Networked Telecommunications

This week I read a chapter called “The Web” from the book Writing about Cool by Jeff Rice. He talked about how the internet has transformed the media. Rice said that corporations use digital media to: “establish a common customer base” and “advertise two or more products simultaneously” (page 140). It is obvious how much advertising is being used on the internet. You can’t go to a site, unless made for personal use, without finding multiple advertising pictures or slogans. The subliminal messaging is phenomenal. Rice also talked about how the internet is highly interactive, while talking about McLuhan and his “hot” and “cold” media. I felt like this chapter was an updated, albeit shortened, version of Understanding Media by McLuhan. Rice talked about how the internet is a definite “cool” media.

Another chapter that I had to read is called “March of the Meganets” from the book E-Topia by William J. Mitchell. I found this to be more confusing to read than the Rice text. Mitchell talked about the “digital revolution”. He feels that the “digital revolution” is similar to any other revolution that this country/world has gone through. For example, the introduction of the train to connect distant places. Then roads and interstates are made and then personal cars are sold so people can travel. One question that I had was on page 19, Mitchell talked about backbones, POPs, and gigaPOPs. I tried reading them all in context, but I couldn’t really figure out what these terms meant. Mitchell also talked about how the internet has been able to connect urban and rural lifestyles. He talked about how life conditions outside of a city were sub-par and how “rural electrification and telephone systems” have drastically improved those conditions. It also gave farmers a better selling market because it put farmers in direct contact with their buyers, even if they were far away.

Last week, we had to look at a site called Stelarc. I don’t even know what to say. The whole site is dedicated to this guy, who has successfully attached metal parts to his body. On the site, it says that his work “explores and extends the concept of the body and its relationship with technology…..”. He has attached a prosthetic limb to his left arm as an addition. So know he has use of three different arms. The site is creepy but I found his concepts pretty interesting.

This week I had to view another site called Benjamin Edwards. I don’t really understand what he is trying to accomplish. I believe he is an author/artist and the site showcased his works. On the main page, I believe there is dialogue from an MOD game, but I could be mistaken. I found this site to be very sporadic and kind of plain. Maybe it is just because I don’t understand what is going on.

What to do?

Well, now I don't know what to do with my life. Football, hockey, and basketball are all over and so ended my season tickets for each. Now, I might have to start doing more studying. HAHA. I am sure that I will be find something better to do with my time. It is sad but I am glad that for my first year here at UW-Madison, all of the sports have had relatively good seasons.

"Natural Born Cyborgs"

This week I had to read an introduction to the book "Natural Born Cyborgs" by Andy Clark. I enjoyed this reading. It was about the increasing role technology plays in all of our lives. Mostly the introduction talked about cell phones but it also talked about other forms of technology.

On page 4, Clark wrote, “The mind is just less and less in the head.” He had talked about how he had lost his laptop for a day and how he felt disconnected from the world. It was like he lost everything, when he lost his laptop. He also talked about how people feel disconnected when their cell phone batteries die.

Clark also talked about how “educationalists” fear the consequence of technology is doing the thinking of their human counterparts. I find this very true for me. If I don’t know what a word means or I don’t know how to spell it I can just go on the internet and find out. I find it easier to look something up on the internet than to think about it. I think that this could be a very serious problem if the continued rise of technology leads to a lowered state of thinking.

The last thing that I found very interesting is when Clark called a cell phone like a “prosthetic limb”. I find it amazing to see people using their cell phones to talk more than talking face to face to a person. I hate having a cell phone but I find it necessary. I was in the late majority (of getting a cell phone) in the bell curve because I didn’t think that I needed one. But now I don’t know what I would do without it.

Sampling and Appropriation

This week, I had to do a couple of readings by Steven Shaviro and Jeff Rice. The reading from Shaviro was a passage from Connected, or What it Means to Live in the Network Society. The majority of the passage that I had to read was about sampling or appropriation. Sampling is the art of taking a collage of other peoples work and putting them together to make your work. An example of this is found on youtube. Apple, make a commercial called “Think Different”. They took a variety of videos of different genius icons and put them together in their commercial, which associated Apple with the geniuses. They used words like, rebellious and not normal to make their product “cool”. Then Shapiro, talks about sampling in rap. On page 68, he says that, “….sampling in rap is a way of making new connections between the past and the present…”. He also makes reference to how sampling “revitalizes” old songs by looping the old song throughout the new song.

I also had to read a couple of chapters from Jeff Rices’ book, Writing about Cool. These two chapters were about popular culture and technology. On page 56, Rice said, “Popular culture is a realm in which a considerable amount of expression takes place. Most of us receive the bulk of our information through the media of popular culture….”. Another thing he talked about, and I found very interesting, is how major networks programs are “transformed into entertainment”. I find this comment to be very true, although, I wish that weren’t the case. Today, media can’t put on stories that are “good” because not very many people would read or want to hear about them. They only want to hear the death stories or if someone committed a crime. So the media is forced to publish gruesome stories or to face bankruptcy. Jeff Rice also talked about when you choose to sample someone else’s work, you need to have your audience in mind. An example that totally captures this idea, is when Public Enemy addresses segregation they sample Martin Luther King, Jr. It connects with their audience and emphasizes the point that they are trying to get across.

Today, as a class, we were asked if we believe that sampling is plagiarism. I think that in the traditional writing sense, it is. I think that it is illegal because I would guess that most of the time the old work, that is sampled, is not cited. But then, I also understand that if everything was protected and only in private hands then creativity would end. People have been using other people works for inspiration for centuries. I believe that the line between sampling and plagiarism is very thin is dependent on the person who is sampling.

Cool hunt. Whats that?

For this Thursday, I had to do a cool hunt. A cool hunt is a “collection of spontaneous observations and predictions that differ from one moment to the next ……” (The Coolhunt by Malcolm Gladwell). Well, considering that I don’t consider myself a trendsetter or a fashionable dresser, I thought that I was going to fail miserably with this assignment. I actually hope that in the future, my spouse will like to lay out clothes for me everyday so I don’t have to decide. I don’t pretend to know what goes with what or what looks good on certain people. I wish I did. I don’t watch MTV, VH1 or BET. I feel like a moron when topics of fashion or the new trends comes up in conversation because I have no idea what is going on. I am amazed with people (in a good way, actually more of admiration) who have fashion savvy. I have pretty much wore the same kind of clothes since I was in middle school Alright, now that I got my little rant out of the way, I can tell you about my cool hunt.

I sat on the first floor of the Helen C. White library for half an hour. Now just as a warning, my findings could be totally incorrect. It seemed to me that what is cool for girls is the typical “coastie” look. You always hear about coasties and how it seems like anybody who doesn’t live on a coast hates them. I have to admit that I don’t really know any girl coasties but I kind of like the way that they dress. The big winter boots, sweat pants with words on their butt, puffy coats, and huge sunglasses. The only thing that I don’t really like are the huge sunglasses. Sunglasses are okay but do they have to take up half of your face.

I had a hard time trying to find what was cool for the guys. It seems to me like the bad ass look is cool for guys. Wearing blazing white sneakers, having a hat brim perpendicular to the rest of your body, having pants that come up to your thighs, and big puffy coats. I don’t really think that this style of clothing fits me so I don’t wear it. So I guess that I am just a not-cool dresser. Who knows?

Well, I guess that is all for now. Hopefully, my expertise on fashion will not be challenged too much more in the future.

Congratulations

I just wanted to send out a congratulatory note to Brian Elliot and Alando Tucker. Elliot was awarded his second straight goaltending title in the WCHA and Alando Tucker was awarded the Big Ten Player of the Year. CONGRATULATIONS. You both deserve it.

Watts, Barabasi, and Rice

For this Tuesday we had to read a couple of readings. The first one that I read was a passage from Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age by Duncan J. Watts. As a class, we have had to read some of Duncan Watts writings, and for the most part I enjoy what he has to say. He finds a way to connect what he wants to say to his audience. Reading through this passage though, I found it to have too many examples. It just seemed like he was trying to take up more space in his book. For me, it helps when authors use examples when something is confusing, but in this passage, I thought that Watts used too many.

There were many parts of this section that I enjoyed or found interesting. Watts talked about the power of exponential growth and the internet (page 165). The first thing that I thought about was chain mails and forwards. I normally hate receiving forwards in my inbox because I think they are a waste of time. But then I thought about the tactics used by forwards to get people to send them to others. Some examples that I have found after reading the forwards are that if you don’t send to at least so many people, you will either have no friends, have no love, lose money or are unpatriotic. I find these reasons pretty ridiculous when you could be talking about how your favorite color determines what kind of person you are. Another thing that I found very interesting was the “mathematics of epidemics” (page 168). He talked about the SIR model and the three primary stages of an epidemic S stands for susceptible, I for infectious, and R for removed. Then Watts wrote, “a spreading disease is continually being forced by the network back into the already infected population” (page 175). When I read this I thought of computer viruses and how they can be very hard to prevent, especially without anti-virus hardware. It seems like that viruses, technological or intrapersonal, always seem to find a way to infect something else and survive. Even though, the passage talked about how many different diseases end up burning out or being cured before they can infect too many things or people.

Another reading that was assigned was Viruses and Fads by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi. Mostly this passage was about AIDs, innovators and hubs. The thing that I found the most interesting from this reading was the continually talking about hubs and the creation of epidemics. Barabasi wrote, “Once infected, a hub can pass the virus to all the other computers it is linked to” (page 135). I know this is referenced to computers but it can be applied to everything from AIDs to technology. Once a hub, a very well connected individual, has something the easier it will be to give it to other people. Another quote that I found interesting was about curing an epidemic. “The more hubs we treat ……..the higher the chance that the virus will die out” (page 139). The reading talked about how if we can cure the people who are most likely to spread a disease like AIDs the more likely we will be able to significantly decrease the amount of people with AIDs. He did also note though, that this may be “rewarding promiscuity”.

The last reading that we were assigned was Advertising in the book Writing about Cool by Jeff Rice. In this chapter, Jeff Rice talked about how “cool” is used in advertising to lure in people. I think that most successful businesses are successful because they know how to use this phenomenon. Rice also talked about how icons are used as symbols for “cool” instead of just saying that a product is “cool”. The main example that he used is Nike. As I think about it, Nike may be the company that has used icons and the cool factor better than any other company.

#1 ?

Way to go Badger Mens Basketball team. We found a way to pull it out again, even though the little skinhead rarely missed. Congratulations also to Kammron Taylor, who made the game winning three pointer and hopefully gave him some of his confidence back. Way to go guys!

What am I up to?

Hey all. For my homework this week, I had to do an open blog about anything that I wanted. But, there isn’t really anything new in the life of Kurt. I am actually at work right now (working very hard obviously). We are pretty slow, so I thought I would get some homework done. I am typing this blog on half of my computer screen and watching the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1 movie on the other half. And let me tell you, no matter how many times I watch this movie it never gets old.

I am kind of getting worried about this weekend. We are supposed to get 10 inches of snow/rain mix. That, on top of our foot and a half of snow, will probably make for really crappy driving and walking conditions. I am watching my Uncles house and dog this week and it is about a half an hour drive from my apartment. Hopefully, if it precipitates a lot in the next couple of days, class will be cancelled.

Well, I don’t know if any of you have been paying attention, but it seems like our Wisconsin teams have seemed to let their season slip at the end, yet again. Mens’ basketball has just lost two in a row, granted one being to the #1-2 team in the country. Hold on, I have to wait on some people…………... okay, I am back. So anyways, the team was 26-2 before the two consecutive losses, so I didn’t think we were going to get a #1 seed. But last night, Tennessee bailed us out and beat Florida who was ranked #4. So we should be #4 if we beat Michigan State this weekend, hopefully, giving us a #1 seed in the tournament. The other Wisconsin team that has slipped is the Mens’ Hockey team. They have had a very mediocre season, being riddled with injuries, losing to teams that they should beat and beating teams they should lose to. But they had a chance to get home ice for the playoffs. But then we end up getting swept by a team that isn’t very good, knocking our team back to 8th place in the WCHA. Mens’ hockey still has one more weekend but I am guessing that we won’t get home ice for playoffs, meaning that I won’t get to go to any more games this year.

Well for some reason my TMNT movie is screwing up in my computer. So know I have to watch Grandma’s Boy instead. Not too bad of a trade off because it is hilarious.

It is just starting to snow outside. It probably won’t be very busy for the rest of the night. I guess I shouldn’t say that, though. It seems like we are pretty busy when it is really cold or snowing a lot. It doesn’t really make sense to me because we are selling cold products. Oh, well.

Well I guess that is all for now. Be back in a couple of days.