue, all because of the Internet.

An art enthusiast can now say to themselves "Why go out on the gross and dirty streets for art when I can go on the gross and dirty Internet to see it?" That art enthusiast is right; there are no boundaries or dirty streets getting in the way of an artist and his/her audience.

A glowing example of artists free from boundaries are web-comics. If an artist/writer wanted to get noticed, they had to: A) know someone in the industry; B) Go to yearly conventions and submit portfolios; or C) get lucky and get noticed. Most of those are hard to accomplish, but not anymore. If someone wants to get noticed, they can host their content on a website for anyone to view at any time. They may not get discovered, but their chances are higher; they will also be seen by so many others.

The artists also have more freedom with their content and share the majority, if not all, of the profit.  

I'm not going to get too far into the theory of the Internet and how it has cut out the middleman in publishing a work, but I will give an example of my favorite web-comic.

ExplodingDog

This is a web-comic based entirely off of titles that fans send in to Sam, the creator. Each comic consists of one image with the title and maybe some additional words. He has been making comics since 2000, an is still going. He has had a good amount of success by selling merchandise, framed drawings and now he has a children's book. His sense of humor is off-beat and you are often left wondering why you are laughing. It is smart, silly and non-vulgar.   

  

Mandatory Blog Post #16 - Homework Break

Technology has allowed for so much in academia. It has changed the way the classroom works in ways that I have explained in previous blog posts: digital papers, immediate communication with teachers through email, and online lectures. It is great what it has allowed for us to do with our education, but I have a personal gripe with these great things too. This technology has also allowed for teachers to give more homework over breaks and holidays.

With digital assignment, a teacher could very easily make an assignment due during the middle of a break, rather than after the break. Right now, I'm writing this blog during my break. Now that there are almost no physical barriers between students and their teachers, the teacher can ask for homework to be due at anytime: breaks, weekends and even holidays. I hope that teachers would at least have the decency to not ask for assignments on holidays, but you'll never know.

I'm not going to make this too long, because I am on break, but I just wanted to let you know that the digital revolution has also created a world where there are no breaks, only periods of time where we are not in a class room.   

Mandatory Blog #14 - RaySipeLadyGaga

There is a man on YouTube who  posts about three videos a day. His name is Raymond Sipe, AKA RaySipeLadyGaga. He is one of my favorite YouTubers and I think that everyone should give him a watch. He is an elderly man from Florida, who makes some of the strangest, funniest and most true-to-heart videos around. This man really enjoys what he is doing.

He has three main types of videos that he produces, all with props and all repetitive in their nature.

 A Capella:



Songs with music.:



And movie quotes:

)
He has evolved in his craft by constantly introducing new props and ideas. He gets the majority of his content from audience suggestions and comments. After watching these videos, you can see that he really enjoys what he does. I think that is the most important feature an artist can have, the ability to love your job.

Mandatory Blog Post #13 - The Digital Marketplace

Isn't it wonderful that we can purchase anything we could ever want on the Internet, and at a cheaper price? With an Amazon account, we can buy books for almost half the price that it would cost in a store like Barnes & Noble. We have digital goods distributors like Steam that sell video games for almost one-fifth of the price (normally during their many sales). This is great for the consumer, the distributor and the company giving the rights to their products to the distributors. It isn't great for the physical world, however.

I'm sure we are all aware of the fears and speculations about Walmart's moving into small neighborhoods. Many people feared that, because Walmart is able to sell products at a much cheaper price, it would drive local business to ruin. This was the case in most places. Some were able to survive on the idea of 'helping a small business,' but it simply was not enough to keep all of them alive. This is the same fate that awaits physical stores when the Internet starts to take over completely.    
What is the incentive for going to a store and paying $10 when you can get the same thing online for $7 (assuming one has Amazon Prime with free two day shipping). Well, if you don't want to wait those two days you might want to buy local. Some people prefer the interactivity when going to a store; I know that I prefer to go to my local record store and talk the workers about music and to talk to comic book store owners about upcoming and past releases. I can't necessarily get that online, but, boy, can I get them much cheaper.

The same with video games. PC is my primary choice for video-gaming and physical copies can still be a bit pricey. Services like Steam make being a PC gamer cheap and convenient. While I do love this, I wonder if this is making video games disposable. I am an avid collector, as I mentioned in my Scott McCloud blog (you should read it). I love to show off my collections of CD's and comic books, I used to able to do that with my video games, but not anymore (I am referring to my PC games here, I do have collections of games from my various Nintendo consoles). With the constant Steam sales, I often find myself buying games that I would not have normally, and they end up just sitting there, unplayed. I would not dream of doing this if I sill had to pay 50 - 60 dollars for my games, not that I'm complaining. My PC collection is kind of meaningless at this point, I would not want that with my other collections, but I fear that it is the dark future of the digital marketplace.            
 
The sad truth for me, even though I do enjoy supporting local businesses, is that I do not have a choice here in Potsdam. Since Strawberry Fields Music closed, I have nowhere to buy CD's. I either have to wait to go back to Syracuse and go to the Soundgarden (great place by the way) or order them online. The same with physical video games, there are no video game stores in the area. Until just recently, I couldn't get many comics here, but there seems to be a sudden interest as Misty Hollow has started selling comics and the shrinking Tim's comics continues to order books even though they had trouble in the past, and continue to.

I don't want to advocate for anything, even though we know who's going to win in the long run, but I don't want to lose the physical world to the digital one, even though it is cheaper and more convenient.

Mandatory Blog Post #12 - Shirky and the digital mob

I love technology. I love how it brings us together faster and better than we have ever been. I love how simple it is for me to form a group on the Internet with like-minded individuals like myself. Facebook groups allow for multiple people to post and share images and those members can share those pictures with others outside of that group. No matter how annoying it is to see these posts on our feeds 24/7, it is nothing short of amazing. I don't like the pictures, but I love the idea behind them. What I don't love, however, is the mob mentality that forms because of such technologies.

Thomas Jefferson said this

In chapter 1, Shirky describes an event where a cellphone was left on a cab and then went from a missing phone case to a theft case. I'm not going to describe the events because all of you should have done the reading and understand exactly which incident I am referring to. The results of the "theft" led to somewhat of a mob mentality towards Sasha, the girl who "stole" the phone. Sure, the phone was recovered, but at what cost? Sasha was exposed to sexual harassment, threats and was arrested at 16-years-old. That is a lot for a person to go through for a missing phone, even though she didn't do the right thing and return it to the owner. This whole event is one big gray area in which we are confronted with the paradox of whether we embrace or fear technology and the people who use it.

I'm sure that we all remember the Piers Morgan article we read in class. Morgan used language that many felt was inappropriate, including the person he was interviewing. This led to thousands of people attacking him for simply using language that wasn't accurate enough for them. It is a touchy subject and he used what language was available to him. It was easy to see him as the bad guy when so many people were defending the person offended and were harassing Morgan.

It's simple logic really: he did something they didn't like, they responded negatively in mass, others saw and joined in, 'oh, he must be the bad guy if so many people are acting like this.'

I think a more accurate thought process would have been more effective in handling the situation. He said something they didn't like, people respond negatively in mass, before others join in, they think 'what is it like from his angle? did he do this deliberately or was it a mistake of language?'

I think it's better for people to look at something critically, rather than grabbing their torches and marching towards the evil.

          

 

Another example of mob rule from our class is the article where Justine Sacco was fired for her tweet consisting of the words AIDS and Africa and "I'm white." She deserved to be fired for what she said and websites like Twitter were able to get the news out and get her fired form her job while she was still in the air. This happened so fast and quick that there were crowds of people with signs waiting for her plane to land. She got what she deserved in terms of treatment and punishment from work and it's good that she was fired, but did the ends justify the means?

Was it right or safe for the Internet to do this? On one hand, she got what she deserved and on the other hand, she could have been physically harmed by these mobs. Again, it's just one big gray area. It's too complicated to say in a few words, so I'll use five.

We need to be cautious. 

Mandaory Blog Post #11 - Fonts can be distracting and stuff

Our discussion of fonts in class the other day got me to thinking about the uses of each of the many font styles available to us. When writing an academic paper I typically write in Time New Roman because it is the standard and isn't distracting. It cuts straight to the point and doesn't detract form my message. I understand that people use different fonts when writing for a certain audience, but when I am writing an academic paper, I do not want the professor to pay more attention to my font than to my message.  If a font is too pronounced, then it can simply get in the way.

To show this, I created a custom font with my friend, which consists of my handwriting. I do not have the best handwriting and I often find that it is too difficult to read and distracts the reader form what is actually being said. I apparently have handwriting that closely resembles Comic sans, so we entitled the font JomicSansBS. It should show up on all of your browsers as it is embedded within the HTML.

So, here we go.

Hi everyone, this is my tenth post on blogger. I have to make two posts every week: one about in-class content, the other about anything of my choice. I like to relate the free posts to class discussions or something relating to the digital age. My blog posts are often times ignored by the class, either because my name falls somewhere on the blog list where they don't often look, or my posts and opinions are simply not interesting.

I don't tackle controversial issues pertaining to society, but I do like writing about things I enjoy. I don't enjoy being negative and placing blame on anything and then proposing a solution that will require several exceptions to actually work. I do, however,  like talking about comic books, video games and doing silly things like making my own font and seeing if people continue reading past the first few sentences.

I like my readers to be able to read something that will make them think about things in a new way, like my post about Scott McCloud and the infinite canvas (you should read it). I don't want to guilt trip anyone, I simply want to expose them to something new. This post is a good example. I doubt that any of my readers have thought about incorporating their own customs fonts into their posts, but thanks to this, they might be inspired to do so. 

See? I do write about interesting things, I just do it in a different way. You can find tutorials for making your own font online. Click over there, to the right of this:  http://lmgtfy.com/?q=creating+your+own+font

I hope that you were able to read all of this.

I bet all of that was pretty hard to get through, content or font. If so, you were most likely distracted by the font itself and you either stopped reading or forced yourself through my handwriting. Fonts can be pretty distracting, but if I have to say that I learned one thing from this, it would have to be...

Be careful of what kinds of fonts you use. Some people may be too distracted by them to actually finish reading what you have to say. 

Mandatory Blog Post #10 - An arbitrary html table

I like making Tables Because

Stuff I Type	Italics	Bolds	Normal
Type of fruit	Banana	Apple	Tomato
Types of beards	Long	Short	Bushy
Types of numbers	Big	Small	Medium
Types of dinosaurs	Scary	Scarier	Dead
Types of types	This kind	That kind	The other kind

Mandaory Blog Pots #8 - When Did Stealing Become Okay?

Not a day goes by where I don't hear someone talking about something they torrented. Whether it be a new movie, a new album, a new television episode or anime. I am someone who loves to have a collection. I love looking over and seeing my stacks of comics or CD's. I collect not only because I want to show off, but because I wish to support the artists who make the things I love so much. Now, I don't want to be preachy and be all like:

 

But as someone who would someday like to be paid for his creativity, I wouldn't want my stuff stolen.

With the rise of digital media in the form of e-books, video games and distributors like steam, and mp3 markets; piracy is on the rise. These digital versions are cheaper and more convenient than the real thing, so why do people still want to steal them? They were designed with a cheaper price in mind. It is the same as shoplifting, but with very absent minded security guards on duty.

Before the Internet, piracy was all physical in the form of bootleg tapes and CD's. There was a market that one had to go to; it isn't much different on the internet, but now you don't have to pay. It may actually be easier now to torrent something then to punch in your credit card information, set up an account or deal with strict DRM after your purchase - *cough* iTunes *cough* Uplay *cough*.

Another barrier may be DRM's themselves. When you purchase a song off of iTunes, you don't own the song, you own the rights to play that song; if you don't remember your account information, then you cant listen to your music. Websites like Amazon give full ownership to their customers. They can share that music and it is not tied to an account. 

Torrenting has become a norm and is generally accepted by most people. We would look down and be frightened of a known shoplifter, but we don't think twice about a pirate. It's not all digital, there are real world repercussions.  

So, think twice before you digitally steal something. It is physical money you're denying to someone who deserves it. 

    

Mandatory Blog post #8 - Selfe

The invention of the computer changed the humanities forever. It was a type writer where you could make changes and corrections as you were typing. It was a way to do research without the need for physical books. It completely rocked the literary world.

In 1996, President Clinton announced the Technology Literacy Challenge, in which the government would fund efforts to strengthen technological literacy. Its goal was to have computers in every school, teach the teachers how to use them and finally, to teach the students. President Clinton saw the importance of computers and their role in literacy and the economy. He understood that computers were going to become a staple in the average persons life within the next few years. This meant that it was essential to the future of the country for everyone to learn how to use this important new technology.

The first step was to put computers into schools. This was accomplished, but not to everyone's liking. Many underfunded schools had fewer computers than other schools, so there were not enough computers for every student to use. The second step was to teach the teachers how to use these technologies. This was and still is an obstacle. Many teachers received less than eight hours worth of training and many still do not use computers in an effective way: they are used mainly for PowerPoint. The third step was to have the students understand them. This did happen, not because of the teachers, but because of the ease of access to computers; the students taught themselves.

Because the plan was to increase technological literacy, a lot of money was put into the success of the home computer. That plan worked and now the majority of homes in America have computers in them. That doesn't mean, however, that the users know what they're doing all of the time.

Many home computers are owned by older people who use it to maybe check their emails, see family on Facebook or to download dozens toolbars onto their browser. These people understand the bare essentials, but may still fall victim to Internet scams or malware ridden websites. This is understandable because computers were implemented into their lives much later, than say ours. Our generation has no excuse to not understand computers.


  
 It was the job of our teachers to teach us how to use computers. I know that I was taught ineffectively in my pre-college education, but I had a home computer so I was able to teach myself. I was never taught about online databases for research, I learned that in college. My school had plenty of computers, but we were never taught how to use them to their full potential. The problem that Selfe points out, is that even tough teachers were briefed on new technology, that they didn't implement them properly in their lesson plans. Many teachers simply used computers as an accessory rather than a tool to strengthen their lessons. Rather than using the computer to access databases during class, they were used for slideshows and the occasional YouTube video. This kind of treatment tells students that we can still get by without computers.

It is now impossible to ignore computers as they are present everywhere and are used for everything, including: credit cards, vending machines, cars and even voting. The Amish can only hold out for so much longer in the modern world.      
     

   

Mandatory Blog Post #7 - You ams Tofu

Whether or not you have eaten tofu is irrelevant; we all know about tofu. We know about its spongy, rubbery texture that true meat lovers will refuse to eat until death. It is made from congealed soy milk that is pressed into bricks and served with savory and sweet dishes. Many people would call tofu tasteless and bland, but those people haven't had it prepared correctly.

Tofu can absorb the flavor of anything around it. You can put it in a broth to have a tasty meat-like substance for protein, it can be grilled with BBQ sauce for a smokey flavor and much more. It is a good replacement for meat, as it contains a lot of protein, low fat and low cholesterol. It really is a beautiful thing.

When most people think of tofu, they think of this picture to the right. It is a good picture and representation of the true reality of tofu...


But the tofu that anyone who has enjoyed a good vegetarian dish knows it looks like this picture. See? Tofu can look good.

Now, I bet you're wondering why I am talking about tofu in a blog about new media, well, I have come to the conclusion that we are tofu. All of us who use new media like Facebook, Twitter and some who use sites like 4chan and Reddit are tofu. The Internet culture created by these sites is absorbed into the user, much like a flavor.

There are barely moments in ones daily life where there is a lack of Internet culture, memes and references to YouTube videos. Because we have access to all of these sites on our phones and tablets, we are constantly taking in this culture. A funny picture posted on Facebook will be seen by several people sitting in one room and instantaneously they have something in common. Those few people may share that photo and several more would be engaged. It is constantly changing color and flavor, just like tofu.

Since tofu absorbs a flavor, its base flavor changes and is a mixture of the new and old. Those of us born at the birth of the consumer computer and Internet are the most like this soybean curd. We grew up learning everything the old fashioned way, but at some point things changed and we all typed our papers and learned from Oregon trail. We still have traces of our old flavor, but we were introduced to a new environment and had to take it in, we had no choice. Those who were born within this new age of technology are more like meat, they are what they always were; they know what they were raised to know.

People are just rubbery, squishy and white blocks of tofu waiting to be flavored. It is so easy to flavor a person and the Internet has allowed for that to happen in mass amounts. The ease of access of information allows for any flavoring to happen at a fast rate. So, next time you see someone eating tofu, don't feel grossed out, just remember that it is just a blank slate that has been changed by its surroundings.

P.S. Don't you think its funny that tofu is flavoring other tofu with its own flavor? 



  








  


     

Mandatory Blog Post #6 - HTMLing

When I first began reading the textbook HTML, CSS and JavaScript by Julie C. Meloni, I couldn't imagine why I would ever use the languages on my blog. I still don't see a profound reason on this blog, but I definitely see a use for it when I eventually have to get my own website. This is going to be a shorter blog post, but I think that it will help us all understand that we can do some pretty cool things with these languages.

At first I thought that I would be confused and perplexed by HTML. I live with a few computer
scientists, so I have seen them program a lot of stuff. It all looked foreign to me, but my roommates assured me that it really was easy. The textbook does a really great job of teaching you these seemingly difficult computer languages. Just after a few chapters I feel like I will be able to do a lot more with computers than I ever would have thought possible. I can now identify some of the markup language in random websites and know what it is actually doing. HTML is pretty neat.

So, back to the task at hand; how will HTML, CSS, and JavaScript possibly help me with this blog? With my limited knowledge of these languages at the moment I won't be able to go into too much detail, but I can imagine the possibilities with what I already know.

HTML would allow me to place every word and line exactly where I wanted it on the page. I could make the blog any color, shape or font that I desire. Of course I would have to make sure that it works on every internet browser and mobile device. There is a lot to the language, but I can already tell that I will enjoy learning about it. Speaking of HTML, here is a silly example of it being put to good use. http://motherfuckingwebsite.com/

I could see a use for a CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) in the formatting of all of my blog posts. I would like to have a standard format for all of my posts where I could just fill in the blanks and not have to worry about white space or paragraphs being too long. Internal style sheets would still allow for variation among the posts to avoid monotony, but having a singular format would make my life a whole lot easier.

JavaScript would allow me to make silly little interactive images comics, or games for all you bloggers to click on with your mousy pointers. I think it would add a lot of depth to my blog and would allow me to show off my creative spirit.

Overall, learning these languages would be cool and all to make silly things on my blog, but I have to say that it is more important for me to actually know what I am using when I write on this blog or post on YouTube. I don't like using things without have some knowledge of how it's actually working.   
 

      

Mandatory Blog Post #5 - Opinions and Pixels and Scott McCloud

The 'infinite canvas' is a term coined by comic book writer, artist and theorist, Scott McCloud. He talks about it in his second book Reinventing Comics, which revolves around comics as high art and their place in the digital world. The book was written in 2000 just when the Internet and consumer computers were just becoming a big thing. He proposed, or rather, predicted a future where books, newspaper, movies, and comic books would be available digitally and for a lower price. He loved the idea of these mediums becoming digital because it would allow for faster and cheaper self publishing as well as more of a profit for the creators. Scott also believed in the virtually infinite space on the Internet would allow for more content, as well as more expression and growth in the arts, sciences and other media that was once limited by the finite space available on paper.

Reinventing Comics

As we all know, these predictions became a reality. Books are now much cheaper on the Kindle, movies can be bought digitally on Amazon for a fraction of the price, and some newspapers have resorted to digital only. Pixels are cheaper than paper to produce, distribute and purchase. This is horrible for people who enjoy the smell, feel, and taste of physical copies. I call them the collectophiles, they suffer from collectophilia.

Reinventing Comics

I am an avid collector of all things that I enjoy. I love comics, guitars, books, video games, Cd's, stupid toys, and all of that stuff. I have a lot of each and I love to show them off on my shelves and floor. I would prefer a physical copy over a digital, but that does not mean that digital media isn't the future and that we shouldn't welcome it with arms wide open and with plenty of space on our hard drives. Its inevitable that most if not all media will be digitized, so we better accept it.

The infinite canvas that I brought up earlier is the idea that because the Internet has nigh infinite space, that all printed media can and will go beyond its previous borders and limitations. An example is this blog that I am typing up right now. It is possible that I may extend this post for as long as I would ever need to. Unlike a sheet of paper, I don't run out of page space, I just keep on typing and the page goes on forever expanding until I hit the publish button; even then I have the option to continue editing this piece until these servers shut down. In Scott's case, the infinite comic book is a format of interactive panels that lead into each other and to other story arks, not unlike a choose your own adventure book. On the Internet, there are literally infinite possibilities.

I will miss the physical world when the digital world does take over, but I will be able accept all that it brings with it. I am willing to read a never ending comic book in a never ending world. I will miss my collection that may someday gather dust as I surf the digital world and uncover new and interesting things that creators have done to take advantage of the infinite canvas given to them.

I highly recommend reading more from Scott McCloud, even if you're not entirely interested in comics. He explores art history and loves talking about the artistic possibilities of new technology. His website is constantly updated and he's always working on new projects. A recent example is his comic-styled Google Chrome tutorial.  Here is a picture of some readings:

We have unlimited space to share our ideas, lets not push that away. Lets welcome it and all that it can do for us.
           

   

Mandatory Blog Post #4 - Emig and Brummett

It didn't take long for the Internet to become an integral part of everyone's lives. It began as an experiment in the 1960's known as the ARPANET and led to the development of protocols for internetworking. Internetworking is where multiple networks could be joined together in a network of networks.Since then it has grown into something much, much bigger and intricate. More people are using the Internet each and every year. Here I have some statistics that I copy and pasted from Wikipedia. The numbers were collected by the International Telecommunication Union.

Wikipedia is a credible source

This boom in interest came along with the invention of the laptop and maybe more importantly, the smartphone. When the iPhone hit the market it was insanely popular, and it allowed for its user to have access to the Internet no matter where they were. Other smartphones soon followed and now you can't even go to a movie theater without someone using their smartphone. Technology has taken over our lives and has affected how we perceive the world.

Janet Emig's analysis of inquiry paradigms brought up the idea of the governing gaze. The governing gaze is a persons preferred way of perceiving. Before the Internet, people had to find information through books or journals. This was the preferred way in academia and once the Internet came along, all of that changed. We were able to find anything at anytime and this shook the academic world because there was something completely new for everyone to learn from. The book purists thought the web was full of garbage that no one could take seriously and those who accepted it found that it was rich with knowledge and cat photos.

Because the Internet has grown so much, its influence in the world has changed some things for good. For instance, I don't print papers anymore, I hand them in digitally; I do all of my research online, I can't even remember the last time I cited a physical book for a major research paper. I approach academia at a much different direction than those before me, I don't think that I or anyone else can go back to the way it was before. Too much has changed and will continue to do so.

The Internet didn't just change the way we perceive, but what we perceive. Many futurists believe that humanity will at some time reach the omega point; that is the universe reaching its highest point in complexity and consciousness. Technology may be (it totally is) that next step in evolution that lifts humanity to its highest point. At some point in the near future, technology will create everything we know. Barry Brummett wrote a piece on epistemic rhetoric, it explored three different ways that rhetoric was epistemic: methodological, sociological, and ontological. The future of the internet is defiantly ontological. In the study, ontological, in terms of rhetoric, means that rhetoric creates everything that we know and understand about the world. The Internet may very well do the same. 

We have new ways of communicating and peoples lives are beginning to be shaped by the Internet. If the web is responsible for the majority of our communication, then it may overwhelm people who communicate face to face. We learn a great deal from the Internet and it is starting to change our daily lives. Some of us are on Facebook all day while other are on Twitter. Some spend their lunch breaks watching YouTube videos rather than talking to their coworkers. Instead of going home and interacting with family, people play video games or use their tablets.  Things are different now and I think it is pretty neat.

Technology has invaded our lives and  it's here to stay; no Geneva Convention will be able to change that. 

Mandatory Blog Post #3 - The Free Web

The internet has become a place for anyone to post anything. There are no expenses for print, copyright or trademark. And outside of paying for internet service, it is free to the average Joe and can be monetized for businesses to make a financial gain. It has infinite possibilities due to its creator friendly attitude. Dreams are born and grown on the internet.

Marshall McLuhan writes in his book, The Medium Is The Massage, about authorship and how it was brought about mainly by the invention of the printing press. Before its invention, individuals considered their intellect to be public domain and part of a collective effort towards a more knowledgeable world. Many medieval writers would simply not sign their names and considered themselves public servants. Literary fame was only a result of the printing press. Ideas were given owners and with them spawned a market of readers. Books would fly off the shelves if it had the right name on it.     

Because of this, copyright was born in an attempt to prevent theft and piracy of ideas; this was something that was not seen before. Rather than having a collective of ideas for everyone to own and use, we now have to ask permission and cite any idea that was not previously ours. This why I have to cite even the slightest amount of information in MLA for all of my papers. But with the invention of the internet we have begun to see a lack of real authorship and more of the old idea of public information. 

"Xerography-every man's a brain-picker." This quote from McLuhan (found on page 123), talks about xeroxing separate pages from separate books and combining them into one book about any subject. This would be something like an encyclopedia of knowledge. This sounds a lot like something we all use now... can you guess it?

Wikipedia is the free encyclopedia of the web. It is a return to the idea of knowledge available to the public for free, not to mention the missing name of the author(s). Wiki does cite all of its sources of information, but the article itself is free for use and is editable by the public. The ideas of medieval writers were not available to the public for editing and books, as a result, had only one point of view. Because of the ease-of-access to editing, an article may have varying ideas and points of views.  This allows for a vast amount of various content.

Wikipedia can also be updated within seconds of new information. Previously, there would have to be several editions of the same book every so often to edit mistakes and add content which would take several months, with Wiki there are no editions and no cost. With this easy access to information at such a fast rate, people are learning more now than ever.

There are also no notable authors to any of the articles. Wikipedia is a collective effort done mainly for the public good; with this we can see the return of literary writing as a public service. There are now multiple Wiki sites dedicated to several different fields including comic books, video games, and even card games. Knowledge on the internet is not shared for profit or admiration, but simply for the sake of education.

With the birth of the internet we are seeing a re-emergence of knowledge as public domain. This format is popular considering the amount of traffic that Wikipedia gets and how it is constantly under study. I can't wait for the day when colleges will allow for students to use Wikipedia as an academic source.

"Teamwork succeeds private efforts." - Marshall McLuhan.    

Mandatory Blog Post #2 - Marshall McLuhan

"All media work us over completely."

What does this quote mean to us? What did it mean to Marshall McLuhan in 1967 when his prophetical multimodal book, The Medium Is the Massage, welcomed itself onto bookshelves across America? It was a call for understanding, and was a preview into the future of media and the emerging global village. I don't think that McLuhan knew just how big and interconnected this village would become in just a few short decades. If he thought that television, trains, and telephones were bringing us closer together, he had another thing coming.  

Creative Design of the Global Village

The internet as a medium has created infinite possibilities for communication, the sharing of ideas, and the ability for anyone to publish anything. The internet was built upon the ideas and fundamentals that written language, printed media, radio, and television had previously made possible. The written word allowed for the preservation of ideas and printed media allowed for those ideas to be shared with the world in a convenient and portable fashion. Radio and television allowed for fast delivery of news and entertainment never seen before. The world was a much different place afterwords.

That's great and all, but old medias can't hold a finger to what the World Wide Web has to offer. I'm not even going to go into detail with the internet because I don't think I have enough time, bandwidth, and knowledge to unpack all that it can do; plus we all use it and already know the possibilities. The world is a much different place from that other world that was much different from the world before that.

Now let's get back on track.

What really happened when Newton was struck

The quotation above is true. Truer than gravity, string theory, and general relativity: because they are theories and the quote is fact. I am not denouncing millenniums of scientific research and discovery, but stating that McLuhan created a law, not a theory.

Media has worked all of us over more than any mafia has worked over a stubborn 'business partner.' A society cannot help but change when a new medium is developed and introduced to the public. With the invention of handwriting there was opposition, as with all new media. The most popular case is Plato claiming that handwriting would make people less intelligent and dependent, leading to the rotting of their minds. Plato would not appreciate the internet or television or radios or comic books or video games... 

Handwriting led to a society of ideas that could last beyond a lifetime and those ideas were then stored and distributed within printed media. Printed media allowed for events like the Protestant Reformation. Before print, the common person could not read the Bible and was dependent upon corrupt clergymen to share the word of god; this led to lies and manipulation by the church. As a result, Martin Luther's posted his Ninety-Five Theses which led to the bible to being printed in several different languages and paved the way for the reformation. Again, the world became a much different place.

Television and radio allowed for quicker access and distribution then ever before. It was a new place for advertising and marketing as well as a place where the public could watch footage of American soldiers fighting a war halfway across the globe. These mediums are examples from McLuhan's text that helped to create the global village; the village where everyone has the ability to know everything about everyone else. It was a village then and I believe that it has now become a global community center; we now know too much about each other. Websites like Twitter and Facebook can do more than television and radio combined. These sites have now been integrated into our everyday lives and its only going to get better or worse, depending on how you look at it. Our society has changed because of the internet and will change when the next big medium is released.    

Media has worked us over alright, and I hope to never recover from the bruises, scratches, or missing teeth.  

      



  





          

 

Mandatory Blog Post #1

I found The article on new literacy by Clive Thompson to be quite interesting. I was enthralled to see such a positive point of view on the internet and its users. He acknowledged the typical points of view about the negative effects and some of them may be true, but was able to find the ever-growing positives. The typical opinion about internet users is that they don't think when they type or read this 'trivial' garbage. Many fear that it is changing the way humans think and write, and it is, but not in a bad way. People are reading now more than ever because of the internet and are learning about audience, timing, and appeal even before coming to college. They do not know that now, but when they have to use it, they would already of had experience.