So I've been playing Megaman X Collection these last few days.
It's weird, I know. Playing SNES and PS1 games on a PS2. In this day and age. When I've got Overlord and GRAW2 sitting in their cases looking at me accusingly. When the most intensive use my new Razer Diamondback (no, not the 3G one, yes, I know I'm behind) has seen is clicking between worksheets in my CSE111 tutorials. And yet...
Nostalgia seems to have a greater hold on me than I would have thought. After I happened across some Megaman X Youtubes (don't ask me why, I'm not entirely sure how it happened either), I got the itch. ...No, not that kind of itch. Old game itch. You know, you're reading old PSMs or you read a comic strip about old games, and suddenly you're like 'Damn, man... those were good days. Now where'd I leave that CD...?' Yeah. And it helps that instead of the dinky little 15" I have in my room, I played on the 32" LCD in the living room. X and Zero never looked so detailed before.
...Then things kinda got crazy. I actually dug up my old Dreamcast and lo and behold, the damn thing still works. Granted I kinda had to bang on the lid a bit to get it to recognise that yes, that IS a game disc in there. And I had to clean the controller port to get it working. But after about 20 minutes of cleaning and dusting and swearing, Sonic Adventure appears onscreen. Would you believe Dreamcast and Sonic Adventure was waaaaaaaaaay back in 1998? Gosh. Where did that 9 years go?
The point to all this? I'm not sure, really. But maybe you're like me, and you still have every console you ever bought instead of throwing it away. Why not dig it out and give it a whirl? I'm sure they'll be happy to see you. You'll get to show your kids/friends/significant other the stuff that devoured so much of your life way back when. And if you've kinda given up on gaming lately, maybe this'll be where you take it up again. Get reacquainted with your first love and all that. Yeah. You know, I think I'm gonna go play SA a little more now. Maybe see if I can find my Shenmue discs too.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Friday, July 27, 2007
Hello? Hello! Wait... That's an echo. Damn.
To my readership (yes, both of you),
Hello there. I realise it's been an awful long time since there was an update here, but then again, no one probably noticed. This blog was started as an academic project, as you can see from the bulk of the posts, and this is where assignments were submitted and all. I still have this page bookmarked, and occasionally something might happen or appear, but you know... It just might not. It seems that there are a lot of things that can be done with a blog, nowadays... Maybe I might do something with mine. Hell, I don't know... Maybe game reviews or some stuff like that. But I kinda doubt it'll bring any more traffic than there is now. We probably get even less traffic than Radiator Springs does, and they only have one traffic light.
...Anyway. So to the one or two lonely souls who might wander by every so often, thank you. And to the rest of you who don't, you're not missing very much. Like I said, maybe some day something will be made of this blog. We'll see.
Hello there. I realise it's been an awful long time since there was an update here, but then again, no one probably noticed. This blog was started as an academic project, as you can see from the bulk of the posts, and this is where assignments were submitted and all. I still have this page bookmarked, and occasionally something might happen or appear, but you know... It just might not. It seems that there are a lot of things that can be done with a blog, nowadays... Maybe I might do something with mine. Hell, I don't know... Maybe game reviews or some stuff like that. But I kinda doubt it'll bring any more traffic than there is now. We probably get even less traffic than Radiator Springs does, and they only have one traffic light.
...Anyway. So to the one or two lonely souls who might wander by every so often, thank you. And to the rest of you who don't, you're not missing very much. Like I said, maybe some day something will be made of this blog. We'll see.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Singapore Police Force to follow HPB's example?
And the weird thing is... You know, it might actually work.
http://www.talkingcock.com/html/article.php?sid=2251&mode=thread&order=0
http://www.talkingcock.com/html/article.php?sid=2251&mode=thread&order=0
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Bonus Mission #2: Life, second or otherwise, is not a game.
I’ve been playing games ever since my cousin bought a Sega Genesis waaaaaaaaaaaay back in 1990, and ever since then my entire family has been corrupted. From challenging each other to Road Rash to hogging the controller on endless rounds of Sonic the Hedgehog, that Sega Genesis probably did more for family bonding than anything our parents ever tried. Now that we’ve all grown up (a little), all of us have since moved on to systems of our own, and video games have been a staple at family gatherings since forever.
So being a gamer from the tender age of 7, I was rather skeptical of Second Life (SL) when the topic was first broached in class. I mean, the screenshots and all didn’t look half bad, but seriously, the first thing that shot through my mind was “Well… It’s kinda like a chatroom in 3D, isn’t it?” And besides, there were other, more epic games to play like Final Fantasy 12 and God of War 2.
And actually, my initial reaction wasn’t too far off. Why is SL not a game? For the simple reason that you can’t win. You might be able to obtain some special stuff and recognition from your peers in SL, but you can’t really, actually win, solve, or complete SL in the way you might win, solve or complete, say, Counter-Strike or God of War 2.
As Elizabeth Lawley said in “World of Warcraft: Is it a Game?”: "In WOW, I can cross things off a list—I've finished a quest, I've reached a new level." (Levy, 2006) It is this sense of achievement, this sense of accomplishment, that defines a game. A game has clearly defined goals and structures (Game, n.d.), be it to save the princess (Super Mario), win the Master League (Winning Eleven) or destroy the gods of Olympus (God of War 2). Games, by their very nature, are designed with some kind of goal in mind: a villain to slay, a trophy to be won, vengeance to be pursued.
And yet, SL lacks all of these. Granted that for a majority of the people kicking around, acquiring a new house or a new piece of land is a major accomplishment, and it’s something that’s easy to do. But it doesn’t serve any actual purpose other than looking cool. It doesn’t add stat bonuses, nor does it allow the player any special abilities. It’s there for the sole purpose of street cred, that nebulous currency of peer recognition. In short, you could actually get through SL wearing and having nothing besides what you’re issued when you first create your avatar.
In actual fact, SL is more like the next step on the online community/chat evolutionary ladder. After all, SL is like a cross between a chatroom and an online forum rendered in 3D. Here instead of tricking out your signature and your picture, you select clothing, cars etc to your taste, with only your imagination as the limit. Another fun thing to note is that French Sociologist noted in his book, Games and Men, that a game must be non-productive (Game, n.d.). Yet another statement that proves SL can’t be a game, because you can make some serious moolah out of it. Just look at Anshe Chung.
SL can be a lot of things, and I’m sure that somewhere, somehow, someone is using it to conduct roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons. However, this still doesn’t make SL a game, since in and of itself SL is just a tool that facilitates communication. Similarly, just because there are strip joints doesn’t make it a porn site. So once again, humans have acquired yet another tool that can be anything its creators want it to be, morally unsavoury or not.
___________________________________________________________
References:
Levy, Stephen (2006). World of Warcraft: Is It A Game? Retrieved 23:20, April 6th, 2007, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14757769/site/newsweek/page/3/
Game, n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:20, April 6th, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game
So being a gamer from the tender age of 7, I was rather skeptical of Second Life (SL) when the topic was first broached in class. I mean, the screenshots and all didn’t look half bad, but seriously, the first thing that shot through my mind was “Well… It’s kinda like a chatroom in 3D, isn’t it?” And besides, there were other, more epic games to play like Final Fantasy 12 and God of War 2.
And actually, my initial reaction wasn’t too far off. Why is SL not a game? For the simple reason that you can’t win. You might be able to obtain some special stuff and recognition from your peers in SL, but you can’t really, actually win, solve, or complete SL in the way you might win, solve or complete, say, Counter-Strike or God of War 2.
As Elizabeth Lawley said in “World of Warcraft: Is it a Game?”: "In WOW, I can cross things off a list—I've finished a quest, I've reached a new level." (Levy, 2006) It is this sense of achievement, this sense of accomplishment, that defines a game. A game has clearly defined goals and structures (Game, n.d.), be it to save the princess (Super Mario), win the Master League (Winning Eleven) or destroy the gods of Olympus (God of War 2). Games, by their very nature, are designed with some kind of goal in mind: a villain to slay, a trophy to be won, vengeance to be pursued.
And yet, SL lacks all of these. Granted that for a majority of the people kicking around, acquiring a new house or a new piece of land is a major accomplishment, and it’s something that’s easy to do. But it doesn’t serve any actual purpose other than looking cool. It doesn’t add stat bonuses, nor does it allow the player any special abilities. It’s there for the sole purpose of street cred, that nebulous currency of peer recognition. In short, you could actually get through SL wearing and having nothing besides what you’re issued when you first create your avatar.
In actual fact, SL is more like the next step on the online community/chat evolutionary ladder. After all, SL is like a cross between a chatroom and an online forum rendered in 3D. Here instead of tricking out your signature and your picture, you select clothing, cars etc to your taste, with only your imagination as the limit. Another fun thing to note is that French Sociologist noted in his book, Games and Men, that a game must be non-productive (Game, n.d.). Yet another statement that proves SL can’t be a game, because you can make some serious moolah out of it. Just look at Anshe Chung.
SL can be a lot of things, and I’m sure that somewhere, somehow, someone is using it to conduct roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons. However, this still doesn’t make SL a game, since in and of itself SL is just a tool that facilitates communication. Similarly, just because there are strip joints doesn’t make it a porn site. So once again, humans have acquired yet another tool that can be anything its creators want it to be, morally unsavoury or not.
___________________________________________________________
References:
Levy, Stephen (2006). World of Warcraft: Is It A Game? Retrieved 23:20, April 6th, 2007, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14757769/site/newsweek/page/3/
Game, n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:20, April 6th, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game
Monday, April 2, 2007
Saturday, March 31, 2007
QotW9: You mean it’s not that percussion dance troupe?
I have a confession to make. Before today, I’ve never read STOMP. Seriously. I mean, I barely have to time to cover the Straits’ Times and the New Paper’s football coverage, and then I usually read Newsweek at my desk when I’m pretending to study. Plus there never seems to be anything really, really noteworthy or worth checking out. Thus, this is quite a new thing for me.
What is STOMP? For starters, the acronym stands for Straits Times Online Mobile Print. Utilising those three elements (online, mobile and print), STOMP is able to interact with readers and contributors, and engender discussion of current affairs in Singapore. (STOMP, n.d.) It should be noted that STOMP actually set out to be more of a forum, more of an online community, as opposed to a focal point for citizen journalism. On their About Us page it says
“The Straits Times Editor Han Fook Kwang explained, "In the new media environment, newspapers have to be more than just passive providers of news. They have to engage their readers in areas which appeal to them. We have to provide readers with new avenues to express themselves, to enable them to interact with us, and among themselves."
"STOMP will enable us to do this. We want STOMP to become a forum of lively discussions - whether the topics are weighty national issues or where to get the best bak chor mee."Through this interaction, The Straits Times aims to strengthen its relationship with readers and reach out to non-readers.”
What is citizen journalism? It’s essentially user-generated content, but with the added element of having been collected, reported, analysed and disseminated by aforementioned users. (Citizen Journalism, n.d.) In other words, the public doing what the newspapers do, often (but not always) online.
With that in mind, let’s take another quick look at STOMP. The citizen journalism part mainly appears to be Singapore Seen, which seems to consist almost entirely of news stories sent in by civilian contributors, who they call STOMPers. The other sections like Talkback and EPL Stomping Ground are more along the lines of online communities, and others like StarBlog and STOMPCast are pretty self-explanatory.
So with Singapore Seen, viewers and contributors send in SMS or MMS of interesting things they’ve seen around Singapore. Be it a car wrapped around a tree from the impact of a crash, secondary school bands driving residents crazy, or some guy who should really invest in pants with a higher waistband, the content is as wild and varied as the contributors themselves.
However, as Mr. Lim noted in class, the content can be somewhat ‘low-brow’. A quick look at Singapore Seen’s main page tells you that the three most discussed topics are an inconsiderate secondary school band, noisy (and blissfully unaware of irony) students in a library telling others to shut it, and the chap who needs higher pants. Contrast this with what happened in September 2002, when members of Slashdot initiated an investigation into one of Microsoft’s ad campaigns, which featured a woman who’d supposedly switched from a Mac to a PC and was completely satisfied. (Yes, go ahead and smirk, Mac users.) Slashdot members were the first to notice irregularities in Microsoft’s ad, and because of their collection, analysis and subsequent publication of such information, the truth eventually emerged. (Gillmor, 2004) Another example would be the Killian documents controversy, where bloggers and Netizens effectively dismantled an attempt to discredit President George W. Bush’s military record. (Killian Documents, n.d.)
So where does that leave us? As a form of citizen journalism, yes, STOMP is fairly suitable. It has the benefit of being affiliated with an established and internationally recognized newspaper, and an active and enthusiastic community to draw upon. But I would say that the level of journalism is still in its infant stages, and STOMP has the potential for a greater level of reporting than what it currently exhibits. Not to take anything away from the current contributors, who are to be commended for their sharp eyes and excellent sense for what’s close to the hearts of the man on the street. But it could be so much more. Since STOMP’s quality is inextricably tied to the stories, and thus the contributors, I think that STOMP could raise citizen journalism in Singapore to a new level by encouraging its contributors to search out and analyse deeper issues, and by attracting a wider audience e.g. Singaporeans living overseas could talk about issues which affect them or experts who can dissect current affairs brought to light by contributors.
I personally would like to see STOMP be the one that sheds light on situations similar to the ones a couple of paragraphs up, and I believe that one day it will happen. Rock on, STOMPers.
___________________________________________________________
References:
STOMP, n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:20, March 29th, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STOMP_%28online_portal%29
Citizen Journalism, n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:20, March 29th, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_journalism
Gillmor, Dan (2004). Truth Squad. In We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People (The Gates Come Down) Retrieved 23:20, March 28th, 2007, from http://download.nowis.com/index.cfm?phile=WeTheMedia.html&tipe=text/html#chap3
Killian Documents, n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:20, March 30th, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
What is STOMP? For starters, the acronym stands for Straits Times Online Mobile Print. Utilising those three elements (online, mobile and print), STOMP is able to interact with readers and contributors, and engender discussion of current affairs in Singapore. (STOMP, n.d.) It should be noted that STOMP actually set out to be more of a forum, more of an online community, as opposed to a focal point for citizen journalism. On their About Us page it says
“The Straits Times Editor Han Fook Kwang explained, "In the new media environment, newspapers have to be more than just passive providers of news. They have to engage their readers in areas which appeal to them. We have to provide readers with new avenues to express themselves, to enable them to interact with us, and among themselves."
"STOMP will enable us to do this. We want STOMP to become a forum of lively discussions - whether the topics are weighty national issues or where to get the best bak chor mee."Through this interaction, The Straits Times aims to strengthen its relationship with readers and reach out to non-readers.”
What is citizen journalism? It’s essentially user-generated content, but with the added element of having been collected, reported, analysed and disseminated by aforementioned users. (Citizen Journalism, n.d.) In other words, the public doing what the newspapers do, often (but not always) online.
With that in mind, let’s take another quick look at STOMP. The citizen journalism part mainly appears to be Singapore Seen, which seems to consist almost entirely of news stories sent in by civilian contributors, who they call STOMPers. The other sections like Talkback and EPL Stomping Ground are more along the lines of online communities, and others like StarBlog and STOMPCast are pretty self-explanatory.
So with Singapore Seen, viewers and contributors send in SMS or MMS of interesting things they’ve seen around Singapore. Be it a car wrapped around a tree from the impact of a crash, secondary school bands driving residents crazy, or some guy who should really invest in pants with a higher waistband, the content is as wild and varied as the contributors themselves.
However, as Mr. Lim noted in class, the content can be somewhat ‘low-brow’. A quick look at Singapore Seen’s main page tells you that the three most discussed topics are an inconsiderate secondary school band, noisy (and blissfully unaware of irony) students in a library telling others to shut it, and the chap who needs higher pants. Contrast this with what happened in September 2002, when members of Slashdot initiated an investigation into one of Microsoft’s ad campaigns, which featured a woman who’d supposedly switched from a Mac to a PC and was completely satisfied. (Yes, go ahead and smirk, Mac users.) Slashdot members were the first to notice irregularities in Microsoft’s ad, and because of their collection, analysis and subsequent publication of such information, the truth eventually emerged. (Gillmor, 2004) Another example would be the Killian documents controversy, where bloggers and Netizens effectively dismantled an attempt to discredit President George W. Bush’s military record. (Killian Documents, n.d.)
So where does that leave us? As a form of citizen journalism, yes, STOMP is fairly suitable. It has the benefit of being affiliated with an established and internationally recognized newspaper, and an active and enthusiastic community to draw upon. But I would say that the level of journalism is still in its infant stages, and STOMP has the potential for a greater level of reporting than what it currently exhibits. Not to take anything away from the current contributors, who are to be commended for their sharp eyes and excellent sense for what’s close to the hearts of the man on the street. But it could be so much more. Since STOMP’s quality is inextricably tied to the stories, and thus the contributors, I think that STOMP could raise citizen journalism in Singapore to a new level by encouraging its contributors to search out and analyse deeper issues, and by attracting a wider audience e.g. Singaporeans living overseas could talk about issues which affect them or experts who can dissect current affairs brought to light by contributors.
I personally would like to see STOMP be the one that sheds light on situations similar to the ones a couple of paragraphs up, and I believe that one day it will happen. Rock on, STOMPers.
___________________________________________________________
References:
STOMP, n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:20, March 29th, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STOMP_%28online_portal%29
Citizen Journalism, n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:20, March 29th, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_journalism
Gillmor, Dan (2004). Truth Squad. In We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People (The Gates Come Down) Retrieved 23:20, March 28th, 2007, from http://download.nowis.com/index.cfm?phile=WeTheMedia.html&tipe=text/html#chap3
Killian Documents, n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:20, March 30th, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Friday, March 16, 2007
QotW7: Much ado about Twittering
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
- John Donne
So speaketh John Donne, the English poet. Community is an essential part of everyday life for most people (Fernback and Thompson, 1995), and as the great poet notes above, no one man can survive by himself.
Twitter, a relatively new online social networking service, is the topic for this week’s assignment. Specifically, is it an online community? Indeed, what is an online community in the first place?
Simply put, an online community is a group of people who interact over the internet. Note, however, that they may or may not actually hang out offline, and they may or may not have started hanging out online, too. (Virtual Community, n.d.) Online communities can spring up from almost anything, and indeed, everything. Be it people talking about Singapore’s national hobby (bargain.com.sg), people talking about Singapore’s other national hobby (Makansutra forums), or gamers swapping hints (GameFAQs.com), topics and contributors are practically unlimited.
Most online communities conform to the concept of Gemeinschaft, characterized by an organic sense of community, fellowship, family, and custom, as well as a bounding together by understanding, consensus, and language. (Fernback and Thompson, 1995) This also ties into the notion of the gift economy, which was discussed in class about a month ago.
So is Twitter an online community or not?
Not really, no. In and of itself, Twitter is a little like randomly sticking Post-it notes whenever and wherever the mood strikes you. It’s not a community, in the traditional sense of the word. So, I hear you ask, what’s a community in the traditional sense of the word, then? Well, a good example would be the humble forum. In a forum, users tend to be more regular, and thus a feeling of belonging in a community often arises. (Internet forum, n.d.) Technically speaking, Twitter could still go on even if no one was actually talking to each other, just randomly thinking out loud, but a forum would just fade out and die.
So what is Twitter, then? I’d say that it’s really just another tool. It’s a tool that allows people to congregate and talk, but again, in and of itself it’s not a community. Twitter fosters communication among people, even more so than SMS or the telephone, for the simple reason that Twitter allows you to broadcast your thoughts to all your friends at once (and possibly the entire Internet as well, should you choose to do so), as opposed to SMSing them one by one, or calling each one to tell them what’s happening. Of course, nowadays you can send many SMSes at one shot and there is this thing called a conference call, but those are quite troublesome compared to just tapping that 140 characters into Twitter’s dialogue box.
Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
As with all things, be it tech, superpowers or duct tape, Twitter does have its own Dark Side. Well, not Dark Side per se, but sort of like a downside. While roaming the internet today, I happened across this article…
Basically, people using Twitter have actually had to delete friends because they were getting swamped by messages on Twitter. And on their cellphones, because users in the U.S. have the option of getting Twitter updates as text messages (albeit for a price). At one point, a Mr. Eric Meyer was receiving 30 to 40 messages a day from this one person musing about dinner and what was on TV. I guess the moral of the story really is moderation in all things.
So in conclusion, no, Twitter is not a community in and of itself; Rather, it is a tool around which other communities can be formed. And with pretty much anything else in this world, it has its pros and cons, though with careful moderation, the pros can far, far outweigh the cons.
___________________________________________________________
References:
Fernback, Jan & Thompson, Brad (1995). “Virtual Communities: Abort, Retry, Failure?" Retrieved March 15th, 2007 from http://www.rheingold.com/texts/techpolitix/VCcivil.html
Virtual Communities, n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 22:20, March 15th, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_community
Internet Forum, n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 22:20, March 15th, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forum
- John Donne
So speaketh John Donne, the English poet. Community is an essential part of everyday life for most people (Fernback and Thompson, 1995), and as the great poet notes above, no one man can survive by himself.
Twitter, a relatively new online social networking service, is the topic for this week’s assignment. Specifically, is it an online community? Indeed, what is an online community in the first place?
Simply put, an online community is a group of people who interact over the internet. Note, however, that they may or may not actually hang out offline, and they may or may not have started hanging out online, too. (Virtual Community, n.d.) Online communities can spring up from almost anything, and indeed, everything. Be it people talking about Singapore’s national hobby (bargain.com.sg), people talking about Singapore’s other national hobby (Makansutra forums), or gamers swapping hints (GameFAQs.com), topics and contributors are practically unlimited.
Most online communities conform to the concept of Gemeinschaft, characterized by an organic sense of community, fellowship, family, and custom, as well as a bounding together by understanding, consensus, and language. (Fernback and Thompson, 1995) This also ties into the notion of the gift economy, which was discussed in class about a month ago.
So is Twitter an online community or not?
Not really, no. In and of itself, Twitter is a little like randomly sticking Post-it notes whenever and wherever the mood strikes you. It’s not a community, in the traditional sense of the word. So, I hear you ask, what’s a community in the traditional sense of the word, then? Well, a good example would be the humble forum. In a forum, users tend to be more regular, and thus a feeling of belonging in a community often arises. (Internet forum, n.d.) Technically speaking, Twitter could still go on even if no one was actually talking to each other, just randomly thinking out loud, but a forum would just fade out and die.
So what is Twitter, then? I’d say that it’s really just another tool. It’s a tool that allows people to congregate and talk, but again, in and of itself it’s not a community. Twitter fosters communication among people, even more so than SMS or the telephone, for the simple reason that Twitter allows you to broadcast your thoughts to all your friends at once (and possibly the entire Internet as well, should you choose to do so), as opposed to SMSing them one by one, or calling each one to tell them what’s happening. Of course, nowadays you can send many SMSes at one shot and there is this thing called a conference call, but those are quite troublesome compared to just tapping that 140 characters into Twitter’s dialogue box.
Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
As with all things, be it tech, superpowers or duct tape, Twitter does have its own Dark Side. Well, not Dark Side per se, but sort of like a downside. While roaming the internet today, I happened across this article…
Basically, people using Twitter have actually had to delete friends because they were getting swamped by messages on Twitter. And on their cellphones, because users in the U.S. have the option of getting Twitter updates as text messages (albeit for a price). At one point, a Mr. Eric Meyer was receiving 30 to 40 messages a day from this one person musing about dinner and what was on TV. I guess the moral of the story really is moderation in all things.
So in conclusion, no, Twitter is not a community in and of itself; Rather, it is a tool around which other communities can be formed. And with pretty much anything else in this world, it has its pros and cons, though with careful moderation, the pros can far, far outweigh the cons.
___________________________________________________________
References:
Fernback, Jan & Thompson, Brad (1995). “Virtual Communities: Abort, Retry, Failure?" Retrieved March 15th, 2007 from http://www.rheingold.com/texts/techpolitix/VCcivil.html
Virtual Communities, n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 22:20, March 15th, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_community
Internet Forum, n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 22:20, March 15th, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forum
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Qotw6 Bonus mission: If you're too stupid to park, DON'T DRIVE.
Above is a picture of a Mercedes parked near my block at Ang Mo Kio Ave 4, taken on Christmas eve last year. As you can see it is quite, quite illegally parked. For starters, it's parked in what is very obviously a No Parking zone, and on top of that, is parked on a slope. A slope.
There is actually a blog that collects and documents photos of people parking stupidly, and can be found at http://parkingidiots.blogspot.com. This, of course, is also a form of citizen journalism and/or sousveillance of a sort. What parkingidiots does is put these pictures, which are contributed by the general public, on the internet, and at one point actually printed flyers that looked something like this
for you to stick on should you come across such a parking idiot. This is an example of personal sousveillance, as mentioned on wikipedia. (Inverse surveillance as a branch of the more general study of sousveillance, Sousveillance, n.d.) These photos are taken by people who could be waiting for a parking lot, only to encounter people who park like, well, idiots.
I actually submitted the above photo to parkingidiots, but have yet to receive a reply or see my photo on it at press time.
_____________________________________________
References:
Sousveillance, n.d. Retrieved from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia at 15:45, Mar 10th 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sousveillance
QotW6: How much of you is online?
Privacy, it would seem, is a shining example of double standards nowadays. Introduce, for example, scanning machines at an airport that might help catch a terrorist with weapons on his person, and people immediately get up in arms over a perceived invasion of privacy. On the other hand, we have people who take pictures of themselves everyday for 6 years, then post the results on YouTube.
With the advent of YouTube, especially, people have completely redrawn the lines as far as privacy is concerned. And with reality TV, it’s been shown that people will do – and show – anything to get their 15 minutes of fame. It seems, nowadays, that practically anything is fair game for public consumption. Be it dancing in the “privacy” of your bedroom, a collage of photos of yourself from the last 6 pages, it’s all on YouTube. And the public at large is encouraging this.
Why? As Jeffrey Rosen mentioned in the Naked Crowd, people are trying to establish street cred among their peers by revealing more and more about themselves online. (The Naked Crowd, 2004) In other words, it’s a way of establishing one’s reputation as a ‘real’, genuine person. Also, Rosen himself quotes one Eric Fromm (The Naked Crowd, 2004) as stating that if someone fails to market himself properly, he feels he is a failure, and he is only a success if he can market himself properly. Ergo, self-validation. Alternatively, they could be really just be seeking their 15 minutes of fame.
YouTube has become a springboard for many such “internet celebrities” (YouTube, n.d.). One such celebrity is geriatric1927, an 80-year-old Englishman named Peter Oakley. Mr. Oakley made his YouTube debut in August 2006, and as of Jan 17th 2007, has been viewed over 2 million times. He also rose to the hallowed position of most subscribed user in just over a week, displacing many incumbents who had occupied the list since YouTube’s launch. As of Nov 25th 2006, Mr. Oakley has over 30,000 subscribers, and currently occupies the 7th spot on the most subscribed list. (geriatric1927, n.d.)
How has this come about?
Basically, all Mr. Oakley has done is put his life stories on YouTube, as narrated by him. Even the title of his videos, Telling It All, is an indication of his desire to, well, tell all. It’s also interesting that in this day and age of people doing extremely stupid things for fame or people simply hoping to be the Next Big Thing, Mr. Oakley has achieved the fame that he has. Why? After all, it’s just some old dude telling stories. Comments on his videos are for the most part positive, and in fact, negative or rude comments are actually frowned upon by the YouTube community at large (Response from the public, geriatric1927, n.d.) Part of Mr. Oakley’s popularity stems from his unusual (for his age) level of tech-savvy, and in fact he has been called the ‘coolest old dude alive’ because of the aforementioned tech-savvy, and the fact that he uses videocasting, something considered to be for the young. He has also been lauded for his warm, ‘grandpa-like’ style of story telling. All this ties into what Rosen was talking about with regards to sincerity and authenticity (From sincerity to authenticity, The Naked Crowd, 2004), i.e. he is consistently honest in portraying his image of an old man sharing stories with the young. He is himself.
Interestingly enough, Mr. Oakley has actually spurned media attention, preferring to talk only to the YouTube community through his videos, in his own informal and personal way, steadily rejecting offers from TV and radio stations to interview him, giving in only to the BBC (geriatric1927, n.d.). Thus, he is unique in that he is not out for his 15 minutes of fame, simply for the sake of telling stories. Again, simply being himself.
In conclusion, perhaps sacrificing some of your personal privacy, putting your life story on the internet may or may not be such a bad thing. Similar to blogs, such an act may be one of catharsis, and it may also gain the world a true gem in a kindly old grandfather amongst a web full of poseurs.
___________________________________________________________
References:
Rosen, Jeffrey (1999). “The Naked Crowd" Retrieved March 9th, 2007 from http://www.spiked-online.com/Printable/0000000CA5FF.htm
Geriatric1927, n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:20, March 9th, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geriatric1927
YouTube, n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:20, March 9th, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube
Thursday, February 22, 2007
QotW5: I phish, you pharm, he loses money
Ocelot: What's your name?
Snake: Snake.
Ocelot: No. Not that name. You're not a Snake and I'm not an Ocelot. We're men with names.
-Major Ocelot and Naked Snake, Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (2006)
What’s in a name, indeed. That question is at the very core of this week’s question. Since people seldom use their full, real names online, often a name, especially in an online community, is the only way to know if you’re talking to the same people week after week. In time, people tend to recognize people by name the same way they’d recognize people they meet everyday. Friendships, or even closer relationships are formed, on the basis that the person behind the name is the same person you’ve been talking to for weeks, perhaps months on end.
There are many areas in which such relationships and the names they’re based on can be found. Be it in online communities like forums, chat programs like IRC or MSN, or even the humble Email, there are many, many places were such exchanges, and therefore the potential for identity theft exist.
Email, for instance, has become a vehicle for one of the more insidious forms of identity theft. This would be phishing, defined as a criminal activity utilizing social engineering methods. (Phishing, n.d.) How does phishing work? By getting inside your head.
Above are two examples of phishing emails, both bank-related. Now, for the getting-inside-your-head bit. Granted the one above is just an example, but imagine that the logos have been replaced by DBS ones, and you’re already halfway there. The one below, shown during Mr. Ian Loe’s presentation, is significantly more realistic. How does it get inside your head? By pretending to be from an institution you know and trust to handle your money, it then asks you for the key to your bank account. And it’s apparently quite effective, too. According to one report, identity theft cost U.S. citizens US$52.6 billion in 2004. (Hooked on Phishing, 2005)
This works for a couple of reasons. Firstly, as mentioned above, the email appears to come from a trustworthy source, and secondly, it appears to be asking for sensitive information for a legitimate reason, such as an expired account or a database update. Thirdly, the email is done up very well, and often looks thoroughly authentic. Finally, the user may already have received emails from the company before (albeit for totally different reasons), and is used to simply complying. And so, passwords, ID numbers, credit card numbers, and all manner of personal data is stolen on an almost daily basis.
Another, similar form of such identity theft is pharming. However, pharming is an evolved version of phishing in that large groups of people can be affected, even when typing in the proper URL. This occurs when a company DNS server is compromised, redirecting traffic attempting to visit a legitimate website to the hackers’, thus serving sensitive personal data on a silver platter. (Pharming, n.d.) This is turns most conceptions of identity theft on its head, since when most people think of identity theft, they think of someone stealing their name or their social security number, and making transactions in their name or withdrawing their cash. As far as pharming is concerned, however, it actually works by diverting web traffic attempting to enter a legitimate company server to the hacker’s, thus allowing them to steal a large number of passwords or data in one fell swoop.
Of course, this does not mean we are all doomed to give our money to crooks who might be working out of their bedrooms in Russia or Czechoslovakia. By utilizing common sense and some equally common utilities available to us (e.g. online certificates), or some of the precautions listed here and here, online transactions can be as safe as face-to-face transactions, or perhaps even more so. After all, you don’t really know what that waiter’s doing with your Visa, do you?
___________________________________________________________
References:
Opening quote taken from Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence. Produced by Hideo Kojima, 2006, and published by Konami Corporation, for the Sony Playstation 2 console.
Phishing. (n.d.). Retrieved February 21st, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing
Hooked on Phishing (2005). Retrieved February 21st, 2007, from http://www.forbes.com/business/2005/04/29/cz_0429oxan_identitytheft.html
Pharming. (n.d.) Retrieved February 21st, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pharming
Snake: Snake.
Ocelot: No. Not that name. You're not a Snake and I'm not an Ocelot. We're men with names.
-Major Ocelot and Naked Snake, Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (2006)
What’s in a name, indeed. That question is at the very core of this week’s question. Since people seldom use their full, real names online, often a name, especially in an online community, is the only way to know if you’re talking to the same people week after week. In time, people tend to recognize people by name the same way they’d recognize people they meet everyday. Friendships, or even closer relationships are formed, on the basis that the person behind the name is the same person you’ve been talking to for weeks, perhaps months on end.
There are many areas in which such relationships and the names they’re based on can be found. Be it in online communities like forums, chat programs like IRC or MSN, or even the humble Email, there are many, many places were such exchanges, and therefore the potential for identity theft exist.
Email, for instance, has become a vehicle for one of the more insidious forms of identity theft. This would be phishing, defined as a criminal activity utilizing social engineering methods. (Phishing, n.d.) How does phishing work? By getting inside your head.
Above are two examples of phishing emails, both bank-related. Now, for the getting-inside-your-head bit. Granted the one above is just an example, but imagine that the logos have been replaced by DBS ones, and you’re already halfway there. The one below, shown during Mr. Ian Loe’s presentation, is significantly more realistic. How does it get inside your head? By pretending to be from an institution you know and trust to handle your money, it then asks you for the key to your bank account. And it’s apparently quite effective, too. According to one report, identity theft cost U.S. citizens US$52.6 billion in 2004. (Hooked on Phishing, 2005)
This works for a couple of reasons. Firstly, as mentioned above, the email appears to come from a trustworthy source, and secondly, it appears to be asking for sensitive information for a legitimate reason, such as an expired account or a database update. Thirdly, the email is done up very well, and often looks thoroughly authentic. Finally, the user may already have received emails from the company before (albeit for totally different reasons), and is used to simply complying. And so, passwords, ID numbers, credit card numbers, and all manner of personal data is stolen on an almost daily basis.
Another, similar form of such identity theft is pharming. However, pharming is an evolved version of phishing in that large groups of people can be affected, even when typing in the proper URL. This occurs when a company DNS server is compromised, redirecting traffic attempting to visit a legitimate website to the hackers’, thus serving sensitive personal data on a silver platter. (Pharming, n.d.) This is turns most conceptions of identity theft on its head, since when most people think of identity theft, they think of someone stealing their name or their social security number, and making transactions in their name or withdrawing their cash. As far as pharming is concerned, however, it actually works by diverting web traffic attempting to enter a legitimate company server to the hacker’s, thus allowing them to steal a large number of passwords or data in one fell swoop.
Of course, this does not mean we are all doomed to give our money to crooks who might be working out of their bedrooms in Russia or Czechoslovakia. By utilizing common sense and some equally common utilities available to us (e.g. online certificates), or some of the precautions listed here and here, online transactions can be as safe as face-to-face transactions, or perhaps even more so. After all, you don’t really know what that waiter’s doing with your Visa, do you?
___________________________________________________________
References:
Opening quote taken from Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence. Produced by Hideo Kojima, 2006, and published by Konami Corporation, for the Sony Playstation 2 console.
Phishing. (n.d.). Retrieved February 21st, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing
Hooked on Phishing (2005). Retrieved February 21st, 2007, from http://www.forbes.com/business/2005/04/29/cz_0429oxan_identitytheft.html
Pharming. (n.d.) Retrieved February 21st, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pharming
Friday, February 9, 2007
QotW4: Of giving and receiving
"I don't think you're cut out for an automatic in the first place. You tend to twist your elbow sideways to absorb the recoil. That's more of a revolver technique."
"It's a nice gun, I'll give you that. But the engraving gives you no tactical advantage whatsoever, unless you were planning to auction it off as a collector's item. And you're forgetting one more very basic thing... you don't have what it takes to kill me."
- Naked Snake/Big Boss to Major Ocelot, Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (2006)
Behold, the gift economy at work, even in a video game. The above quote comes from an American CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) operative giving advice to a GRU (Russian acronym, Glavnoe Razvedyvatel'noe Upravlenie, or Main Intelligence Directorate) major about the handguns he uses. And during the Cold War, no less.
The gift economy, whether it’s swapping information on cookie recipes or the advantages of a revolver over an automatic, can be defined as the free giving of anything from information, advice, tech support, or even physical gifts, without expecting immediate, direct reciprocation (Kollock, 1999).
It’s interesting that such an economy has evolved online for a few reasons. Firstly, to put things simply, there are lots of unpleasant people on the Internet. Spammers, flamers, 1337-speakers… It’s a wonder that people cooperate on anything at all, with such a large population of troublemakers out there. Secondly, some of the information and advice that you can find on the internet or in online communities can also be found offline… For a price. For instance, Prima Games, a video game guide publisher, sells books which include walkthroughs, cheats and hints for a myriad of video games. Practically any video game store carries them. And yet on GameFAQs (www.gamefaqs.com), a popular video game solutions page, you can find solutions, cheats and tips for practically any game that existed. Seriously. From the Amstrad CPC all the way up to the Playstation 3, any and almost all games are covered there. For free. You can download guides, look up cheats, and it’s all free and contributed by gamers.
Quick comparison. Prima Games’ official guide to God of War, a 2005 game, costs US$19.99, US$12.99 if you buy the online version from their store. It promises, among other things, the locations of every treasure chest and the stats of every enemy.
Now, compare this with GameFAQS.
First, notice the sheer number of FAQs available. There are 7 different walkthroughs, and 12 in-depth FAQs.
This is just one of the guides. It’s a little crude, with an ASCII logo and what looks like pillars decorating the table of contents. But how much does it cost? Nothing. Just whatever time you spend to download 228KB of data, and whatever electricity powers your PC. And there are countless other guides for countless other games.
The point is simply this. This is a classic example of the online gift economy, where information is freely given, without a request for recompense. Information that other people pay money for, and information that people make money from. Given. Just like that.
Of course, there’s a lot more to discuss concerning the gift economy. For starters, there’s motivation. What drives people like the ones on GameFAQs to write guides and put them on the internet for free when they could make a business out of it? One such motivation could be the need for recognition, or the need to enhance one’s own reputation (Kollack, 1999.). By coming up with effective strategies for solving a game, or devising killer combo attacks, an FAQ writer can effectively become a sought-after expert on whatever games he or she writes on. Of course, the notion of reciprocity also applies, as the writer might need help for another game he or she is playing.
Another example of the gift economy, though not so talked about these days, is the concept of twinking. Twinking occurs in MMORPGs, and is the process by which a high-level character outfits a new or low-level character with significantly more powerful gear than they could otherwise obtain. (Twinking, n.d.) So essentially, it’s a powerful character gifting a weak character, again without the need for instant or direct reciprocation. Many guilds do this, by kitting out new members with basic equipment, and providing them with a certain amount of cash. This enables new members to get into the game quicker, without having to surmount the usual starting difficulties that you might encounter when you try killing anything with a wooden sword.
However, twinking is unique among gift economies in that it has both its positive and negative aspects. As mentioned above, some guilds twink their new members, and this gives them a headstart where adventuring is concerned. On the other end of the spectrum, there are guilds that outfit members with excessively powerful equipment, then turn those members loose on other newbies who don’t have such benefits, effectively reducing those new players’ ability to survive, especially in PvP (player versus player) mode. (Twinking, n.d.) This ruins the game for a lot of people, especially the players who get mowed down. Excessive twinking also has the side-effect of inflating the game’s economy, as rare and powerful items are handed out to all and sundry, thus decreasing their rarity and value. Regardless, the players who give gear (called twinkers) often do so out of generosity, and don’t really expect much beyond thanks. You can read an exaggerated (and fictional) account of twinking here.
It should be noted that not everyone who participates in the gift economy is a contributor. It doesn’t matter what you’re giving out, be it information, advice, music, or MMORPG gear. There will always be people called leeches. Leeches are people, usually online, who deliberately profit from freely given information or effort without supplying anything in return. (Leech, n.d.) In the context of the gift economy, a leech is one who happily takes whatever is offered, without later reciprocating in any shape or form. This, needless to say, is detrimental to any economy, let alone one that works on what is effectively an honour system. Thankfully, leeches tend not to go very far, as gift economies thrive best when everyone contributes something in exchange for what they get.
In conclusion, the internet is a hotbed of gift economies… Where there’s a community, there’s likely to be a gift economy too. And always remember: ‘tis better to give than to receive.
___________________________________________________________
References:
Opening quote taken from Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence. Produced by Hideo Kojima, 2006, and published by Konami Corporation, for the Sony Playstation 2 console.
Kollock, Peter (1999). 'The Economies of Online Cooperation; Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace" Retrieved February 6, 2007 from http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/economies.htm
Twinking, n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 01:20, February 9, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinking
Gamespy column taken from http://archive.gamespy.com/DailyVictim/index.asp?id=483
Leech (computing), n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 01:20, February 9, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leech_%28computing%29
"It's a nice gun, I'll give you that. But the engraving gives you no tactical advantage whatsoever, unless you were planning to auction it off as a collector's item. And you're forgetting one more very basic thing... you don't have what it takes to kill me."
- Naked Snake/Big Boss to Major Ocelot, Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (2006)
Behold, the gift economy at work, even in a video game. The above quote comes from an American CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) operative giving advice to a GRU (Russian acronym, Glavnoe Razvedyvatel'noe Upravlenie, or Main Intelligence Directorate) major about the handguns he uses. And during the Cold War, no less.
The gift economy, whether it’s swapping information on cookie recipes or the advantages of a revolver over an automatic, can be defined as the free giving of anything from information, advice, tech support, or even physical gifts, without expecting immediate, direct reciprocation (Kollock, 1999).
It’s interesting that such an economy has evolved online for a few reasons. Firstly, to put things simply, there are lots of unpleasant people on the Internet. Spammers, flamers, 1337-speakers… It’s a wonder that people cooperate on anything at all, with such a large population of troublemakers out there. Secondly, some of the information and advice that you can find on the internet or in online communities can also be found offline… For a price. For instance, Prima Games, a video game guide publisher, sells books which include walkthroughs, cheats and hints for a myriad of video games. Practically any video game store carries them. And yet on GameFAQs (www.gamefaqs.com), a popular video game solutions page, you can find solutions, cheats and tips for practically any game that existed. Seriously. From the Amstrad CPC all the way up to the Playstation 3, any and almost all games are covered there. For free. You can download guides, look up cheats, and it’s all free and contributed by gamers.
Quick comparison. Prima Games’ official guide to God of War, a 2005 game, costs US$19.99, US$12.99 if you buy the online version from their store. It promises, among other things, the locations of every treasure chest and the stats of every enemy.
Now, compare this with GameFAQS.
First, notice the sheer number of FAQs available. There are 7 different walkthroughs, and 12 in-depth FAQs.
This is just one of the guides. It’s a little crude, with an ASCII logo and what looks like pillars decorating the table of contents. But how much does it cost? Nothing. Just whatever time you spend to download 228KB of data, and whatever electricity powers your PC. And there are countless other guides for countless other games.
The point is simply this. This is a classic example of the online gift economy, where information is freely given, without a request for recompense. Information that other people pay money for, and information that people make money from. Given. Just like that.
Of course, there’s a lot more to discuss concerning the gift economy. For starters, there’s motivation. What drives people like the ones on GameFAQs to write guides and put them on the internet for free when they could make a business out of it? One such motivation could be the need for recognition, or the need to enhance one’s own reputation (Kollack, 1999.). By coming up with effective strategies for solving a game, or devising killer combo attacks, an FAQ writer can effectively become a sought-after expert on whatever games he or she writes on. Of course, the notion of reciprocity also applies, as the writer might need help for another game he or she is playing.
Another example of the gift economy, though not so talked about these days, is the concept of twinking. Twinking occurs in MMORPGs, and is the process by which a high-level character outfits a new or low-level character with significantly more powerful gear than they could otherwise obtain. (Twinking, n.d.) So essentially, it’s a powerful character gifting a weak character, again without the need for instant or direct reciprocation. Many guilds do this, by kitting out new members with basic equipment, and providing them with a certain amount of cash. This enables new members to get into the game quicker, without having to surmount the usual starting difficulties that you might encounter when you try killing anything with a wooden sword.
However, twinking is unique among gift economies in that it has both its positive and negative aspects. As mentioned above, some guilds twink their new members, and this gives them a headstart where adventuring is concerned. On the other end of the spectrum, there are guilds that outfit members with excessively powerful equipment, then turn those members loose on other newbies who don’t have such benefits, effectively reducing those new players’ ability to survive, especially in PvP (player versus player) mode. (Twinking, n.d.) This ruins the game for a lot of people, especially the players who get mowed down. Excessive twinking also has the side-effect of inflating the game’s economy, as rare and powerful items are handed out to all and sundry, thus decreasing their rarity and value. Regardless, the players who give gear (called twinkers) often do so out of generosity, and don’t really expect much beyond thanks. You can read an exaggerated (and fictional) account of twinking here.
It should be noted that not everyone who participates in the gift economy is a contributor. It doesn’t matter what you’re giving out, be it information, advice, music, or MMORPG gear. There will always be people called leeches. Leeches are people, usually online, who deliberately profit from freely given information or effort without supplying anything in return. (Leech, n.d.) In the context of the gift economy, a leech is one who happily takes whatever is offered, without later reciprocating in any shape or form. This, needless to say, is detrimental to any economy, let alone one that works on what is effectively an honour system. Thankfully, leeches tend not to go very far, as gift economies thrive best when everyone contributes something in exchange for what they get.
In conclusion, the internet is a hotbed of gift economies… Where there’s a community, there’s likely to be a gift economy too. And always remember: ‘tis better to give than to receive.
___________________________________________________________
References:
Opening quote taken from Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence. Produced by Hideo Kojima, 2006, and published by Konami Corporation, for the Sony Playstation 2 console.
Kollock, Peter (1999). 'The Economies of Online Cooperation; Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace" Retrieved February 6, 2007 from http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/economies.htm
Twinking, n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 01:20, February 9, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinking
Gamespy column taken from http://archive.gamespy.com/DailyVictim/index.asp?id=483
Leech (computing), n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 01:20, February 9, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leech_%28computing%29
Friday, February 2, 2007
QotW3: RIAA, emulation, oh my!
Copyright is, and rightly so, an extremely touchy subject. In one corner, we have the public, and in the other, the various record/software companies and their tag-team partner, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
The RIAA’s battle with file-sharing networks dates all the way back to 1998, when then-president Hilary Rosen, an outspoken critic of peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, directed a legal campaign aimed at stamping out illegal file-sharing worldwide, with an eye towards stopping people from sharing copyrighted music. The RIAA claims that such sharing costs the music industry $4.2 billion worldwide. (Efforts against file sharing, RIAA, n.d.) How do they explain this claim? According to them,
“Internet distribution of music, without the consent of the owner of the copyright to that music, harms the careers of current and future artists, both because record companies would have fewer sales, and also because musicians, singers, songwriters and producers depend heavily on royalties and fees gained from their music.” (Efforts against file sharing, RIAA, n.d.)
This is correct, insofar that content owners’ permission should rightfully be obtained. However, as for it harming the careers of current and future artists? That’s a little off the mark. There are those who believe, with some justification, that far from hurting an artiste’s career, having songs shared actually stimulates demand. Let’s talk about the radio for a second here. Is it out of the realm of possibility that you could listen to a song on the radio and say to yourself, “Hey, this song is pretty cool… Think I’ll pick up the CD and listen to the other songs by this band.” Same thing with P2P sharing. You could download a song from the Internet, enjoy it, and decide to check out what else the band is offering. This actually happened to the UK band Radiohead in July 2000, when
“tracks from English rock band Radiohead's album Kid A found their way to Napster three months before the CD's release. Unlike Madonna, Dr. Dre or Metallica, Radiohead had never hit the top 20 in the US. Furthermore, Kid A was an experimental album without any singles, and received almost no radio airplay. By the time of the record's release, the album was estimated to have been downloaded for free by millions of people worldwide, yet in October 2000 Kid A captured the number one spot on the Billboard 200 sales chart in its debut week. According to Richard Menta of MP3 Newswire, the effect of Napster in this instance was isolated from other elements that could be credited for driving sales, and the album's unexpected success was proof that Napster was a good promotional tool for music.” (Promotional power, Napster, n.d.)
Granted that this doesn’t happen all the time, but it is evidence that the untold damage to Radiohead’s career that the RIAA was predicting didn’t happen. Nevertheless, we must acknowledge that music piracy is a growing problem, and fairly speaking, the artistes are entitled to recompense for their work.
However, lawsuits are not the way. The Digital Rights Management (DRM) that Bertelsmann (the record companies BMG, Arista and RCA) placed on a large number of their CDs is also not the way. Compounding the error was Sony BMG, whose rootkit was installed on a PC without the user’s knowledge. Both were supposedly put in to prevent people from copying the CD, but not only could they be bypassed by simply holding down the shift key, they also left a computer vulnerable to certain security exploits. In addition, certain CD players, like those in a car or certain PCs, were often unable to play the CDs at all. (DRM and Audio CDs, Digital Rights Management, n.d.)
This resulted in a massive backlash, especially for Sony, who were eventually forced to recall millions of CDs.
So how do we reconcile the music industry’s need for recompense and the public need for cheap, readily available music? The answer lies in the iTunes shop.
How so? On iTunes, songs go for US$0.99 per song, which at the current rate of 1.7 is about S$1.70. Now, if you were to break down the average CD by track, you would still come up to about $2 a track, but you’re also stuck with the songs you don’t really want or listen to. If, however, consumers were able to download only the songs they want, and pay a fair price for it, sales would take off rather quickly.
Of course, it’s not viable for the whole world to convert to iTunes. Aside from the fact that it’s not available in Singapore, not everybody will want to use iTunes. Hence, the solution would be for a local, or even a regional, online music store to cater to the local/regional market, offering the services iTunes is currently offering.
This would work for a number of reasons. Firstly, people are perfectly willing to pay for songs. This is evidenced by the fact that since opening on April 28, 2003, the iTunes store has sold over 2 billion songs worldwide (iTunes Store, n.d.). That’s in a little over three and a half years. Secondly, if security on such an online store is sufficiently tight, consumer confidence in it would take sales to an even higher level. In addition, on top of songs, the iTunes store also sells MTVs, movies, and TV shows (Video, iTunes, n.d.). A regional online store selling these products would be huge, as another big piracy issue, movies, would be addressed as well.
A similar issue was faced with console game emulators, which are readily available for download all over the Internet. Essentially, an emulator is a program which allows one to play console games on a PC, such as the old Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), all the way up to the Playstation. Below you can see Sega Genesis, Nintendo 64, and SNES emulators, in that order.
At one time, console manfacturers attacked websites hosting such emulators, along with the ones hosting the ROMs or ISO images of the games, instead of the programmers of the emulators, as reverse engineering is protected by U.S. law (Legal Issues, Console Emulators, n.d.)
Interestingly enough, software companies have since begun to utilize emulators for themselves. The most recent example would be the Nintendo Wii, which comes packaged with a Virtual Console that allows users to download (for a fee) and play games from the NES, SNES, and Nintendo 64, along with titles from the Sega Genesis and Turbo-Grafx 16 systems. (Virtual Console, n.d.).
Thus, record companies should go the same route, and offer songs for download in the same manner, and for a reasonable price. People would buy it, the record companies make money, everybody wins.
___________________________________________________________
References:
Recording Industry Association of America, n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:20, February 1, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riaa
Napster, n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:20, February 1, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napster
Digital Rights Management. Retrieved 23:20, February 1, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
iTunes Store, n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:20, February 1, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes_Store
iTunes, n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:20, February 1, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes
Console Emulators, n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:20, February 1, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Virtual Console, n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:20, February 1, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
PVP Comic Strip taken from http://www.pvponline.com
iTunes Image taken from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:20, February 1, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:ITunes_7_coverflow.png
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Still on the subject of nerds...
Not entirely related to this afternoon's video, but somehow I just couldn't resist.
It's too big to see as is, so click here.
It's too big to see as is, so click here.
Friday, January 26, 2007
COM125 Week 2: Email
Although long touted as the killer app for the internet, electronic mail, or email as it is now commonly called, actually predates the internet as we know it in its current form of the World Wide Web by over 20 years (para 2, Email, n.d.). In 1961, MIT demonstrated the forerunner to email, the Compatible Time-Sharing System. This system allowed multiple users to log in from dial-up remote terminals, and store online files on disk (para 2, Email, n.d.). And so, the first email system began life in 1965 as a way for several users of such a time-sharing mainframe computer to communicate (para 2, Email, n.d.).
By 1966, this communication capability was quickly extended to network email, allowing users to pass messages among different computers. And in 1971, email began to take on its current form, when Ray Tomlinson first used the @ sign to separate user names and machine names (para 4, Email, n.d.).
It would be unwise to ignore the influence ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), the computer network developed by the U.S. Department of Defense, had over the evolution of modern email, it being the predecessor of the modern Internet (para 1, ARPANET, n.d.). In essence, ARPANET was the world’s first operational packet-switching network (para 1, ARPANET, n.d.), and email’s popularity grew by leaps and bounds because of it. As mentioned earlier, after Ray Tomlinson pioneered the usage of the @ sign in email in 1971, by 1973 75% of the traffic on ARPANET was email (Network Applications, ARPANET, n.d.).
Email is just one of various methods that one can use to send messages over the internet. In essence, e-mail is just that – mail sent electronically, in much the same way as ordinary mail is sent, without the need for postage or a postman. In addition, text is not all that can be sent. Pictures, videos, or any type of file imaginable can be sent via email. Size restrictions apply, of course, though significantly less stringently then before. It is now not uncommon to receive a file over 10MB (email etiquette notwithstanding) and since Internet speeds have been constantly rising over the last few years with the sharp increase of widespread cable services, it is no longer as big an issue as it once was. With the advent of instant messengers like MSN or AIM, the usage of email as a chat device is on the decline, but there still remains many, many applications for email.
The influence of email over the Internet as we know it today is, in a word, enormous. In fact, it is safe to say that email is the main reason many people all over the world log on to the Internet everyday. Be it for the purpose of catching up with family members who are abroad, or exchanging cookie recipes with a fellow cookie enthusiast. And of course let us not forget the massive deluge of corporate emails generated every day in companies of all shapes and sizes.
Email is one of the first, and perhaps the most primitive form of communication over the Internet. It is perhaps the easiest to learn, and countless people have gone online for the first time because of it. Email has also reshaped the way students do work and use the Internet. Gone are the days where project groups have to meet each and every day, since, for example, quick announcements can be made via email. Instant messaging (IMing) does not always work, since everyday scheduling conflicts practically ensure that not everybody can be present at the same time. Therefore, emailing one’s entire group is a much more effective method of keeping everyone informed, and it is also significantly cheaper than calling each member.
In addition, it could be argued that quite a number of applications that are used everyday over the Internet evolved from email. Instant messaging is one such example. Despite, strictly speaking, having evolved from Internet Relay Chat (IRC) (para 3, Instant Messaging, n.d.), instant messaging could have grown out of a need to communicate faster, without the need to repeatedly send email after email. This brings it much closer to the ideal of face-to-face communication, as opposed to, say, having a pen-pal.
Message boards and blogs may well be considered as such. Can a post and a blog entry be seen as an open email to whoever reads it? If email is mail sent over the Internet, posts – whether on a forum or on a blog – can, thus, be seen as an open letter pasted on a noticeboard. Whatever one may be talking about, be it politics, sports, or the environment, such posts can be alluded to sticking a flyer on a wall.
In conclusion, email is not only one of the forerunners to a host of Internet communication methods used today, it is, and remains, a vital and widely used technology that does not appear to be facing extinction any time soon.
__________________________________________________________
References:
Email. (n.d.). Retrieved January 24th, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email
Advanced Research Project Agency Network. (n.d.). Retrieved January 24th, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPANET
Instant Messaging. (n.d.). Retrieved January 24th, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messaging
By 1966, this communication capability was quickly extended to network email, allowing users to pass messages among different computers. And in 1971, email began to take on its current form, when Ray Tomlinson first used the @ sign to separate user names and machine names (para 4, Email, n.d.).
It would be unwise to ignore the influence ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), the computer network developed by the U.S. Department of Defense, had over the evolution of modern email, it being the predecessor of the modern Internet (para 1, ARPANET, n.d.). In essence, ARPANET was the world’s first operational packet-switching network (para 1, ARPANET, n.d.), and email’s popularity grew by leaps and bounds because of it. As mentioned earlier, after Ray Tomlinson pioneered the usage of the @ sign in email in 1971, by 1973 75% of the traffic on ARPANET was email (Network Applications, ARPANET, n.d.).
Email is just one of various methods that one can use to send messages over the internet. In essence, e-mail is just that – mail sent electronically, in much the same way as ordinary mail is sent, without the need for postage or a postman. In addition, text is not all that can be sent. Pictures, videos, or any type of file imaginable can be sent via email. Size restrictions apply, of course, though significantly less stringently then before. It is now not uncommon to receive a file over 10MB (email etiquette notwithstanding) and since Internet speeds have been constantly rising over the last few years with the sharp increase of widespread cable services, it is no longer as big an issue as it once was. With the advent of instant messengers like MSN or AIM, the usage of email as a chat device is on the decline, but there still remains many, many applications for email.
The influence of email over the Internet as we know it today is, in a word, enormous. In fact, it is safe to say that email is the main reason many people all over the world log on to the Internet everyday. Be it for the purpose of catching up with family members who are abroad, or exchanging cookie recipes with a fellow cookie enthusiast. And of course let us not forget the massive deluge of corporate emails generated every day in companies of all shapes and sizes.
Email is one of the first, and perhaps the most primitive form of communication over the Internet. It is perhaps the easiest to learn, and countless people have gone online for the first time because of it. Email has also reshaped the way students do work and use the Internet. Gone are the days where project groups have to meet each and every day, since, for example, quick announcements can be made via email. Instant messaging (IMing) does not always work, since everyday scheduling conflicts practically ensure that not everybody can be present at the same time. Therefore, emailing one’s entire group is a much more effective method of keeping everyone informed, and it is also significantly cheaper than calling each member.
In addition, it could be argued that quite a number of applications that are used everyday over the Internet evolved from email. Instant messaging is one such example. Despite, strictly speaking, having evolved from Internet Relay Chat (IRC) (para 3, Instant Messaging, n.d.), instant messaging could have grown out of a need to communicate faster, without the need to repeatedly send email after email. This brings it much closer to the ideal of face-to-face communication, as opposed to, say, having a pen-pal.
Message boards and blogs may well be considered as such. Can a post and a blog entry be seen as an open email to whoever reads it? If email is mail sent over the Internet, posts – whether on a forum or on a blog – can, thus, be seen as an open letter pasted on a noticeboard. Whatever one may be talking about, be it politics, sports, or the environment, such posts can be alluded to sticking a flyer on a wall.
In conclusion, email is not only one of the forerunners to a host of Internet communication methods used today, it is, and remains, a vital and widely used technology that does not appear to be facing extinction any time soon.
__________________________________________________________
References:
Email. (n.d.). Retrieved January 24th, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email
Advanced Research Project Agency Network. (n.d.). Retrieved January 24th, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPANET
Instant Messaging. (n.d.). Retrieved January 24th, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messaging
Saturday, January 20, 2007
The power of CI
Or how some bloggers and an internet forum managed to unravel a rather bizzare conspiracy to make George W. Bush look bad.
The Killian documents - wikipedia entry
It's a bit of a long read, but it's relevant in that the collective intelligence of the parties mentioned above actually challenged a claim made on 60 Minutes, normally an unimpeachably accurate newsmagazine TV segment, and from there were instrumental in having the claims examined a little closer, and later overturned.
The Killian documents - wikipedia entry
It's a bit of a long read, but it's relevant in that the collective intelligence of the parties mentioned above actually challenged a claim made on 60 Minutes, normally an unimpeachably accurate newsmagazine TV segment, and from there were instrumental in having the claims examined a little closer, and later overturned.
Friday, January 19, 2007
The evils of the internet?
Just saw this on CNN.com...
MySpace sued after sick bastards sexually abuse teens
It's an interesting double edge to what Kevin talks about in class, isn't it? For all the good the Internet and blogging and MySpace has done (and that's a lot), all it takes is one evil bastard to abuse it. Or in this case, 4 evil bastards. And I'm pretty sure it's not the first time this has happened. Nor will it be the last. Unfortunately, as with any advance in technology, there'll always be a bunch of whackjobs who'll find ways to pervert it. Always remember, kids... Tech in and of itself isn't evil. It's the people who use it. Guns don't kill people, people kill people and all that.
MySpace sued after sick bastards sexually abuse teens
It's an interesting double edge to what Kevin talks about in class, isn't it? For all the good the Internet and blogging and MySpace has done (and that's a lot), all it takes is one evil bastard to abuse it. Or in this case, 4 evil bastards. And I'm pretty sure it's not the first time this has happened. Nor will it be the last. Unfortunately, as with any advance in technology, there'll always be a bunch of whackjobs who'll find ways to pervert it. Always remember, kids... Tech in and of itself isn't evil. It's the people who use it. Guns don't kill people, people kill people and all that.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Comparative morality 101
Had an interesting conversation with Mahfudz and Jonathan over lunch today (yesterday, now)... We were sitting in the canteen, just kinda loafing around between classes... Mahfudz brought the paper, so we were all flipping through the various sections, when I happened across this
rather large picture (it was a lot bigger in the papers) of Saddam Hussein during his trial, arm and finger raised, yelling at somebody. Jonathan asked, "Do you think he's really evil?"
Well, I said yeah, he's evil, some of the things he's done are really too inhumane... Yet on the other hand, he did what he had to do in order to maintain some semblance of order in Iraq. I can't lay my hands on it right now, but I read a little blurb in a recent Newsweek, something along the lines of some U.S. government official saying (anonymously) that "...we feel like apologising and saying 'sorry, we didn't know you did what you did because you had to'." Or something like that, memory fails at the moment.
So now for the comparative morality... Was booting Saddam out of his palace really the right thing to do? For all the blood (and worse) he has on his hands, Saddam was able to maintain order of a sort. Of a sort. Yes, he was a cruel, tyrannical dictator. But here's the rub. Is that the only type of person who can keep Iraq from self-destructing? We've already seen that the Iraqis aren't likely to blossom into full-blown Jeffersonian democracy any time soon... Maybe the only type of diplomacy that works in Iraq is the kind that comes out the barrel of a gun.
I'm not in anyway supporting or endorsing Saddam or his practices, mind... Just wondering. What do the rest of you think?
rather large picture (it was a lot bigger in the papers) of Saddam Hussein during his trial, arm and finger raised, yelling at somebody. Jonathan asked, "Do you think he's really evil?"
Well, I said yeah, he's evil, some of the things he's done are really too inhumane... Yet on the other hand, he did what he had to do in order to maintain some semblance of order in Iraq. I can't lay my hands on it right now, but I read a little blurb in a recent Newsweek, something along the lines of some U.S. government official saying (anonymously) that "...we feel like apologising and saying 'sorry, we didn't know you did what you did because you had to'." Or something like that, memory fails at the moment.
So now for the comparative morality... Was booting Saddam out of his palace really the right thing to do? For all the blood (and worse) he has on his hands, Saddam was able to maintain order of a sort. Of a sort. Yes, he was a cruel, tyrannical dictator. But here's the rub. Is that the only type of person who can keep Iraq from self-destructing? We've already seen that the Iraqis aren't likely to blossom into full-blown Jeffersonian democracy any time soon... Maybe the only type of diplomacy that works in Iraq is the kind that comes out the barrel of a gun.
I'm not in anyway supporting or endorsing Saddam or his practices, mind... Just wondering. What do the rest of you think?
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Every epic has a beginning...
But so do random ramblings that have no business being called epics by any stretch of the imagination. No prizes for guessing which category this one falls into, eh?
...No, I do not have a self-esteem problem. Leave me alone. In my dark, dark corner where no one can see me. Shoo.
Anyway, I must confess that I have always (and still do, to a certain extent) held that blogging is done by people with waaaaaaay too much time on their hands. I mean, seriously now... Does the world really need to know where I had lunch or what I think about this or that particular person who managed to get their names or faces in the paper or on TV? Or what kind of weirdos I meet on the bus/train?
I suppose I have to keep an open mind now... Since I'll be blogging and reading other people's blogs, and Kevin's opening lecture DID have a few rather salient points. Guess it's fun to have a little soapbox to call your own sometimes. And there's a few benefits to blogging after all.
About me (this'll be short, I promise)... Just got out of NS, currently working part-time as a magician's assistant (check out www.jeremypei.com... not that you'll see my face there, but that's my boss), and I game. A lot. PC, PS2, PSP... No online stuff, unfortunately... That's what happens when you're stuck on 512k broadband. And you can't afford the monthly fee for World of Warcraft.
So yeah, that's it for a first post... Feel free to read and feedback. Cheerio, all.
...No, I do not have a self-esteem problem. Leave me alone. In my dark, dark corner where no one can see me. Shoo.
Anyway, I must confess that I have always (and still do, to a certain extent) held that blogging is done by people with waaaaaaay too much time on their hands. I mean, seriously now... Does the world really need to know where I had lunch or what I think about this or that particular person who managed to get their names or faces in the paper or on TV? Or what kind of weirdos I meet on the bus/train?
I suppose I have to keep an open mind now... Since I'll be blogging and reading other people's blogs, and Kevin's opening lecture DID have a few rather salient points. Guess it's fun to have a little soapbox to call your own sometimes. And there's a few benefits to blogging after all.
About me (this'll be short, I promise)... Just got out of NS, currently working part-time as a magician's assistant (check out www.jeremypei.com... not that you'll see my face there, but that's my boss), and I game. A lot. PC, PS2, PSP... No online stuff, unfortunately... That's what happens when you're stuck on 512k broadband. And you can't afford the monthly fee for World of Warcraft.
So yeah, that's it for a first post... Feel free to read and feedback. Cheerio, all.
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