Time for a Break

This past spring semester has been a time of new learning for me. Writing in Cyberspace taught me many new things that I hadn't yet experienced. The assignments were fresh and challenging.

The biggest challenge was learning how to podcast using GarageBand. My first podcast took me hours to complete! I became more proficient with each assignment. It was also interesting to hear how my voice sounds when recorded - I haven't ever had the chance to record my voice. Overall - podcasting became fun!

I thoroughly enjoyed the books we were assigned to read. My favorite was "A Whole New Mind" followed by "Play Money". Each of the book taught how rapidly the world is changing and why technology at the forefront of the changes.

I experienced a "Second Life" virtual world briefly. I met other virtual beings from around the world and was able to live an imaginary life - even though I felt out of place there. The experience showed me that I am satisfied with the real life I have.

Time now for a break in my studies. I will spend a few months enjoying the warm weather, reading and writing for leisure, and will rest up for the fall semester.

Brainstorming for NeoVox Article

I have been thinking about a subject for the Neo Vox article.

How would I define "play"? Play intrigues me and I looked up quotes about "play". Some quotes go as far back as Plato. I would like to look into how the word "play" originated and what distinguishes it from work. How is play perceived in other cultures?

Most any activity can be considered work and play. When I ride my bicycle, I am actually working my muscles but I do it for pleasure so I call it a form of play.

If we enjoy our job, it can be considered play as well? If I keep this up, I will sound like a philosopher.

Ending of Play Money

Earlier today, I finished reading “Play Money”. The last section confused me. I immediately went to the first chapter and reread it and to help me understand the end of the book.

“A dogged intuition told me something world-historic was afoot in the territory I was moving into … the radical confusion of production and pretend, the emergence of play … of what the world economy has become or where it’s headed … “ (3).

Throughout the middle sections, I found myself rooting for Dibbell as he worked toward his goal of earning more money at virtual buying and selling than he earned as a professional writer. I got caught up in the drama along with him. I wanted him to succeed. In the end; however, he sadly fell short of his goal. It was good fun while it lasted!

What started out as play in a virtual community turned into real life situation where at times Dibbell neglected his family and career and was drawn downwards into what the virtual world has to offer. Then he thought of his little girl, Lola and decided to give it up - the dedication page says, “For Lola, for real.”

Play Money

Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot

Julian Dibbell's book has an intruiging title ... but can someone really earn millions of dollars in a virtual world. The title itself sounds like a spin to a new stock market deal.

Real-money trading (RMT): MMO players who don't have the time, patience, or ability to acquire fantasy good through fantasy means will purchase the goods from other player with "cold, hard, real-life cash". I think about this several moments not quite understanding it and then read on.

In parts three and four, Dibbell writes of his experiences with purchasing virtual real estate. After a short time, he writes very little of his dream house in Malas.

As I read further, I realize there is an real breathing industry (economy) in the virtual world. I don't completely understand it. I am confused by the value of the real dollar compared with the virtual dollar (or the gp and gold indexes).

I have read through part seven now. My impression of virtual trading is that it is less risky than the stock market and more risky than buying lottery tickets. The return is minimal at best and it takes a great amount of time to turn around a small profit.

I am interested in seeing where Dibbell ends up by the end of the book. Will he become a millionaire or wind up in the poor house?

Second Life

Part of this week's assignment was to set up an avatar in Second Life. I was more than apprehensive over this assignment - I was really reluctant! But I took the plunge and my avatar's name is "Lynsie Jewell" who wears blue jeans and a lavendar top. I didn't have too much trouble manuvering in the orientation - I flew and drove a vehicle. It was then that I decided to approach and speak to another avatar. I spoke briefly with "Fernando Peccable" from Brazil and "Jiff Clary" from China. I had a longer conversation with "Mariagerman Ling" from Germany. Maria and I actually talked more about real life. She is a bus driver and it was 5:00 A.M. there in Germany. All three of the avatars spoke some English.

Video Project

Last week, my group for the video met and decided on a topic. Rebekkah, Ken, Adam, Jennifer and I concluded that our video would be about "podcasting". Each person would share their experiences related to recording a podcast. Earlier this week, Ken, Jennifer and I met and the project began. Ken ran the camera while Jenn and I described some of our difficulties with recording a podcast. I'll admit that I'm camera-shy and needed to speak louder. Hopefully Ken can do something to adjust the sound. Overall, it was good to meet some of my classmates and work together.

Is it time for … A Whole New Mind?

Daniel Pink presents his ideas about the Conceptual Age … high concept, high touch, creators and empathizers. The world is changing because of technology and people are able to concentrate more of our attention on creativity and less time thinking about survival. Pink outlines the six senses that a person must sharpen to survive and thrive in today's world. Here is some of what I found important.

1. Not just function but also Design.
“Good design is a renaissance attitude that combines technology, cognitive science, human need, and beauty to produce something that the world didn’t know it was missing” - Paola Antonelli. (72).

2. Not just argument but also Story.
“If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away as needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive.” - Barry Lopez (114).

3. Not just focus but also Symphony.
“Metaphor is the lifeblood of all art.” - Twyla Tharp (139).

4. Not just logic but also Empathy.
“Leadership is about empathy. It is about having the ability to relate and to connect with people for the purpose of inspiring and empowering their lives.” - Oprah Winfrey (160).

5. Not just serious but also Play.
“There is no question that a playfully light attitude is characteristic of creative individuals.” - Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi (198).

6. Not just accumulation but also Meaning.
“You’re not going to find the meaning of life hidden under a rock written by someone else. You’ll only find it by giving meaning to life from inside yourself.” - Dr. Robert Firestone (225).

I appreciated the content presented in the book and look forward to trying out some of the suggestions in the portfolio section that followed each of the six senses.

Proposal for Video Project

My idea for a video is to interview instructors about how they use various technologies to teach their students. Possibly we could even tape a portion of an instructor's lecture.

Today instructors are requesting "smart classrooms" more and more frequently. A classroom is considered "smart" because it has a computer equipped with VCR or DVD player. The instructor can use software programs like Powerpoint to illustrate their lectures.

I previously worked at TC3 and had to schedule the classrooms. Some instructors insisted on having a "smart room". Because of this, the college began updating the existing classrooms with "smart" technology.

A Whole New Mind - Design

The opening of chapter four - “How many artists are there in the room?” (68). As school children advanced to higher grades, fewer of the children raised their hands.

“The kids just looked around to see if anybody in the class would admit to what they’d now learned was deviant behavior.” (69).

Here is my most vivid memory from the seventh grade. The school district that I attended had five elementary schools located in different areas. After the sixth grade, the five schools were combined for Junior High School for 7th to 9th grades.

In my new school, I didn’t know any of the other girls in my class; however, there were five boys from Washington Gladden in my class.

Early in the year during art class, one of our projects was to make a Paper Mache animal. I was creating my favorite animal, a horse. It wasn’t just an ordinary horse; it was a Merry-Go-Round horse. I began painting it yellow with plans to decorate it with bright colors of blue, green, purple … when one of the girls in the class approached me and asked me why I wasn’t painting the horse “brown". I replied, “well, it’s a merry-go-round horse”. Tammy immediately demanded that I paint it “brown”. I replied, “it’s my horse and I want to paint it yellow.” Tammy responded, “do you want to fight about it?” It turned out that Tammy was a bully and rallied eleven of the other twelve girls in the class to force me to paint my horse the color she wanted (only one girl in the class didn’t join her gang to beat me up). Luckily for me the five boys from my school and a girl named Melinda, whom I’d never met before, came to my rescue. (Added information: I was the smallest, shortest child in the class.) The group of girls ended up in the Vice Principal’s Office and had to stay after school for detention.

The others could not stifle my creativity - I went on to finish painting my merry-go-round horse with bright colored paints.

"Snow Crash" Concluded

Throughout the book, there is mention of religious matters. Stephenson spends several chapters to explain the history of early religion of Asherah, speaking in tongues, and how the origin of language ties into it. All this time ... I wondered what the “Raft” has to do with religion. Stephenson mentions the Raft as a place in reality but doesn’t provide details.

The Raft is a group of ships that are tied together. Each neighborhood has a guard to protect the community from being cut loose from the Raft and left to starve out in the middle of the Pacific. Hiro passes from country to country - the Nipponese, the Vietnamese, the Malaysians, the Soviets, etc.

In Chapter 53, Hiro goes aboard the Raft. He finds a guide named Transubstanciacion, “Tranny” for short, a refugee that Bruce Lee recruited. This name bring to my mind a doctrine taught by Roman Catholic Church, “transubstantiation”. The definition of transubstantiation is “changing of one substance into another”. There is an added meaning, “the conversion in the Eucharist of the whole substance of the bread into the body and wine becoming the blood of Christ, only the appearances (and other ‘accident’) of bread and wine remaining: according to the doctrine of the Roman Church.” (Oxford English Dictionary Online). What does the choice of this name have to do with the storyline or plot?

Hiro encounters the first of the antenna heads. A man Hiro has just shot and killed is still babbling away in tongues. When he checks the man, he finds a whip antenna about a foot long that is permanently attached to the skull by screws. Hiro figures this is how L. Bob Rife controls the people aboard the Raft.

Over time, Hiro pieces together what has been happening and with the help of others is able to bring the twisted situation with L. Bob Rife under control.

Religion and Drugs

In Chapter 25 - Y.T. has a delivery to make to Reverend Wayne's Pearly Gates #1106. The parking lot is half full and there are people lined up out the door. The first thing that she notices are small glass vials scattered around behind a dumpster the Pearly Gates. Once inside the front room she has to wait for a transaction to be completed. Y.T. becomes restless but because this is a church, she remains poised. Once the transaction has been paid for with a credit card, “a wide pair of pearlescent doors in the back of the room swing majestically open.” Featured within the room is a blazing trinity: Jesus, Elvis, and the Reverend Wayne. The customer drops down on her knees and begins to speak in tongues, “ar ia ari ar isa ve na a mir ia I sa, ve na mir is a sar ia …” (196).

The addressee of the package, Reverend Dale T. Thorpe, grabs the package from Y.T. without signing for it. She never lets something like that happen but … this is a church. Y.T. follows Rev. Dale into a room where she observes him with an aluminum computer case. After the Rev. punches away at the keyboard, he removes a small vial and inserts it into a socket on the keyboard. The vial goes down into the machine and pops out again. “The red plastic cap is emitting grainy red light. It has little LEDs built into it, and they are spelling out number, counting down second: 5,4,3,2,1 … The Reverend Dale T. Thorpe hold the vial up to his left nostril. When the LED counter gets down to zero, it hisses, like air coming out of a tire valve. At the same time, he inhales deeply, sucking it all into his lungs. Then he shoots the vial expertly into his wastebasket.” (197).

Interesting combination.

Cartoon, Animated Movie or Comic Book Strip

I think that “Snow Crash” could easily be made into a cartoon, animated movie, comic book, or the comic column in the Sunday newspaper. As each chapter begins, it’s up to the reader to determine whether the events are taking place in the physical reality or in the virtual reality, the Metaverse.

There is a lot of action from Hiro Protagionist, the male main character and Y. T., the female main character. Hiro seems to be more comfortable in the Metaverse at the beginning of the novel but the closer I come to the end, I see that he is becoming more comfortable in his physical universe. On the other hand, Yours Truly is definitely more comfortable in her physical reality and rarely enters into the Metaverse.

Today as I read chapter 47, I saw something that struck me. The chapter begins, “Once it starts coming clear to her, again, that these people are twisted freaks, she starts to notice other things about them. For example, the whole time, no one ever looks her in the eye.” Y. T. has been captured and is aboard a large ship called the Raft. The people that she is speaking about are Russians.

I have noticed that in the last five years or so that people no longer look each other in the eye. Does this mean there is a lack of trust among people? or have people lost their ability or want to care about each other?

Then there are the times when a chapter leaves me hanging that I think it could even be a soap opera.

NeoVox Article

I am most interested in the privacy and surveillance issues that surround the implementing of new technologies. How much will they change our private lives? As a private person, I want to know what the future holds for me.

Snow Crash - the beginning

Although I’ve read up to Chapter 24, I decided to go back and skim the first few chapters of the book. It is confusing from the beginning; but I think it’s meant to be that way.

The main character of the book is generic; he could be anyone - he delivers pizza for CosaNostra Pizza #3659. But he is called, “Deliverator” perhaps because he is the ultimate pizza deliveryman. In 2010, pizza delivery is a major industry; it is run and managed by the Mafia and is so analyzed that delivery is guaranteed in 30 minutes or less. It is so … managed that the boxes have LED timers on them. The job is a rat race and the area has “the worst economy in the world.” There is no competition because it goes against the Mafia ethic.

Not too sure about the burbclave - it seems to be a maze of streets. “Now a burbclave, that’s the place to live. A city-state with its own constitution, a border, laws, cops, everything.” (6).

“Hiro” is not introduced by name until the second chapter. Hiro Protagionist and his roommate, Vitaly Chernobyl, lives is a spacious 20 by 30 U-Stor-It (cheap extra storage space for Californians with too many material goods) located in Ingelwood, California. Reality is such an exciting life!

Which is why Hiro spends his free time in a virtual reality via the computer. In the Metaverse, he can be who he really wants to be. He is a hacker and has a nice house in an old neighborhood just off the busiest on the street. In this virtual place, users wear a piece of software called an avatar, computer generated image. The place is crowded as well but the avatars walk right through each other.

These first few chapters bounce from physical reality to virtual reality and back again.

Smart Mobs: the Next Social Revolution

Chapter 7: The Power of the Mobile Many.
Netwar: January 20, 2001
"Go to 2ERSA, wear blk." More than one million residents of Manila received this SMS text message and assembled to bring down the government of President Joseph Estrada. It was non-violent ... no shots were fired. "Netwar is an emerging mode of conflict in which the protagonists--ranging from terrorist and criminal organizations on the dark side, to militant social activists on the bright side--use network forms of organization, doctrine, strategy, and technology attuned to the information age ... The know how to swarm and disperse, penetrate and disrupt, as well as elude and evade. The tactics they use range from battles of ideas to acts of sabotage--and many tactics involve the Internet." (162).

Smart mob technology can benefit or destroy a society.

Chapter 8: Always-On Panopticon or Cooperation Amplifer?
"Maybe you should refuse it." Is this a healthy response? "It's not just how we use the technology that concerns us. We're also concerned about what kind of people we become when we use it." (185).

Three kinds of potential threats are:
1. Threats to liberty - survellience by most merchants who use our information to design their sales pitches.
2. Threats to quality of life - possible deterioration of communities as the conveniences wear on our sanity.
3. Threats to human dignity - stress on interpersonal relationships - less humane behaviors. "If pervasive computation devices and anthropomorphic software agents lead people to confuse machines with humans, will people grow less friendly, less trusting, less prepared to cooperate with one another?" (193).

Will our lives become Panopticons ("all-seeing places") of the 19th century - inmates with no privacy? OR Will these new technologies cause societies to reorganize at a higher level of cooperations? We are presently in the midst of finding out.

Smart Mobs: the Next Social Revolution

Chapter 4: The Era of Sentient Things.
Virtual reality? I went to www.dictionary.com and found eight entries. The one that seems to fit the best is, "a hypothetical three-dimensional visual world created by a computer; user wears special goggles and fiber optic gloves etc., and can enter and move about in this world and interact with objects as if inside." (WordNet 2005) or augmented reality? a mingling of the virtual and physical world.

Different kinds of research include the following:

Information in places: media linked to location; (OnStar)
Smart rooms: environments that sense inhabitants and respond to them;
Digital cities: adding information capabilities to urban places;
Sentient objects: adding info and communication to physical things; (embedded chips)
Tangible bits: manipulating the virtual world by manipulating physical objects;
Wearable computers: sensing, computing, and communicating gear worn as clothing. (helmets)

Why not plan a vacation to Cooltown or World Board to experience the latest in technology.

Chapter 5: The Evolution of Reputation.
"Reputation marks the spot where technology and cooperation converge." (114).

Rheingold writes of the early versions of reputation management: eBay, Epinions, Slashdot, Amazon, Google.com. How do these social network work? The participants cooperate based on a system of reciprocation "offering mutually profitable cooperation only to partners who are willing to return the favor and punish those who do not". Freeriders are punished and those who don't punish the freerider are considered freeriders too.

Social networking has its rewards and its punishments.

Chapter 6: Wireless Quilts.
Rheingold continued to investigate smart mob wireless networks and located them in places where computer users gather - coffee shops in particular those that sold expensive coffee - in Starbucks.

A community of "homebrew innovators" -- volunteers that banded together to create a new media that increases in value when it is shared. A radio beacon is used to connect with the Internet; an inexpensive means to spread a public good, the smart mob theory in practice. An example that Rheingold elaborated on is the work of Colonel Dave Hughes who brought wireless broadband to Indian reservation, in Mongolia, and in Wales. He was looking for a way to make communication affordable in rural communities. "Bluetooth" is another example of inexpensive connection to the Internet.

The Federal Communications Commission is try to control the use of the Internet but - "The highway is a commons" (153) where people from all classes can meet and share common interests.

Smart Mobs: the Next Social Revolution

Chapters 1: Shibuya Epiphany. One definition for epiphany is "a revealing scene or moment". The author, Howard Rheingold, shares with his readers his sudden realization of the path technology is taking. The texters oyayubisoku that Rheingold observed in Toyoko are referred to as "the thumb tribe".

Rheingold interviews Mituko Ito, a Stanford graduate, who is studying how identity and place are produced through and within digital media infrastructures. In Japan wired phones are very expensive, so many families members own cellular phones instead. Also, she has developed a theory that because the space of the home is too confining that the family members have privacy issues. Their cell phone is their "own space". The Japanese culture, especially the teens, would prefer to send text messages because privacy from their parents is important. They "construct a localized and portable place of intimacy, an open channel of contact with generally 3-5 others." By spring of 2001, 90% of high school teenagers possess cell phones.

This makes me appreciate my personal space more than before.

Chapter 2: Technologies of Cooperation. In 1992 Rheingold questioned this "What do people gain from virtual communities that keeps them sharing information with people they might never meet face to face?" Marc Smith, a UCLA graduate, answers, "social network capital, knowledge capital, and communion." Public goods are things that are shared and benefit all regardless of whether they helped create it. Those who didn't help create the goods are referred to as "freeriders." An interesting strategy of Tit for Tat, a mind game, is described in depth.

Just think the PC and Internet would not exist today if it were not for the collaborative efforts of computer enthusisasts.

Chapter 3: Computer Nations and Swarm Supercomputers. "Peer-to-peer networks are not owned by any central authority and cannot be controlled, killed, or broken by the central authority .... Companies may produce software for P2P networking, but the networks that emerge are owned by everyone and no one."

Search for Estraterrestial Intelligence: SETI@home is a network of community computation (also know as distributed processing or P2P). The network is a worldwide group of over 2 million people who analyze signals collected by a radio telescrope in Puerto Rico. The telescope pulls down about 50 billion bytes of data per day. Another example of P2P is Napster.

There is this sudden realization that most computer users participate is P2P networks.

Technology During my Lifetime

Over the course of my life, I've adjusted to the changing technology. It seems that the longer a technology is around, the physically smaller (more compact) it becomes and the cheaper it is to purchase (although the it becomes less durable). These technologies help us communicate more effectively, entertain us, as well as make our work less manual.

I've seen how playing and recording music (audio) has changed since I was a little girl. My grandmother still played a Victrola, a phonograph that had to be manually cranked ... to the record player that played vinyl records at speeds of 33 rpm, 45 rpm, and 78 rpm ... to the 8-Track tape player (short lived) ... to Cassette tape players ... to the present Compact Disc (CD) players. Oops, I almost forgot about the newest in music, the iPod which plays MP3 files. One medium that hasn't changed that much is the Radio.

I've also seen changes in television, although less dramatic. Our first set was a rather bulky "black and "white" and then we upgraded to "color" (only after the black/white sets were obsolete) which received reception via rabbit ears or an outdoor antennae which ... on a good day would get reception from three stations. The TVs became smaller over time and then cable TV became available to select customers, usually in urban areas ... today there is digital capability and satellite TV stations from all over the world.

Does anyone out there remember the rotary dial telephone? or party lines? Phones eventually became touch tone ... then cordless which gave the user mobility ... and lastly the cellular phone which gives the user even more mobility and allows us to send "text messages". Where would we be if we couldn't make phone calls while shopping?

Cameras have also evolved. I remember the "black and white" pictures of when I was a little girl and then the "color" pictures as a teen. They needed to be fed film and had to be developed before they could be seen ... then along came the Polaroid camera where the picture developed before your eyes ... I was so amazed! Next came the camcorder (cameras that recorded moving objects that played in VCRs) ... and now we have digital cameras that don't need film. If you don't like how you took the picture, with the touch of a button it is deleted. VCR players have also come a long way in their short history. The first VCRs were Beta and VHS players ... today we play our movies in DVD players.

Typewriters have advanced from manual (a lot of energy was need to type) ... to the electric (the keys used to jam when you typed too fast). IBM developed a machine to allow faster typing - the "Selectric" (a ball rotated as you typed along). Eventually IBM developed a magnetic typewriter that allowed revisions to be entered, thereby saving the user from either making messy corrections or retyping the entire document. Computers were on the horizon ...laptops ... and then all the benefits of the Internet ... and typing became "keyboarding".

We'll have to watch and see where technology takes us next.

Introduction

Hi, my name is Linda. I am a junior taking courses part-time in Professional Writing major at SUNY Cortland. I am really excited about learning about and studying the newest technology available.