I feel i should clarify some comments i made at last week's lecture, as i feel they may have been a little unfocused.
Peter asked "What makes a good blog?", here's what i think:
Firstly, the true beauty of the internet is that enables just about anyone to voice their opinions, loves, dreams, interests and, in fact, their very selves on to a public sphere. But there in lies the issue, the internet is a public area, not a private one. There are private aspects to the internet but if you post a blog, build a website, comment on myspace, discuss on forums these opinions are available for almost all to see. There is an unfathomable amount of content on the internet which means that if someone in our class were to write "I hate Peter Saladino, his opinions are those of a moron" chances are slim that people who actually know me will ever find it unless they happen to google me, but even then there are a few other people with the same name as me who have a greater presence on the internet.
So the internet is big, really big.
But it's still a public place. So to return to my comments in class that a blog should be "interesting" and should try and convey some "ideas" obviously these are fairly broad generalisations for any piece of writing. The girl in the white top (sorry i don't know your name) pulled me up by suggesting that what is interesting to me may not be interesting to someone else and that that is there way of doing their thing, which is totally true.
Did Ann Frank think her diary was going to be a thing of such historical value? Did she think anyone would read it? Did she even think she was going to survive? Probably not. So any account of event or representation of opinion is important, and i believe this.
I don't remember who said this but it's something like "the internet has given the idiots a voice". Harsh words but there is some basic idea i like about it. Writing a blog is not the same as writing in your diary which no one ever sees and is purely for your benefit only. This doesn't mean that people can't post personal diary-type entries, or simple accounts of everyday events but i simply feel that some people posting on the internet have no idea that other people might read this, and they should.
Which brings me to my poorly articulated example of eBay descriptions. Ebay is awesome, it let's anyone sell or buy anything. But they amount of times i have viewed an item where the description either barely describes the article or is so full of spelling and grammatical errors you wonder how they even managed to crawl out of the womb at birth. Did it even click in their head that they are trying to sell something? They should be convincing me to by it to the most truthful degree and the best of their abilities. These people can't really be this simple, surely. I don't know who these people are, perhaps english is their second language, perhaps they were in a hurry but sometimes you almost feel like you know this person has not taken any care in providing this nugget of information to the world.
Perhaps Peter can comment on this but, when we submit essays do we not do as much as we can to ensure that our ideas are coming across? Sometimes there is less time, less inspiration but that's why we have gradings. Peter surely you must have read some essays and simply thought "This person just doesn't care, they're not trying articulate anything" and given it a big fat "F"?
When a news paper makes an error they publish retracting statements, when you submit an ad or obituary or article or opinion to a newspaper someone still reads it and edits it. On the internet, we must exercise as much of this as we can over our own work. The whole world has access to this.
What i want to see on the internet is engagement. Not necessarily high IQs or rocket science or perfection or ideas exactly like my own, I just want my brain to be engaged by something: by an idea, by communication and by thought. I want to know that someone, somewhere is trying to tell the world something.
Sorry for the high level of uni student bullshit, i still don't feel i said this well. Perhaps that is ideal though, that although my words are not perfect, the very fact that someone may read this and have their brain stimulated in some way will make this a successful blog.
Comments? Flame away!
(PS I wrote this in a hurry!)
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
I just want to add this thing:
Regarding our discussion this morning about mobile phones. After class today i was lying in the grass behind ELT smoking and i had a rhythm stuck in my head. It had slowly crept into my mind over the course of the morning. I play guitar and sometimes ideas for riffs just start playing in my head, then i pick up my guitar and try and make them a reality. Ok so i'm at school, planning on coming back to the labs to do some blogging 'cause my trojan thinkpad decided it need a new battery (my trust is destroyed) and this riff's going over and over in my head and i'm worried i'll forget it by the time i get home. So what i do is i call myself on my phone, it goes straight to voicemail and i hum the tune into my voicemail for when i get home. I felt pretty smart and i had that sweet know-how high when you discover extra use out of something you use everyday until later when i realised that i just spent money on helping out my short term memory. I can't even rememeber a melody for another 3 hours? i instantly thought it was a good idea to spend money to help me out on something so simple? is my brain that clotted with stimuli from the world?
Technology 1, Peter's memory 0
DAMMIT.
Technology 1, Peter's memory 0
DAMMIT.
number three
I use facebook and myspace. but i used to use myspace and facebook, before that it was "i use myspace but i just signed up with facebook, y'know... to check it out" etc etc. Now i always check facebook over myspace. I open three taps in firefox: hotmail, facebook, myspace. It used to be hotmail, myspace, facebook.
Why is this interesting? what are you saying??
My identity on the internet is actually more important than i realise. I wouldn't really call my self "self-obsessed", "egotistical" or anything. Certainly a little introverted but i would assume that i am actually fairly humble like a lot of people. I certainly don't spend too much time pimping out or adding to my facebook and myspace accounts. I have done some, yes, but only once or twice etc. In a way these social networking sites are a point for the kids who used to make personal sites, use ICQ, old forums and the like to communicate and create an online identity. Only now it is used to create an identity with a bit of a glow to it, a bit of style. it's not just you, it's you plus one. I can omit or manipulate my image to my liking. Other users have the some power to influence this with comments and photos but when it really comes down to it... i call the shots. I think a sense of power to take control of your identity in a new way is very exciting, with possible ramifications we may never really fathom. It also relates to my previous post regarding how many keys and locks i have on the internet vs in my real life. I don't use second life and i don't think it's for me but i said the same thing about myspace. It also brings up another issue that was in "The Metropolis and Mental Life" (link in previous post) where i think he says something about the citizen of the metropolis must be very self conscious in order to survive in the metropolis. They really must do all they can to be individual and not one of a faceless mass.
I think this ties in with Mark Poster's essay. It may be that we are adjusting ourselves even down to our own self image so that it has value more like a commodity and less like a err... more earthly human being. We even have barcodes for ourselves. Tax file numbers, passport numbers, centrelink numbers, voter registry numbers etc etc are all barcodes of individuals.
So we create little individualised versions of ourselves and our life's works to make is stand out of the crowd, even in the smallest ways. I do agree with the element of memory and biography with this application of new media. Even a website dedicated to someone's holiday to the snow is a form of history, with a first hand account of an event and sometimes photographs.
I can't remember if it was during this lecture that i talked about the Ruth Cracknell Autobiography i read in first year sociology. To a certain extent, i have grown up with Ruth Cracknell. Although i always see her as a skinny, grey-haired pensioner, i've seen many of her works. What i found most interesting about her story was how she grew up, the holidays she went on, the houses lived in, jobs etc. These things add life to what i know of sydney. I spent a lot of time in sydney growing up. My grand parents moved from a farm in Griffith NSW when i was four to a big victorian house in Haberfield, sydney. I spent many weekends and school holidays there as it was so close to where my family and i lived in canberra. There are events in my memory, and, in a way, similar to those of Ruth Cracknell, that i think are equally as interesting as an historical account.
Perhaps we fell the need to display ourselves more because we are being seen more. More closed circuit television, more photos, more photos being distributed, more online videos, more ads telling us how to live, more ads about life that are really just for sugar or petrol or whatever. Perceived personal identity will ALWAYS be important in some way.
---I have just realised that i am mixing weeks three, four and five together in these three blogs i am catching up on. apologies, stick with me.---
I don't mind if an employer googles me or searches for me on facebook, provided they bare in mind that, like who i am in my resume and in my interview, i am someone different when i am in different company and in a different location. If my facebook profile, however, has a photo of me wasted-as-sin punching bongs on the roof at 5AM they should remember that, and i should remember that people will find out about parts of me in some way or another anyway.The internet has merely given us a way to adapt to a more global world. That said i still think we should remember where the "real" world is and where the digital world is. I am firm believer that there are some things on this earth that not only digital technology but also science and mathematics cannot replicate, replace or explain - it provides balance.
And now for something completely different. These three youtube videos recently came back into my life:
The above is dedicated to Tom.
-out-
Why is this interesting? what are you saying??
My identity on the internet is actually more important than i realise. I wouldn't really call my self "self-obsessed", "egotistical" or anything. Certainly a little introverted but i would assume that i am actually fairly humble like a lot of people. I certainly don't spend too much time pimping out or adding to my facebook and myspace accounts. I have done some, yes, but only once or twice etc. In a way these social networking sites are a point for the kids who used to make personal sites, use ICQ, old forums and the like to communicate and create an online identity. Only now it is used to create an identity with a bit of a glow to it, a bit of style. it's not just you, it's you plus one. I can omit or manipulate my image to my liking. Other users have the some power to influence this with comments and photos but when it really comes down to it... i call the shots. I think a sense of power to take control of your identity in a new way is very exciting, with possible ramifications we may never really fathom. It also relates to my previous post regarding how many keys and locks i have on the internet vs in my real life. I don't use second life and i don't think it's for me but i said the same thing about myspace. It also brings up another issue that was in "The Metropolis and Mental Life" (link in previous post) where i think he says something about the citizen of the metropolis must be very self conscious in order to survive in the metropolis. They really must do all they can to be individual and not one of a faceless mass.
I think this ties in with Mark Poster's essay. It may be that we are adjusting ourselves even down to our own self image so that it has value more like a commodity and less like a err... more earthly human being. We even have barcodes for ourselves. Tax file numbers, passport numbers, centrelink numbers, voter registry numbers etc etc are all barcodes of individuals.
So we create little individualised versions of ourselves and our life's works to make is stand out of the crowd, even in the smallest ways. I do agree with the element of memory and biography with this application of new media. Even a website dedicated to someone's holiday to the snow is a form of history, with a first hand account of an event and sometimes photographs.
I can't remember if it was during this lecture that i talked about the Ruth Cracknell Autobiography i read in first year sociology. To a certain extent, i have grown up with Ruth Cracknell. Although i always see her as a skinny, grey-haired pensioner, i've seen many of her works. What i found most interesting about her story was how she grew up, the holidays she went on, the houses lived in, jobs etc. These things add life to what i know of sydney. I spent a lot of time in sydney growing up. My grand parents moved from a farm in Griffith NSW when i was four to a big victorian house in Haberfield, sydney. I spent many weekends and school holidays there as it was so close to where my family and i lived in canberra. There are events in my memory, and, in a way, similar to those of Ruth Cracknell, that i think are equally as interesting as an historical account.
Perhaps we fell the need to display ourselves more because we are being seen more. More closed circuit television, more photos, more photos being distributed, more online videos, more ads telling us how to live, more ads about life that are really just for sugar or petrol or whatever. Perceived personal identity will ALWAYS be important in some way.
---I have just realised that i am mixing weeks three, four and five together in these three blogs i am catching up on. apologies, stick with me.---
I don't mind if an employer googles me or searches for me on facebook, provided they bare in mind that, like who i am in my resume and in my interview, i am someone different when i am in different company and in a different location. If my facebook profile, however, has a photo of me wasted-as-sin punching bongs on the roof at 5AM they should remember that, and i should remember that people will find out about parts of me in some way or another anyway.The internet has merely given us a way to adapt to a more global world. That said i still think we should remember where the "real" world is and where the digital world is. I am firm believer that there are some things on this earth that not only digital technology but also science and mathematics cannot replicate, replace or explain - it provides balance.
And now for something completely different. These three youtube videos recently came back into my life:
The above is dedicated to Tom.
-out-
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Blog number 2: Catch up
It's week 6, I am catching up, so here goes...This topic reminds me of "The Metropolis and Mental Life" by Georg Simmel. In fact, this whole course is very reminiscent of his essay. It discusses the the differences of living in the city versus living in rural or small town environments specifically about how residents deal with their immediate surroundings and what value is given to everyday things. For example, he writes that everything in the metropolis is subject to the value of a number, everything has a price because money controls everything in an intense urban setting. He makes a point of mentioning time and punctuality in this way also. Get the article HERE.
Anyway, he wrote that a long time ago and i believe it more than ever these days. Everything in my life is dictated by numbers. I try hard to stick to more "human" pursuits as much as i can but really is only so much time in the day. It is becoming so profound that I am starting to become more and more, to quote Simmel, "blase" about having to pay for services that save me time. It comes as no surprise to realise that there are so many things that once were free or virtually free that now cost me money. Buying that cheap coffee & muffin deal at Caffine every morning i have school is now common place in my life, do i really not have enough time to buy cereal and eat breakfast at home?! I have just discovered that my hotmail emails now have advertising at the bottom. I've been using hotmail for a long time and i'm sure these are a relatively new addition. So now i am paying for this in bandwidth, because every single one of these is on my computer and in my face before i can stop it. I'm also paying for it with my attention span, i know many of us will have grown up in a world of mass advertisement. But now it's everywhere, like at the bottom of my email.
To focus a little more on school:
I seem to remember Peter talking about this in relation to broadcast media and how it was, essentially free to all. Granted you needed a tv and you have to sit through some ads (that you can mute, or change channels) but it was just sent via the airwaves. Now, this time of new digital media costs money. I can get an album in less than a minute but in subtle ways i am paying for it yet i think it's free.
Is this off topic?
Anyway, i think there's proof that the human spirit or whatever you want to call it can live symbiotically with technology. Think about the various communities on the internet. Surely, one of the most basic elements of the intelligence of man is the formation of communities for survival, and this is shown as most prevalent today. So why can we not keep some basic things free for everyone. Are we becoming a nation planet? Are we on the cusp of absolute human brotherhood? This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Surely we can extend this to exericse what should be free and what should be traded. Surely the most valuable elements of our planet should be protected. That said, we seem to be allowing many of life's little joys to slip through our fingers.
I really don't remember to much of what was said in class in week 3 so this will be some kind of a mish mash of different ideas. The stuff i have written below i wrote about two weeks ago so it's probably a little more naiave than the class could be now, actually it could be really weird... enjoy!
There are some things I would like to say now that the school stuff is over:
1) Everyone's blogs are far more focused on the course than mine. I know in the unit outline it says something like 'although it's a blog it's still assessable university writing' but I think I'm going to see how much give I can get on this.
2) I know my La Trobe email attached to this blog is wrong, I really don't care, I don't even check it. petesaladino@hotmail.com is where I can be reached.
3) I use iGoogle at home. Every time I log into this blog I get logged out of my other iGoogle account which is linked up to my real email address (see point 2), I didn't know Google owned Blogspot and I could use the same account. This is totally annoying me. I may have noticed it when i first signed up to google but i don't remember, it was ages ago. It's worth considering at this point the possibly massive social implications of having every bit of information about you linked by a single identification profile, sure life would be easy but identity theft would be out of control, there could be chaos.
4) Taking into consideration points 3 and 4, exactly how many inboxes, user names and passwords do I actually need?! I currently use the following (feel free to comment back a competitive amount):
Hotmail (inc Ninemsn)
iGoogle x 2 (one I use and the other because of this blog)
Online banking x 2 (Different banks)
Centrelink
What.CD
GoDaddy x 2 (domain names)
Ebay (w/ inbox)
Paypal
MySpace (w/ inbox)
Facebook (w/ inbox)
University x 3 (LMS, Student Online & Student Email)
Frazy
YouTube
Amazon
Last FM
Delicious
Flickr (w/ inbox)
Mess+Noise forum (w/ inbox)
Internet connection (which is always on but still)
My modem (ok so it's just 'Admin' like everyone else BUT STILL)
Plus I play in bands so they've all got ones which I normally look after:
Myspace x 2 (w/ inbox)
GMail (which also screws with my iGoogle setup)
Mp3.com.au x 2 (w/ inbox)
APRA x 2
Online banking
= 33 and I probably have a few others I seldom use too (forums and the like). Sure I'm an avid Internet user and I try to keep the user names and passwords as uniformed as possible but it just seems excessive. Is this why I have trouble remembering people's names all the time? Because my brain is full of these necessary(?) pseudonyms I am known by on the Internet? Scary when you compare it to two bank PINs, two house keys and the combination of my bike lock.
5) Here are three interesting videos I found a few months ago that I want to share, they are all incredible:
http://www.vimeo.com/993998?pg=embed&sec=993998
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzqumbhfxRo
http://www.nikkor2d2.com/
7) I would like to take a brief moment to talk about music. My friend Timmy recently stopped working a JB, I love that guy and he will be missed. As a parting gift to everyone in the CD department he made personalised mix CDs. I believe that the mix CD (no longer on audio cassette) is a great way to give someone a special gift, I do it a lot... mainly for girls. It got me thinking, firstly that the creators of digital music players have enough vision to include a 'play list' option (I use iTunes, it may be called something else in Winamp or whatever you might be using). This makes the sometimes tiresome art of compiling music in an order of your own desire very easy and hence have transported and updated a piece of analogue culture into this digital age. Big Ups. Secondly, I started thinking about amazing amount of Internet based music sharing options. I'm not even talking about programs like Soulseek or torrent downloading... I mean the simple things that are free and easy to use. From the player on MySpace to Morpheus (before it changed) to iTunes online to Frazy to Last.FM there are so many interesting ways people can share their taste in and appreciation of music through the use of the Internet.
Check out Timmy's record label: http://www.uar.com.au
Also: http://www.frazy.com & http://www.last.fm
AND for absolutely no academic credit whatsoever here is the track listing of the return mix CD I made for Timmy:
1. "Funky Guy" Trans Am
2. "The Future, wouldn't that be nice" The Books
3. "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" The Beatles
4. "Suicide Invoice" Hot Snakes
5. "Deadly Rhythm" Refused
6. "Batman - Stage 1" The Advantage
7. "I Put A Spell On You" Screamin' Jay Hawkins
8. "White Rhino" Trans Am
9. "Transmission" Pan Sonic
10. "I Can't Go To Work" Wu-Tang Clan
11. "Mr Eddy's Theme 1" Barry Adamson
12. "Big Strong Boss" Breach
13. "Bleed" Meshuggah
I'm going to go play Mortal Kombat -out-
Amendment
OK... so i used to type in www.rebelbass.com and it would take me to their blog rebelbass.blogspot.com - so when i made that post the other day about their site looking like it had been party to some kind of drug-fueled refit... i was wrong. they have added that new craziness to www.rebelbass.com BUT their blog can still be viewed from http://rebelbass.blogspot.com as usual. Check it.
http://what.cd
I also forgot to mention another website that you can't check out but that i think is fantastic, i will be using it as an example when i do my thing on PTP and Torrents. The website is called What.CD (also the URL) and it is an invitation-only community of torrent downloaders. It has an amazing catalog of music, comic books, apps and spoken word. There are unavoidable ratio commitments and basically if you're a broke student like me who can't afford that much music, it is paradise. The download speeds are usually much faster than any public torrent and there is a lot of rare stuff on here. Also different file formats, vinyl rips, versions etc so everyone can be happy. Invitations are available through current members, so you've gotta know someone who already uses it.
Monday, August 4, 2008
First Post
Hello friends,
I have never had a blog before. Sure I've been through my fair share of Internet social networking websites but i just never really had enough to say to warrant a blog of my very own. Don't get me wrong, blogs are cool and I visit several regularly.
This first post (as I am not sure what my lecturer, Peter, quite wants out of this) is to be a fairly casual summary of my the digital media in my life at the moment. What I like, what's impressed me lately etc etc
I'll just start with a few notes regarding school. The class seems sweet, this guy Tom and I are working on a presentation about Torrents. I use torrent a lot, I'm a student and I don't have a lot of coin so illegally downloading music is necessary. I read about torrent technology on Wikipedia once, that's pretty much all I know about it. I was recently invited to join a weird torrenting website called What.cd which basically gives me access to a private library of music, comics, film and programs with out-of-control fast download speeds and an amazing sense of community. Although I guess we are all breaking the law by sharing this copyrighted material but using technology to share like this seems to have a higher purpose. Users are actually people and not the usual slime one may encounter on the Internet. I think this class will be very good for me, although i like to think i maintain some kind of hold over new uses and applications for the Internet (as much as suit my needs) this class will help me give a more critical insight to this brave new world. I once did a computing degree, i never finished in fact i think i only have one more class to do. It kind of killed my love of technology, too much programming. I used to build heaps of webites when i was a teenager, now 'll leave that to the pro's. More research to come...
Electronic Gear:
I am currently rocking an IBM ThinkPad R52 laptop. ThinkPad's are tough computers and if you want to know why I choose PC over Mac, PCs soldier on. Mac's are excellent, I really like them and for some uses Mac's are clearly superior to PCs. Mac's also have better advertising than PCs. I sort of want a Mac. BUT, PCs just don't say die. I've noticed that Mac products (less the computers and more IPods) break within a year and when they break the chances of fixing them are remote, and/or expensive. So I'm going to champion my chunky piece of black plastic and circuits just a little longer.
A 180g Maxtor OneTouch external hard drive. This piece of equipment is not the slightest bit interesting, it serves it's purpose as it should but is neither aesthetically please nor technologically advanced. Items like this just essential these days.
I've got two digital cameras, both fairly old. The first, an Olympus AZ-1, I bought the night I went to see Isis play at the Annandale Hotel in Sydney. An Amazing concert even if they didn't play anything of "Celestial". None of my photos came out that well but it's gone on to be an important part of my young adult life. The fun, portability and usability of a digital camera (one that's not a DSLR, although they're fun too) makes getting one that is even remotely decent almost a necessity. Don't get me wrong, I still swear my old Pentax SLR took some stunning photos (when luck was on my side) but for documenting something as simple as a road trip they are essential. The second is a Canon PowerShot A75. I found this camera when I was cleaning out a van my band had hired when we went on tour one time. There were two Japanese bands (Palm & Edge of Spirit) travelling with us at the time so I thought it was one of theirs, it wasn't. So one night, I think at the end of semester I pulled it out and found that it contained someone unknown's photos from one of there trips, it was weird. Finding digital technology randomly around is weird. I looked at photos of this lady's kids, so weird. That said Trent Reznor hid USB sticks randomly at Nine Inch Nails concerts just before the release of "Year Zero" in 2007 with leaked tracks, images etc. Finding that would be so mysterious and exciting, especially once you realise what it is.
Plus some old school speakers that used to belong to my Dad's first stereo that sound excellent, and old Phillips TV, a Sony Playstation 2 (I am back into Mortal Kombat) and a Realistic Amplifier.
Here is a list of stuff i've been getting a kick out of lately:
http://www.nintendo.com
Lately, I have been sucked right into the portable console debate. I work at a JB Hi Fi in the music department but i still hear all the info and debates about the consoles. My friend Franc has had a DS for a little while and praised it's element of fun, it's usability and this thing called "Home Brew" which is basically a massive array of simple programs (as well as pirated games) to download on to your DS. The first thing that caught my eye was the IPod interface. This turns the two screens of the DS into an IPod, top screen is the viewer and bottom screen is the scroll thing. Oh.. AND it's Wi-Fi ready. Now I don't have to buy an IPod, Peter 2 Mac 0!
http://probertson.livejournal.com
Paul Robertson is a film maker that lives in Brunswick East. I applied for a room in his house once but didn't get it, the ad read something like "Do you like DVDs and Beer?" which sounded right up my alley but unfortunately for me someone else beat me to it. Like I said, Paul makes movies, short ones made up of sprites and animations that look like your favourite arcade games. Fresh looking heroes, devastatingly ugly and horrible enemies, cameo's from Rambowski and a truck load of awesome action makes this guy one of the best and most original in any short film field. Definitely download "Kings of Power 4 Billion %" and "Pirate Baby Cabana Battle 2k6".
http://www.rebelbass.com
This is a place I visit to find new music. I think it's just a bunch of nerds who happen to be DJs. they like to make mixes of either the freshest music or the most old and obscure and you wonder how they got it... introverted crate diggers... that's how! I don't really know what happened to this site over the weekend but I'm pretty sure the dudes who run it took a lot of drugs and decided to revamp their website. All the content is gone and now this ghostly, half-finished weirdness is in it's place. Maybe give it a week or so.
http://www.thebooksmusic.com
This is a band called "The Books" who I think are awesome. Their two albums "The Lemon of Pink" and "Thought for Food" are some of the best I've heard especially if you are into sampled music and how digital or natural it should sound, The Books make it sound almost organic. This website is fun to explore, all Flash, and by "explore" I mean explore the important information (tour dates, online shopping etc) are pretty easy to access but there's a lot of other fun to be had.
http://www.nasa.gov
NASA photo of the day is a great way to start the day, I am actually learning stuff.
http://www.myspace.com/bowcasterrock
I play guitar and sing in this band.
On this blog I will refrain from talking about any organic music that I am listening to, instead, in the spirit of the event, I will only talk about sample-based music. I am currently listening to: Pan Sonic "Katodivaihe", The Books "Thought For Food",Trans Am "Trans Am", Kraftwerk "Trans Europe Express" & Wu-Tang Clan "The W". I also think people should get out and hear that new Diplo mix of Santo Gold's album.
- Dark Knight rules -
I have never had a blog before. Sure I've been through my fair share of Internet social networking websites but i just never really had enough to say to warrant a blog of my very own. Don't get me wrong, blogs are cool and I visit several regularly.
This first post (as I am not sure what my lecturer, Peter, quite wants out of this) is to be a fairly casual summary of my the digital media in my life at the moment. What I like, what's impressed me lately etc etc
I'll just start with a few notes regarding school. The class seems sweet, this guy Tom and I are working on a presentation about Torrents. I use torrent a lot, I'm a student and I don't have a lot of coin so illegally downloading music is necessary. I read about torrent technology on Wikipedia once, that's pretty much all I know about it. I was recently invited to join a weird torrenting website called What.cd which basically gives me access to a private library of music, comics, film and programs with out-of-control fast download speeds and an amazing sense of community. Although I guess we are all breaking the law by sharing this copyrighted material but using technology to share like this seems to have a higher purpose. Users are actually people and not the usual slime one may encounter on the Internet. I think this class will be very good for me, although i like to think i maintain some kind of hold over new uses and applications for the Internet (as much as suit my needs) this class will help me give a more critical insight to this brave new world. I once did a computing degree, i never finished in fact i think i only have one more class to do. It kind of killed my love of technology, too much programming. I used to build heaps of webites when i was a teenager, now 'll leave that to the pro's. More research to come...
Electronic Gear:
I am currently rocking an IBM ThinkPad R52 laptop. ThinkPad's are tough computers and if you want to know why I choose PC over Mac, PCs soldier on. Mac's are excellent, I really like them and for some uses Mac's are clearly superior to PCs. Mac's also have better advertising than PCs. I sort of want a Mac. BUT, PCs just don't say die. I've noticed that Mac products (less the computers and more IPods) break within a year and when they break the chances of fixing them are remote, and/or expensive. So I'm going to champion my chunky piece of black plastic and circuits just a little longer.
A 180g Maxtor OneTouch external hard drive. This piece of equipment is not the slightest bit interesting, it serves it's purpose as it should but is neither aesthetically please nor technologically advanced. Items like this just essential these days.
I've got two digital cameras, both fairly old. The first, an Olympus AZ-1, I bought the night I went to see Isis play at the Annandale Hotel in Sydney. An Amazing concert even if they didn't play anything of "Celestial". None of my photos came out that well but it's gone on to be an important part of my young adult life. The fun, portability and usability of a digital camera (one that's not a DSLR, although they're fun too) makes getting one that is even remotely decent almost a necessity. Don't get me wrong, I still swear my old Pentax SLR took some stunning photos (when luck was on my side) but for documenting something as simple as a road trip they are essential. The second is a Canon PowerShot A75. I found this camera when I was cleaning out a van my band had hired when we went on tour one time. There were two Japanese bands (Palm & Edge of Spirit) travelling with us at the time so I thought it was one of theirs, it wasn't. So one night, I think at the end of semester I pulled it out and found that it contained someone unknown's photos from one of there trips, it was weird. Finding digital technology randomly around is weird. I looked at photos of this lady's kids, so weird. That said Trent Reznor hid USB sticks randomly at Nine Inch Nails concerts just before the release of "Year Zero" in 2007 with leaked tracks, images etc. Finding that would be so mysterious and exciting, especially once you realise what it is.
Plus some old school speakers that used to belong to my Dad's first stereo that sound excellent, and old Phillips TV, a Sony Playstation 2 (I am back into Mortal Kombat) and a Realistic Amplifier.
Here is a list of stuff i've been getting a kick out of lately:
http://www.nintendo.com
Lately, I have been sucked right into the portable console debate. I work at a JB Hi Fi in the music department but i still hear all the info and debates about the consoles. My friend Franc has had a DS for a little while and praised it's element of fun, it's usability and this thing called "Home Brew" which is basically a massive array of simple programs (as well as pirated games) to download on to your DS. The first thing that caught my eye was the IPod interface. This turns the two screens of the DS into an IPod, top screen is the viewer and bottom screen is the scroll thing. Oh.. AND it's Wi-Fi ready. Now I don't have to buy an IPod, Peter 2 Mac 0!
http://probertson.livejournal.com
Paul Robertson is a film maker that lives in Brunswick East. I applied for a room in his house once but didn't get it, the ad read something like "Do you like DVDs and Beer?" which sounded right up my alley but unfortunately for me someone else beat me to it. Like I said, Paul makes movies, short ones made up of sprites and animations that look like your favourite arcade games. Fresh looking heroes, devastatingly ugly and horrible enemies, cameo's from Rambowski and a truck load of awesome action makes this guy one of the best and most original in any short film field. Definitely download "Kings of Power 4 Billion %" and "Pirate Baby Cabana Battle 2k6".
http://www.rebelbass.com
This is a place I visit to find new music. I think it's just a bunch of nerds who happen to be DJs. they like to make mixes of either the freshest music or the most old and obscure and you wonder how they got it... introverted crate diggers... that's how! I don't really know what happened to this site over the weekend but I'm pretty sure the dudes who run it took a lot of drugs and decided to revamp their website. All the content is gone and now this ghostly, half-finished weirdness is in it's place. Maybe give it a week or so.
http://www.thebooksmusic.com
This is a band called "The Books" who I think are awesome. Their two albums "The Lemon of Pink" and "Thought for Food" are some of the best I've heard especially if you are into sampled music and how digital or natural it should sound, The Books make it sound almost organic. This website is fun to explore, all Flash, and by "explore" I mean explore the important information (tour dates, online shopping etc) are pretty easy to access but there's a lot of other fun to be had.
http://www.nasa.gov
NASA photo of the day is a great way to start the day, I am actually learning stuff.
http://www.myspace.com/bowcasterrock
I play guitar and sing in this band.
On this blog I will refrain from talking about any organic music that I am listening to, instead, in the spirit of the event, I will only talk about sample-based music. I am currently listening to: Pan Sonic "Katodivaihe", The Books "Thought For Food",Trans Am "Trans Am", Kraftwerk "Trans Europe Express" & Wu-Tang Clan "The W". I also think people should get out and hear that new Diplo mix of Santo Gold's album.
- Dark Knight rules -
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