Posts tagged with more
“ If you tell people they can upload their content, you should have a clear and distinct way for them to retrieve their content. People do it ad-hoc as they can, but the abilities of most people, the people without an engineering degree or years of experience, to get back what they put up is minimal. It’s not that important. We should make it important.”
How many more times will we allow this?
How long before someone takes a fucking stand?
ASCII by Jason Scott / Eviction, or the Coming Datapocalypse (via adactio)
This absolutely horrifies me, especially when I think about how much I believe in and advocate for people to document online. Read the comments in particular that Jason quotes.
HOW can we take a stand?
Teenagers 'spend an average of 31 hours online' - Telegraph
my second hellyeah of the day via aja:
They spend some three and a half hours communicating with friends on MSN, and around two hours on YouTube and in chat rooms.
Just over an hour is devoted to looking up cosmetic surgery procedures such as how to enlarge breasts and get collagen implants, an hour and a half is spent on family planning and pregnancy websites and one hour 35 minutes is spent investigating diets and weight loss.
One in four teenagers of the 1,000 polled said they regularly spoke to strangers online but thought it harmless.
If you wonder whether or not your teens talk to unknown people online, the answer is yes. Without a doubt.
If you wonder whether or not it is dangerous, consider this: have you taught your teenager to be a freethinking individual who has a good grasp of what qualifies as a safe situation and what does not?
I don’t think the answer to these type of problems is trying to add another lock and key to the American upbringing: after all, the internet did not mark the beginning of kidnapping or sexual abuse. I think what we really need to examine is how our culture creates teenagers who are barely able to chew their own food without the help of their parents, much less make the adult decisions that they are inevitably going to be faced with.
As for the amount of time spent online, I have to say that I think the internet has the ability to be an amazing portal of information and socialization, a place to expand horizons and create their own unique identities. Out of of the places I spent my time as a teenager, I can say with certainty that I got in far more trouble within the walls of my highschool than I ever did online.
“ It is not only that this law denies the accused any due process, it is that it stipulates a penalty that no court would impose in adjudicating a copyright complaint even if infringement were proven.”
Pixar University’s Randy Nelson explains what schools must do to prepare students for jobs in new media.
Learning and Working in the Collaborative Age: A New Model for the Workplace
film review > man on wire
Amazing, amazing documentary about Philippe Petit and the high-wire walk/dance he performed in the mid-1970s.
I really enjoyed the story & the way it is told: the unfolding of such an audacious act would have been quite compelling even if it hadn’t been produced in such a beautiful way.
This is definitely worth seeing on the large screen - the photography and the reconstructions show the scale wonderfully (& I agree with whoever the reviewer was who said that reconstructions often ruin/drag in documentaries).
One thing I found almost distracting but liked overall - when I read about why - Marsh didn’t include it any reference to 9/11 or the destruction of the Towers themselves. There are several points where I felt that he almost nods to the fact they have gone; or there were at least points for me where I definitely felt that the doco being made after they had gone was bittersweet, like the shot of Petit’s signature on the building and his permanent pass to the Towers.
Ultimately it is a film about the kind of dramatic creative act I love and of which Hakim Bey would totally approve. However, even those with their feet more firmly on the ground will enjoy. See it - and you can read more about “Man On Wire” at Wikipedia.
first read of 2009 > dexter
Dexter omnibus by Jeff Lindsay
rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’m a huge fan of the television show “Dexter” and also a huge fan of reading the book(s) of any movie or television show. When I started reading the “Dexter Omnibus”, I was expected it to be a facsimile of the television show. After all, the show is fantastic!
The prose itself is stunning - and I’m impressed by how well the Dark Passenger and Harry’s code have been carried into the TV show from the words Lindsay wrote. If I was the author, I’d be well stoked with the representation.
The reading of the novel is definitely informed by the show, even the third novel which is definitely different to and/or has not been covered by the plot so far. In fact, the divergence begins from the first book.
Mental images of characters are the same as the television show, except for Dexter himself and his sister, Deborah - these two are a mix between the actors who portray them and the description in the story.
Well worth reading both for the merits of the writing & for the enthusiasts out there.
View my booklog.
2009: the year of manda & the alternate reality adventure?
- Jo: http://topsecret.ning.com/ fancy playing?
- Jo: there's even one guy totally handjiving there. you need to challenge that dude
- me: !!! what is it?
- Jo: it's all about putting dance into your every day life, so you join an alliance depending on your personality. you make a little video introducing yourself and you rate other peoples' dances and you watch your alliance's videos. you work out the secret sign and follow the instructions for dance quests and dance-offs. i have only made one video so far, my intro - http://topsecret.ning.com/video/dq1-boppy. you have to make a disguise and use that disguise in all of your videos
- me: that is so awesome
- Jo: this game is designed by the same woman that did the Lost Ring
- me: so what alliance are you in
- Jo: Forever After
- me: ok i will have to look into this
- Jo: excellent!
I love this video - about “the siren song sizzle” and the rituals of a braai, the South African style BBQ that Darren’s family have introduced me to.
Labour Weekend looms and the possibilities are endless. This morning it was torrentially raining when I woke up but an hour later the sun is shining and there could be a braai on the horizon…all we need are the saussies and we’re away!
the west wing
oh, how bereft I feel: we have finally completed viewing the entire seven seasons of “the west wing”. a project idly started on anniversary weekend (end of jan) which has encompassed over six months, and if my maths is right, approximately 100 hours.
the final episodes we watched this week were nearly heartbreaking as we could see the stories being wrapped up, and for about the millionth time we sighed “if only the white house and the administration could be really like that”.
i wish it was still going on - in the same way i wish they were still making “the sopranos” - because the storylines were awesome, the characters rounded and the politics resonated only too well with real events and situations.
if you haven’t seen it, start at the beginning and set aside approximately 100 hours. next up for us - “commander in chief” and the movie “the american president” i think, although we might slot “outrageous fortune” in the middle as it’s in season 4 and we haven’t watched one minute of it yet.
weekend round-up…
and as a bonus it’s not even over yet!
wins:
- wet weather which enabled a ‘west wing’ marathon - we have now finished season 5.
- al volo pizza delivered so as not to have to go out in the storm or interrupt the above marathon.
- drinking a bottle of champagne we were given for our engagement present as we were out of all other non-spirit alchohol (and why not).
- getting parking right next to doorways when we did have to go out in the rain.
- mario kart being in stock at jb hi-fi.
- our already-hammered guttering not completely coming off the house.
losses:
- not stocking up before the storm.
- missing out on live music because we didn’t want to go out (and neither did our friends we were going with).
- the storm itself - really, minimal damage around the place compared to how bad they made it sound like it would be. this may have just been auckland though.
- haven’t completely missed out on ‘the dark knight’ spoilers, but at least we are seeing it tonight.
