Copyrights and Copylefts

https://pixabay.com/en/basketball-stadium-440057/ 

CC0 Public Domain

Photographer: stevothedevo

Hour of Code

Hour of Code: The Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics.

As a class today, we attempted (and some) completed the Star Wars Hour of Code.  Hour of Code was a weird experience to understand as you leveled up because it got more complicated.  I don't play video games and have never really been the gamer type, so this type of coding is not something that really intrigued me.  Not saying it was not interesting, just saying I got bored with it fairly quickly.

Amazon Alexa

                                                     

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lujhxWZqk0Y

"New Media"

Media is a connection between people worldwide.  Via satellite, web, phones, iPad, messenger, and many more ways to connect, media gives us all something that makes our lives easier and "faster" that would not be possible without technology and constant evolution.  Everything we do daily is some form of connection and use of media with others around us.  Verbal communication, non-verbal communication, video gaming, surfing the web, talking on the phone, texting, and even singing along to songs is connecting us through our great use of different media outlets.  These things mentioned help and hurt the world because they all have unavoidable pros and cons.  YouTube and Google (probably the largest media swingers worldwide) play a major role in how people today view, perceive, accept, and go about living in society.  We live in a world where everything is recorded and replayed.  Replayed is recognition of everything not once but over again so watching what one says and does at all times is vital.

The Real Cyborgs and QR Codes

The London Telegraph - The Real Cyborgs

   After reading and discussing "The Real Cyborgs" (QR Code Above), a lot of detailed information about cyborgs, technology, and machinery pertaining to humans was revealed to me.  There are people out there who have chips in their hands that help control their lives, people with fake hearts and lungs, and people who have cameras in their eyes.  Me personally, I disagree with surgically turning ones-self into a cyborg because if this continues to progress, humans will eventually become a population of robots; similar to The Terminator or RoboCop.  In a way this can be scary because of the physical strengths and abilities one may be able to have.  Sports would no longer be natural human fun, along with a lot of other natural human activities that would be taken over the top.

Artifacts from the Future: Problems with Time Travel

In the book "a sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury, a time-traveler accidentally stepped on a butterfly in the past.  That step on changed the food chain multiple times over billions of years, and when the traveler returned to the present, the entire world was changed drastically.  This was known as the Butterfly effect.  After watching the scientific film clip "Through the Wormhole" many pros and cons about time travel were brought up.  The question of is time travel even possible due to the laws of life was the biggest question that caught my attention.  I do not think it is possible AT ALL.  Although time traveling into the future or past would be cool, it is not possible and I predict that it will not ever be done.

"The Final Cut" Film Reflection

Looking back after watching the film "The Final Cut", one issue in the film that stood out to me was the fact that something like that could really be happening in today's world, and most of us in the human population would never know.  There could very well be a chip in someone's or all of our heads watching our lives every second.  I have always believed that if the government and whoever else needed information they could and do have access to it via our phones, televisions, social medias like snapchat, bank accounts, and other ways.  Just like the device "Alexis" can record daily conversations and has access to one's photos and information, ( without knowing) a device like Alexis can also be programmed to have a mini camera to spy or see anything that it wants to without us ever knowing.

Virtual Bodies and Flickering Signifiers by N. Katherine Hayle

   In “Virtual Bodies and Flickering Signifiers”, N. Katherine Hayle's was mainly discussing the transition from the concept of the  “absent/present” to the “pattern/randomness” under the era of the information and cyborg age.  The shift itself may generate a debate in the embodiment theory. Generally when talking about embodiment theory, the first thing that comes to mind is the coupling of cognition and the human body. Here the body is no longer a shell purely executing the instructions from brain. Instead, it plays an essential role actively determining the formation of cognition. However, with the rapid growth of technology, we have not needed physical forms nearly as much.  Hayle's makes a very interesting analogy between the human body and traditional printing media, such as books and newspapers. She says “Like the human body, the book is a form of information transmission and storage that incorporates its encodings in a durable material substrate.”, once the relation between texts and media is built, these two separate things would coexist and can hardly be changed, this can also be applied to the human body.  The link between the media and digital information is not that closely tied. As for the information like digital text, although it can be exported into hard drives for permanent storage, you will find that there are no fixed correspondences between the media that are used for visualization, like monitors, and the content. For example, when you are reading an e-book, once you turn to another page, the previous one is no longer there. In other words, what information technologies create is just a temporary mapping relationship. Unlike digital platforms, the contents of the cognition are supplied by the media when dealing with traditional media and human bodies.


 Do you know what the embodiment theory means?
Does her theory initiate a new experience of embodiment or completely deny it?

Blogging "New Rules"

After viewing top blogs, we as a class camp up with rules to follow in order to make a great blog.....
Clean Design: Easy on the eyes, Good colors, NOT unreadable fonts, etc.
More Control: Easy to find stuff
Message: Topic and audience in mind
Attention Getting: Interesting headlines, Videos & pictures
Concise: with more available by links, no long scrolling
Writing Style: Grammar, Voice

After viewing and accepting these rules within the next few days I will be making adjustments to how I blog based on cooperation with the rules listed.

Scheiner on Security

This blog was chosen as a best blog for obvious reasons once clicking on the webpage.  He has different "stories" or "topics" on his blog wall that he talks about, and all the titles catch your eye.  One story in particular titled "People Who Need to Pee Are Better at Lying" caught my eye because I wanted to know why.  He went on to give the scientifical facts of why we can lie better while needing to pee.  That's just one example of the many other topics he discussed which made his blog page one to remember.


https://www.schneier.com/

101 Cookbooks

I chose to blog about this blog because I love food and love to eat!  The setup of the blog was thought out well telling in detail about different recipes and showing amazing pictures of them.  I personally like cookbooks because I like to eat good and cooking is something I enjoy doing.  Cooking is a craft that takes practice and having a step by step cookbook is essential in becoming a great cook.  The book on this blog was good because it covered everything from desserts, to spicy foods, to simple snacks.


http://www.101cookbooks.com/

Happy Healthy Kids: The Hungry Runner Girl

This blog was pretty cool because it illustrated the inside life to training and a Saturday with a marathon runner.  She expressed what her workouts consist of, how they can and do alter, and how she has to fight through to keep going.  She showed us (with photographs) how early she is up in the mornings to get started on her running regimen, what she sees and does, and proceeded to show the rest of her day spent with her daughter.


http://www.hungryrunnergirl.com/

Happy Healthy Kids: "Cool Stuff" Doesn't Make Kids Popular

This blog was a good one because it talked about and described how kids nowadays feel when it comes to getting the "new" and being updated with the new stuff around their peers such as iPhones, shoes, etc..  Kids feel that if they have the newest of everything at all times that they will be accepted by their peers more, fit in more, and ultimately be more popular and accepted.  That being said, a recent study shown in the article states that the complete opposite actually happens when kids are always getting everything new and that in most cases they get rejected or feel even more disconnected with their peers when they have all the materialistic items they crave.


http://www.happyhealthykids.com/cool-stuff-doesnt-make-kids-popular/

I am looking at a very early ESPN website (1999 to be exact).  It definitely looks old and outdated!  There is a huge wide open white space on the right side of the page; I have no idea why.  I remember being young and seeing ESPN look exactly how I am seeing it right now.  It is crazy how time flies and changes everything without huge notice until you go back and look it.

https://web.archive.org/web/19990125095135/http://www.espn.go.com/

I am now looking at the most recent ESPN website (Sept 2015) and it looks a lot more modern and up to date!  They have gotten rid of some of the things from the old 1999 website and added a bunch of new features.  The website looks a lot better, as does the ESPN logo, and the whole page is filled and there is not a blank white spot covering half of the page.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150922013845/http://espn.go.com/

Lost in an Alternate Reality

The television show Lost, ventures into the emergent form of the Alternate Reality Game (ARG).  This article ask the question... can “The Lost Experience” teach us about transmedia storytelling and the differing ways television and games function as narrative media?  ARGs are an interesting phenomenon taking advantage of the role media plays in our daily lives.  An ARG by its definition must operate in secret, as the goal is to obscure the boundaries between an emerging storyline and real life in a paranoid mist–only after the game's completion are its “puppet masters” and underlying structure made public.  The show Lost has a dedicated fan base and the show focuses on puzzles and mysteries that being said, its narrative world highlighting paranoia and deception would make it seem like the perfect series to be extended into an ARG.  The buzz was strong among both ARG players and Lost fans this spring as producers announced the launch of “The Lost Experience” for May 3rd to run throughout the summer during the peak of the television season.  As time went on the game was over a month old, and it seemed that the game had not lived up to expectations, for reasons attributable to the competing industrial and narrative norms of television and ARGs.  In an ARG, the narrative typically launches in the midst of an enigma, presenting a situation which not only focuses on suspense but also asks players to question the rationale and existence of whatever they encounter.  Are these websites and emails real or part of a fictional world?  In many ways, the narrative of Lost does the same thing, placing characters on an island full of seemingly random elements (polar bears and hatches) and potentially deceptive psychological experiments.  “The Lost Experience” seems to be failing.  Judged as an ARG, players are griping on forums, blogs, and email lists that the puzzles are too easy, difficult, and repetitive in format.

Questions 

Have you seen Lost and do you agree with this article?

Why do you think ARG is failing?

A File Structure for the Complex, the Changing, and the Indeterminate

Theodor H. Nelson

   T.H. Nelson proposes the development of the Evolutionary List File (ELF), a file structure characterized by “the capacity for intricate and idiosyncratic arrangements, total modifiability, undecided alternatives, and thorough internal documentation” Built with a lot of zippered files the ELF would fulfill user needs for personal filing and manuscript assembly.  ELF specifications are “the ability to accept large and growing bodies of text and commentary “the ability to “file texts in any form and arrangement desired…under an unlimited number of categories, allowing “index manipulations” known as “dynamic indexing” and permitting evolutionary “dynamic outlining”.

   Nelson characterizes the ELF as an evolutionary file structure which can be shaped into various forms and changed from one arrangement to another in accordance with the user’s changing needs.  Nelson’s system contains three elements: entries, list, and links.  An entry is a unit of information such as text or pictures; a list is an ordered set of entries; and a link is a bridge between different entries in different list.  Nelson introduces the Personalized Retrieval, Indexing, and Documentation Evolutionary System (PRIDE) which is an information handling language that helps facilitate the ELF usage.