10 Fast Thoughts
In a desire to start blogging again here are 10 fast thoughts that are the first ones to come as I put off sleep for another 12 minutes.
1. Hippos are perhaps the most useless looking, but also dangerous animal I can think of right now.
2. If they didn’t have Hats what would Valve have done with Steam, or their time in general, these past two years?
3. And would they have gotten HL3 out by now?
4.My word of the day in 10 minutes is Uxorial: meaning relating to, or characteristic of a wife. Bet you never heard that one before, neither did I.
5.If you watch the Lord of the Rings Extended cut from start to finish you can gain at least three levels in League of Legends in that time, if you have a booster.
6.If every trial(criminal or civil) had one month to prepare, one week to run, and Jurors were notified 6 months in advance, the world would be a better place.
7.Also, everything but witness testimonies would be submitted in writing, because it is harder to manipulate people if they can re-read your words right away.
8.Plus the Juror’s get to submit one question each for each witness if they want.
9.Yesterday’s word was largesse, which is pretty much generosity, but fancier. But I already knew that.
10.Did you know that both on Amazon and “Barns and Noble” some new hardcover releases cost less than the ebook edition. Does that make any sense?
New Site New To-Do List
I guess I know what I am doing tomorrow.
Behold the 70′s
I have wanted to try the clean-shaven look for a couple months now, but couldn’t go though with it up until now. We will see if it lasts.
But as I was in the process, I had to stop a to take a picture. I wonder when trends will turn around enough that such a mustache will be trendy and not appear to be a parody of the 70′s.
Know thyself
I am in the process of self-discovery. There have been questions I have left unanswered for far too long. This is a very emotionally draining process. It is hard to look into one’s own psyche and deal with what turns up. I have wallowed in denial for far too long and though I am going through the mental wringer, I feel like I am gaining mental resolve I have not yet experienced.
Quick Post
I had a few moments before class so I thought I would finally post my final-ish draft of my term paper. I say final-ish because I may revise it again because it is about an evolving issue that needs continuous review. I created a heading up top. But here is a quick link.
TheNN Project: Annotated Bibliography
Annotated Bibliography for LIB 273 Final Paper
“Net-Neutrality meets Media Neutrality”(Working Title)
The intent behind this paper is to research both two types of media’s treatment of my topic, and to a lesser extent, to see if the public is serviced by their treatment.
I would like to start out with drawing the battle lines and presenting both sides of the debate. Both sides have websites to back their particular take on the subject. These two sources will be referenced as biased but to know their views and reasoning will be important in cutting to the heart of the matter
Internet innovation Alliance. [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.internetinnovation.org/
Internet Innovation Alliance is the most prominent internet presence for the opposition to Net-Neutrality standardization today. Though the CTIA(International Wireless Telecommunications Industry) and RCAA is also pretty fervent in their fight against regulation. This site is the best I have found on the “Con” side of the debate and it is a rather poor representation. Not well designed for the consumer so it will fail to get it’s point across to the average consumer.
Save the internet [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.savetheinternet.com
This site on the other hand is created by the FreePress Action Fund, an advocacy group created to fight for universal access to communications. This site knows their audience and is willing to use the full force of the internet to push their agenda.
Murdock, G. (Ed.). Concentration and ownership in the era of privatization.
In addition to the Net-Neutrality 101 website I want to integrate some ideas from our book. Namely “Concentration and Ownership in the Era of Privatization”. I am still not sure of the significance of this, it will depend on how well I can fold it into the surrounding material.
HOW MEDIA PLAYS INTO THIS:
MEDIA TYPE ONE – ONLINE/INTERACTIVE MEDIA:
Then we are going to get into how two media types treat the subject of Net Neutrality. My two chosen types will be “Internet Media”, AKA Podcasts, tech blogs, and even social media. I anticipate a heavy bias towards instituting Net-Neutrality policies. The aspect of this that I find interesting is that the facts and opinions will range from a wide array of demographics. From the highly educated technophiles to the casual observer, and perhaps even to the mildly technophobic. I want to get a bead on how this subject is seen as a whole.
Twitter. (2010, November 15). Twitter #netneutrality. Retrieved from http://www.twitter.com
This will represent the semi-educated users. Twitter is a slightly select service primarily used by the technologically or socially educated, and at least in their own minds, hipper, crowd. I will only use the feed for one day to get a impression of the buzz on this middle ground.
Facebook. (2010, November 15). Facebook topic on net-neutrality. Retrieved from http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Net-Neutrality/116503505029806
Facebook is used by everyone, and their moms. For me this will be a much more open indicator of how much attention this subject has gathered. Now only the folks that want to talk about the issue will comment, but the opinions will likely be varied. As before, I will only read the past day or two’s comments to discern what the masses think about this topic.
Depending on my readings(if they gel or not) I may combine the two user groups, or pit them against each other. Either way, this will not be a significant portion of the paper since it is solely based on random opinion, but I feel perceptions are important in any public/consumer policy case and are worth analyzing.
Laporte, L. (2010) As yet to be named Blog Entries. http://leoville.com/category/blog
The Net-Neutrality 101(savemyinternet.org) site is a heavy with blogs advocating regulation. I want another source however. One media source that has talked quite a bit on the subject is this “This Week in Tech” network. It was founded and us run by Leo Laporte of TechTV “Screen Savers” and nationally syndicated radio(The Tech Guy) fame. Though the site and the broadcasts are focused more on the commentary, a pretty good summery of the issue can be gleaned.
Unknown Author . (2010). Senate house approves amendments to project that protects internet users’ rights. Camara De Diputados De Chile, Retrieved from http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.camara.cl%2Fprensa%2Fnoticias_detalle.aspx%3Fprmid%3D38191&sl=es&tl=en
One good source that I gathered from this is an article on Chile’s adoption of a “Internet Users’ Rights” bill. The site is in Spanish, but Google translate does a fairly good job of making it accessible to us monologuists. I will not directly quote it because of the language hop, but I will paraphrase when needed. I will have to dig up who the author was of this piece, may be a challenge considering its origins. This will segue into my next media type.
MEDIA TYPE TWO – TRADITIONAL MEDIA(namely broadcast media):
I expect this to be somewhat slanting towards anti-neutrality since the Broadcast Companies are often in league with the distribution companies, if they aren’t simply one in the same. On this note I want to take the two biggest rivals and see how either treats this issue. Do they differ, or are they for once once the same page.
FOX NEWS:
Beck, G. (2010, April 6). ‘glenn beck’: net neutrality pits free speech against free press – broadcast transcript. Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,590506,00.html
Glen Beck weighs in on this topic. This is a “rough transcript” so I won’t be using it for quotes of course, but will likely paraphrase as before. From all the items I have read on him he is a big opponent to regulation.
Albanesius, C. (2010, August 17). House democrats slam google-verizon net neutrality plan. Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/08/17/house-democrats-slam-google-verizon-net-neutrality-plan/
This is an article about a recent contravesey concerting a recent supposed team up between media source Google and service provider Verison. I plan to use this as an example of the concept in action.
CNN:
Goldman, D. (2010, November 3). Final nail in coffin for net neutrality?. Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/2010/11/03/technology/net_neutrality_election/index.htm
Despite the interesting choice of title, this article lays out both a viewpoint on the subject, but also how possibly out of the public eye Net Neutrality actually is.
Frankin, A. (2010, August 5). Net neutrality is foremost free speech issue of our time. Retrieved from http://articles.cnn.com/2010-08-05/opinion/franken.net.neutrality_1_net-neutrality-television-networks-cable?_s=PM:OPINION
I don’t like Al Frankin. I have always thought he is a pompous windbag that should have stuck to being an unfunny comedian. But the spirit of Net-Neutrality is free speech and we should hear what he has to say on the topic. CNN felt it was worth posting, so I am including it.
Net neutrality. (2010, August 12). Retrieved from http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/n/net_neutrality/index.html
I am not sure in what capacity I will use this but a New York Times article seems like it would carry some credibility and might lend a third, possibly more objective viewpoint not being an internet or broadcast media source. Print media itself is having it’s own issues resolving how to adjust to the this brave new digital world, but they seem to at least maintain some detachment when it comes to their content. This isn’t an article but a curated topic overview by the New York Times. One thing I really like about it is that it gives the definition and some of the highlights, then links to many articles on or related to the subject.
Just plain annoying
The other day I was walking past a student who was reciting a speech for class. I was shocked by the content of what he was saying. He was stating that technology gives society more ills than benefits. I hope I was hearing something completely out of context, but I fear this is not the case.
I can’t believe someone could be so backwards in their thinking. Technophobes should not exist in society today, let alone a college campus.
One of my life goals is to fight such clouded viewpoints and promote technology to the masses. So this made me livid.
It isn’t my goal to make everyone buy every type of technology out there. That’s both unreasonable and unwise. But through a little education and planning every person could know what tech could enhance their lives. And with use everyone could competently use that tech.
On that note, has everyone seen some of the stuff for Windows Phone 7? It may be a heavy contender for my next phone platform when my current contract expires.
Narcissism
What is the ultimate goal of social media? Why is Net Neutrality an important issue? How aware of important tech topics is the general public? I don’t know the true answers to the first two questions, but the third is a resounding NOT ENOUGH.
In the next few weeks I will be working on a paper discussing heavily the debate of Net Nutrality for two of my classes(one is a media class, and the other is a writing class). I will be posting my progress here and am open to anything from suggestions to outright criticism. I am going to see if I can incorporate this into a second paper for my own amusement about social media and it’s effect on the creative process.
So keep checking this site and I will post links to updates on Facebook and Twitter in the coming weeks.
Ruminations
Right now this is just a pipe dream, but let me just ramble for now.
Early in the summer this year, I attended Penguicon. A truly excellent convention devoted to both the open-source community as well as sci-fi and fantasy media/lit. Still a little broad brush, but the focus is a bit more precise than any of those mega conventions. Has more of a personal feel.
At this convention I was introduced to the concept of HackerSpaces. Yes, they sound malicious because of the public perception of what a hacker is. But since the 90′s the definition has broadened a bit. It now includes anyone who works beyond the established parameters to alter an environment. This can be good(white hat), bad(black hat) or indifferent(gray hat).
A hacker space is intended to be a community of similarly minded people who have a variety of skill sets, and wish to work together.
For the past few months I have been batting this concept around and wondering what it could mean to me. I have seen examples of them just working on fun projects as well as helping local high school kids with their FIRST Robotics teams.
There is one HackerSpace supposedly in Grand Rapids, but it appears defunct. So I thought I might try sparking interest in Holland. This may work but it would require a life commitment for years, and I am at a place where I don’t know where I will be in three years, and I wouldn’t want to create something that would likely fail once I had to move or put it on the far back burner.
A couple weeks ago I came across an idea that would be both a lot more streamlined and also a good deal more effective for the ultimate goal.
The working label is “Grand Valley HackerSpace”, perhaps it will get a change once more people are involved. The idea is to create a HackerSpace for students, but also involve teachers and community members in order to enrich all parties.
This would both allow students to learn how to work with other types of professionals, as well as spark everyones interest in collaboration, and hopefully they will take that interest beyond their college years.
This is just a basic summery, and I will be making a page outlining what I want to accomplish and a basic structure of operation. I have a fair bit of homework on the horizon so the updates will be slow for now, but keep checking in.
Sputter Sputter
This is a post in order to motivate myself to actually post to my blog rather than just tweet. Which is so much easier, but less thoughtful. This is my blogging equivalent of going out to the car on a cold January morning and trying to start the productivity engine, but finding out you need a creative jump-start. Possibly a strained metaphor.