As an owner of Apple Stock, and someone who amazingly had bought some BEFORE the first ipod came out, I can attest to the recent stock price run-up that Apple has had. It went from a very low, 12 dollar a share stock at the time, to the $270 a share behemoth it is today. Alas, why did I not buy more than I did?
I recently came across a great chart, which compared the price of Apple products over the years, the price of those products, and what your earnings would be now if you had bought apple stock at that time, instead of that product.
If you bought an Apple PowerBook G3 250 (Original/Kanga/3500) in November of 1997, you spent around $5700. Today, that Powerbook is worth very little. BUT, if you spent that same $5300 on Apple stock at the time, it would now be worth $330563.38!
Read the rest of the chart here.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Cable Companies - "The fight has just begun"
As many know, I have recently given up my cable television subscription, and replaced it with faster internet access and a wideband connection from Timewarner. Cable television, with it's set times for viewing shows, and it's lousy DVR and HD that never seemed to work right, had worn out its welcome at my house.
Sadly, my dreams of watching all of my shows on the internet, like I do now, may not last forever. Because where there's money to be made, don't doubt there will be someone there to make it.
That someone is the cable companies themselves, who, fearing the flight of people just like myself to the World Wide Watching Web of online viewing, are preparing the next round in the fight for my eyeballs. A recent article in Businessweek discusses "TV Everywhere", in which "viewers can watch shows for free, but only if they're cable subscribers first. In other words, as long as you tap a subscription code into your device—any device—you can watch anything you want, whenever you want."
Uh-oh.
Already, HBO has been trying out this format in a few select cities, and found that people who were already paying for HBO, and got access to watch shows online, didn't spend any less time watching HBO on TV than on their laptops. Time Warner executives and Comcast executives began to meet, and dream up a new model where cable companies would create this new model...as long as you could confirm that you were a cable subscriber, you'd get access to all of the same channels and shows online. The model would use the existing infrastructures and establish interfaces.
Initial concerns and issues would be that the rest of industry would have to sign up for this model...meaning, the rest of pay TV and content providers would have to join up with the cable companies. And while it seems impossible, never estimate the amount of clout, and money, that the large cable companies control and have at their disposal.
While both companies were on board, on large disagreement between the strange marriage of Comcast and Time Warner was how to go about this...create one portal online site where all users would go to get their content? Or let the studios keep their own sites...like abc.com, nbc.com, etc. They agreed to the latter, and began the grand experiment of trying to woe the studios.
Apparently, the studios and content providers are eager to play ball...while upstarts like hulu.com and other such sites are showing new shows a day or two after, they aren't really making large amounts of money for the studios...and far less for cable companies. And with the cable companies begin the largest customers of content, studios are less inclined to move towards working with start-ups that are competitors to their big money clients - time warner , comcast, verizon, and directTv.
The race has begun before we've even started. Last year, Comcast began testing out Fancast XFinity TV, which follows the TV everywhere model. Only subscribers to who pay for digital cable and broadband service from Comcast are eligible. Says the article, "Subscribers can tune into two dozen channels, from CBS to Animal Planet, and view 19,000 full-length TV shows and movies. They can use it on as many as three PCs and get most episodes 24 hours after they first air on TV. Much of that was available on Comcast's free site, but now shows on HBO and the Discovery channel have been added to the lineup."
So what does this mean for us as internet TV viewers? Well, the countdown clock is ticking. With the cable companies intent on keeping their cable subscription profits intact, and the tv studios and industry eager to please their largest paying customers, it looks like an unholy marriage is forming that will one day wipe out the hulu.com's on the online world. If all the content is funneled into one online source that you can only get access to by having a cable subscription already, what will this due to the rapidly shrinking TV audience, and the notion of "free online content". Is it really "Free" if we are paying for Time Warner's internet service?
In the end, I feel that TV needs to become MORE like the internet in order to survive. Already, Verizon Fios is going that route, making their digital cable service more like that internet in that you can watch TV, use Facebook, check weather, and Twitter on your TV without changing the channel. Also, cable television should become more customizable. Do we really need 700 channels? I personally only watched about 10 or so, and would happily pay about $10 a month to get only those.
Read the whole article at Businessweek
Sadly, my dreams of watching all of my shows on the internet, like I do now, may not last forever. Because where there's money to be made, don't doubt there will be someone there to make it.
That someone is the cable companies themselves, who, fearing the flight of people just like myself to the World Wide Watching Web of online viewing, are preparing the next round in the fight for my eyeballs. A recent article in Businessweek discusses "TV Everywhere", in which "viewers can watch shows for free, but only if they're cable subscribers first. In other words, as long as you tap a subscription code into your device—any device—you can watch anything you want, whenever you want."
Uh-oh.
Already, HBO has been trying out this format in a few select cities, and found that people who were already paying for HBO, and got access to watch shows online, didn't spend any less time watching HBO on TV than on their laptops. Time Warner executives and Comcast executives began to meet, and dream up a new model where cable companies would create this new model...as long as you could confirm that you were a cable subscriber, you'd get access to all of the same channels and shows online. The model would use the existing infrastructures and establish interfaces.
Initial concerns and issues would be that the rest of industry would have to sign up for this model...meaning, the rest of pay TV and content providers would have to join up with the cable companies. And while it seems impossible, never estimate the amount of clout, and money, that the large cable companies control and have at their disposal.
While both companies were on board, on large disagreement between the strange marriage of Comcast and Time Warner was how to go about this...create one portal online site where all users would go to get their content? Or let the studios keep their own sites...like abc.com, nbc.com, etc. They agreed to the latter, and began the grand experiment of trying to woe the studios.
Apparently, the studios and content providers are eager to play ball...while upstarts like hulu.com and other such sites are showing new shows a day or two after, they aren't really making large amounts of money for the studios...and far less for cable companies. And with the cable companies begin the largest customers of content, studios are less inclined to move towards working with start-ups that are competitors to their big money clients - time warner , comcast, verizon, and directTv.
The race has begun before we've even started. Last year, Comcast began testing out Fancast XFinity TV, which follows the TV everywhere model. Only subscribers to who pay for digital cable and broadband service from Comcast are eligible. Says the article, "Subscribers can tune into two dozen channels, from CBS to Animal Planet, and view 19,000 full-length TV shows and movies. They can use it on as many as three PCs and get most episodes 24 hours after they first air on TV. Much of that was available on Comcast's free site, but now shows on HBO and the Discovery channel have been added to the lineup."
So what does this mean for us as internet TV viewers? Well, the countdown clock is ticking. With the cable companies intent on keeping their cable subscription profits intact, and the tv studios and industry eager to please their largest paying customers, it looks like an unholy marriage is forming that will one day wipe out the hulu.com's on the online world. If all the content is funneled into one online source that you can only get access to by having a cable subscription already, what will this due to the rapidly shrinking TV audience, and the notion of "free online content". Is it really "Free" if we are paying for Time Warner's internet service?
In the end, I feel that TV needs to become MORE like the internet in order to survive. Already, Verizon Fios is going that route, making their digital cable service more like that internet in that you can watch TV, use Facebook, check weather, and Twitter on your TV without changing the channel. Also, cable television should become more customizable. Do we really need 700 channels? I personally only watched about 10 or so, and would happily pay about $10 a month to get only those.
Read the whole article at Businessweek
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Ford's MyTouch system - Driving dream, or dangerous distraction?
I recently read about the Ford MyTouch system, which seems to be the first well-thought out, visually appealing control system for a new generation of tweeting, mp3ing, and well-connected drivers. While cars have been adding in ipod inputs, in-car phone systems, and other piece-meal navigational accessories over the past few years, Ford (in partnership with Microsoft) have launch the first 2.0, all-encompassing salvo into the arena. And with safety as the number one issue when surrounded by all of this in-car gadgetry, the MyTouch is making its best attempt to solve the problems.
The Mytouch system consists of 3 LCD screens, a left hand wheel controller much like an ipod's interface, and a visual system that relies on mainly colors, rather than hard to read text commands. The main touchscreen will have a full tabbed internet browser, a USB to connect a keyboard, and text-to-voice readers - all while in park.
As I driver, I would welcome many of these items...not even for myself, but for a passenger who may be able to interact with a browser to find something we are looking for without a smartphone. But I wonder, how much is too much? How easy will it be to use while driving, and even more importantly, how safe would it be to use while driving?
Read the rest of the article at Popular Mechanics
Saturday, April 3, 2010
The Ubiquitous Marketing of the Ipad...and the next phase of Television marketing.
Well, the Ipad is here...and if you didn't know it yet, you may have to crawl out from under that rock you are under. From tech blogs, to newspapers, and to possibly every magazine coming out this week, the Ipad has either graced the cover, been a featured article, or gotten some sort of mention.
But it hasn't stopped there, and I can't tell who is pulling the strings...is it Apple, who has the clout and money to put their product into every media nook-and-cranny they can find? Or is it media itself, that can't get enough of touting Apple's products, featuring them in cameos and leading roles, and gushing all over themselves anytime they get a chance to pay homage? Or is this really a cultural phenomenon, worthy of all of the attention it's getting?
My personal magazine subscriptions have featured Steve Jobs on the cover of Time this week, the ipad on the cover of Wired, and even Businessweek hoisting up the tagline, "Yet another iPad article? Oh Yes".
But the most egregious iPad "iPandering" was reserved for television, where product placement has morphed slowly over the years into Product Synergy, and where companies and products have turned into integral parts, or even characters, in episode plots.
And while I fully expect this type of Apple-love from the likes of Stephen Colbert (who has been begging Apple for one for weeks to get an ipod), it was ABC's Modern Family that really tipped the scales.
A quite funny show in its own right, Modern Family stooped (or rose) to a strange, new marketing level by making the iPad a central part of the latest episode's plot. And while it's one thing to have an "Apple laptop here, or an iPod there"in a shot, the entire show revolved around the main character's desire to acquire an iPad on his birthday. The comedic situations were tied to searching out an iPad, waiting in line for it, and finally getting one...and blowing out a virtual "birthday cake" on it.
To be fair, the shows' father has been cast already as a "tech geek" and a character whose written arch would warrant that he would want an iPad. But by using him in a comedic way, and having him saying catch phrases like, "Get ready to begin the first day of the rest of your life", are we really laughing with this...or is Apple laughing at us.
One of the first examples I saw of this type of marketing was on a cartoon series called Aqua Teen Hunger Force...in which they created a whole episode around the company Boost Mobile, which is a cell phone provider. While the cartoon is irreverent and borders on actually making fun of the product, the message and the brand gets across...and even gets some "hip points" for being on a cool, adult cartoon show. In this early incarnation, the product has to be ready to get skewered by the show...is it worth it? Probably!
Aqua Teen Hunger Force / Boost Mobile from NX STUDIOS on Vimeo.
Another cartoon series to take this marketing style was Frisky Dingo, in a hilarious spoof of Regis and Kathy Lee, promoting the new Scion car...and continually interrupting the main antagonist with their shameless promotion. Scion was involved in this and greenlit everything that came with being a part of the Frisky Dingo style of comedy:
They even acknowledged it themselves on the cartoon:
But it hasn't stopped there, and I can't tell who is pulling the strings...is it Apple, who has the clout and money to put their product into every media nook-and-cranny they can find? Or is it media itself, that can't get enough of touting Apple's products, featuring them in cameos and leading roles, and gushing all over themselves anytime they get a chance to pay homage? Or is this really a cultural phenomenon, worthy of all of the attention it's getting?
My personal magazine subscriptions have featured Steve Jobs on the cover of Time this week, the ipad on the cover of Wired, and even Businessweek hoisting up the tagline, "Yet another iPad article? Oh Yes".
But the most egregious iPad "iPandering" was reserved for television, where product placement has morphed slowly over the years into Product Synergy, and where companies and products have turned into integral parts, or even characters, in episode plots.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Stephen Gets a Free iPad | ||||
| ||||
And while I fully expect this type of Apple-love from the likes of Stephen Colbert (who has been begging Apple for one for weeks to get an ipod), it was ABC's Modern Family that really tipped the scales.
A quite funny show in its own right, Modern Family stooped (or rose) to a strange, new marketing level by making the iPad a central part of the latest episode's plot. And while it's one thing to have an "Apple laptop here, or an iPod there"in a shot, the entire show revolved around the main character's desire to acquire an iPad on his birthday. The comedic situations were tied to searching out an iPad, waiting in line for it, and finally getting one...and blowing out a virtual "birthday cake" on it.
To be fair, the shows' father has been cast already as a "tech geek" and a character whose written arch would warrant that he would want an iPad. But by using him in a comedic way, and having him saying catch phrases like, "Get ready to begin the first day of the rest of your life", are we really laughing with this...or is Apple laughing at us.
One of the first examples I saw of this type of marketing was on a cartoon series called Aqua Teen Hunger Force...in which they created a whole episode around the company Boost Mobile, which is a cell phone provider. While the cartoon is irreverent and borders on actually making fun of the product, the message and the brand gets across...and even gets some "hip points" for being on a cool, adult cartoon show. In this early incarnation, the product has to be ready to get skewered by the show...is it worth it? Probably!
Aqua Teen Hunger Force / Boost Mobile from NX STUDIOS on Vimeo.
Another cartoon series to take this marketing style was Frisky Dingo, in a hilarious spoof of Regis and Kathy Lee, promoting the new Scion car...and continually interrupting the main antagonist with their shameless promotion. Scion was involved in this and greenlit everything that came with being a part of the Frisky Dingo style of comedy:
They even acknowledged it themselves on the cartoon:
Friday, April 2, 2010
Storyboard03 Revised
Check out this SlideShare Presentation:
Storyboard03 Revised
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Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Are you Bot or Not? Sveda Vodka's creepy new create-your-own robot site.
Stumbled across this new viral site today for Sveda vodka, which had been previously promoting it's Vodka with a highly-sexualized female robot...now, you can make yourself one!
http://www.areyoubotornot.com
Well, you can make a male version...but I went with the sexy female version in the french maid costume. I think black leather with some ruffles looks good on me, right?
These types of sites have become very popular over the years, from R/GA's extensive but short-lived Verizon Action Hero site, to the amazingly popular "Elf yourself" that pops up every holiday season.
http://www.areyoubotornot.com
Well, you can make a male version...but I went with the sexy female version in the french maid costume. I think black leather with some ruffles looks good on me, right?
These types of sites have become very popular over the years, from R/GA's extensive but short-lived Verizon Action Hero site, to the amazingly popular "Elf yourself" that pops up every holiday season.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Storyboard02
Storyboard #2 - Robot-Free Vacation Resort
Storyboard02
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Storyboard01
Story Board #1 for Future Counselors.
Storyboard01
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Digital Design Powerpoint
My latest powerpoint file for Digital Design.
Digital Design Powerpoint
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Top Baffling Commercial Lies
Well, it's not the most hard-hitting news piece to come across the internet, but I found this rather amusing and quite truthful. We are bombarded by commercials and advertisements every day, and many times, we take what we see and hear with a truthfulness that we wouldn't apply anywhere else. But we really, REALLY should be questioning our commercials more.
A recent post on Cracked.com takes the top 6 "accepted truths from commercials" and breaks them down in quite a humorous way...here's the 6 with my little thoughts:
6. Only Women Eat Yogurt
No men were available for these commercials? Or does yogurt really not effect us?
5. One Car on the Road Per Night:
Is there really only one, amazing high-end car driving around at night, showing off it's sleek aerodynamic styling and anti-lock brakes?
4. Dog and Cat Food Is Delicious:
After watching many commercials, I have a hard time not being tempted to grab some Fancy Feast and a tall drink, and dig into that tasty cat food!
3. Cosmetics and Candy Are the Same:
Both look good enough to eat, right?
2. Your Feet Are Haunted
How many commercials do we need with feet that catch on fire, smoke, look green, or just evoke general disgust from the rest of society?
1. Your Body Is Filled With Windshield Wiper Fluid:
From diapers to tampons, why is the "liquid" always light blue?
Read the article at Cracked.com
A recent post on Cracked.com takes the top 6 "accepted truths from commercials" and breaks them down in quite a humorous way...here's the 6 with my little thoughts:
6. Only Women Eat Yogurt
No men were available for these commercials? Or does yogurt really not effect us?
5. One Car on the Road Per Night:
Is there really only one, amazing high-end car driving around at night, showing off it's sleek aerodynamic styling and anti-lock brakes?
4. Dog and Cat Food Is Delicious:
After watching many commercials, I have a hard time not being tempted to grab some Fancy Feast and a tall drink, and dig into that tasty cat food!
Both look good enough to eat, right?
2. Your Feet Are Haunted
How many commercials do we need with feet that catch on fire, smoke, look green, or just evoke general disgust from the rest of society?
1. Your Body Is Filled With Windshield Wiper Fluid:
From diapers to tampons, why is the "liquid" always light blue?
Read the article at Cracked.com
Friday, March 26, 2010
Dangerous Flash-mobs...the ugly side of connectivity.
A fascinating, and scary, article on the current state of flash mobs. This term once stood for harmless, instantly-formed groups, notified by text messages and email blasts, that showed up a specified spots and danced, had playful snow ball battles, and confused and amused everyone else.
But now, these Flashmobs have turned violent, with a major focal point being Philadelphia. Four incidents of 100+ youths forming spontaneously, running through shopping malls and the city, and attacking each, pedestrians, and vandalizing property. Also of note is that many of the teens participating in it are of African-American descent, with many of the areas of the city hit being primarily white.
In my opinion, this is alarming. There is always power in large groups, and many times, large numbers of youth will become emboldened beyond their normal parameters. I can easily see how this would be a wild and exciting proposition when I was a teenager...just to take part in something, especially if all of your other friends are going to as well. It's purely with the invention of text messaging, social-networks, and instant communication between large groups of people that this is possible. It will also take an innovative solution to bring it under control again.
Read the New York Times link...
Image courtesy of Laurence Kesterson/The Philadephia Inquirer
Thursday, March 18, 2010
My convoluted thoughts on violence in video games
My classmate Jooh recently posed this question to us on his blog:
"We have been watched super-realistic virtual worlds through various medias, such as movie, TV, youtube, and etc. and it deems that there is no limitation in virtual world. People can fly, can become an animal. I recently watched a demo play of "God of War 3." It was filled with blood and cruelty. However, is it appropriate? Even though there is no limitation of expression in Virtual Reality, why do we need this? I want to hear from you. Please share your thought about the cruelty that seems across the line of freedom of expression."
I decided to weigh in...and below is my convoluted thought patten. I struggle to find a place to stand on this issue, but I thought I'd share. My response:
This is a very complex issue to discuss...and as a US citizen, I find myself quite confused about where exactly I stand on this. On one hand, my country is a violent place, with relaxed gun laws, domestic abuse, violent criminal behavior, and nightly news reports filled with fear and danger. On the other hand, the United States seems to have a love affair with violence, so much so that many of our most famous heroes in games, film, and television, are ultra-violent types. Kratos in God of War. Scarface in the movies. Jack Bauer on 24.
Amazingly enough, the US, in contrast to, say, Europe, has a much bigger hang up with nudity, sexuality, and any expression of sex in media . Violence is accepted and showcased far more than anything related to sex, in my opinion.
So, what am I saying here? I'm saying that violence sells in this country, and because of that, violence is showcased across all of our media. Games such as Mortal Kombat, God of War, and Modern Warfare tap into a primal need in many people to see and feel the exhilarating rush that comes from watching violence, and that need is stoked by the fact that violence is glorified in so many ways here. Why are so many video games about killing other people, or killing aliens, or fighting people? There is something there, something that humans have a primal urge to see, and possibly experience themselves. But I have to believe it also is caused by the society and culture we live in.
On the other hand, I grew up with semi-violent videogames, albeit in the Nintendo 8-bit era...where the violence was much more "pixelly" and less realistic. And I was able to understand that it wasn't real...but nowadays, as the lines blur and graphics like God of War get more disturbing and realistic, will kids be able to understand it? And video games offer much more than a television show or a film, because in a video game, you are able to actually produce the violent act...to take a life...or to shoot "someone" dead without a real thought as to the consequences.
(thanks to gamesradar.com for the image)
Jetblue Airlines Terminal, and the future of ordering?
My wife and I were recently at the new Jetblue Airlines Terminal at JFK Airport in Queens, NY. We were taking a flight to California, but had some time to eat dinner before boarding...and decided that eating at the airport would be the best option considering our timing.
While the new Jetblue terminal is quite impressive, I was most impressive by a small Boar's Head sandwich shop with the larger JetBlue Food Court. The shop seemed to be operating in an efficient fashion without a human taking the order! My initial reaction was to look for some other area where you order, but what I found was pleasantly surprising.
Instead of a human being, there was a touch-screen interface, which customers were using to place a quite elaborate sandwich order. Everything from picking the bread, to the sandwich "insides" (meat, cheese, etc), to the toppings (and amounts) was chosen in a step-by-step visual interface. Even the price was instantly updated, and items were easily added and undone.
Once entered, the order was instantly sent to one of 5 workers who were preparing sandwiches behind a deli counter to the left of the touchscreen. There were two touchscreens, and customers waited in two lines to use each one. Once a worker called out the appropriate number, the customer took their sandwich and went to pay at the cashier nearby in the Jetblue Food Court.
Now, while the cashier area for this Food Court serviced all of the shops (to allow customers to pick and choose from various eateries and snacks before paying), the fact that the sandwich shop was working well by eliminating a front-register human being spoke volumes about a possible future for fast food, and food ordering in general. Just the fact that:
a) the orders were being put in by customers themselves and transmitted to those who were actually making the sandwiches
b) the customers seemed to have no problem with the interface, or the fact that they were entering orders in on a touchscreen
really speaks to how far we've come, and have adapted to the use of visual interfaces and computers to enter, interpret, and transmit our needs to the actual people doing the service. I could not see this possible years ago without the ubiquitous takeover of the internet, and the visual interfaces and cues that come with it. And I expect to see more of it soon...
Sunday, March 7, 2010
New York's Tech Scene
New York's Tech Scene gets a big write-up in the New York Times. It's a good sign that the dot-com's and internet start-ups are starting to come back. One of our clients is a recent internet start-up that attended a few of these Tech Meetups, and had even asked us to go (which we plan to at some point).
The article states that mobile services and computing, which finally have a lot of infrastructure in place in the NY area, are driving a lot of the new innovation and development. I can attest to this as well, as my clients are getting into the act and starting to request Iphone apps, and sites/applications that offer more community functionality.
The smartphone has caused many clients and companies to rethink the way they are communicating with their users and customers, and I think it's something that has real relevance here in NYC. This city, more than any, typifies the "on-the-go", "get me everything instantly" mentality, and whether you find fault in that or not, it's an attitude that will prevail and drive the tech industry for the foreseeable future.
So, it's a good sign, and makes a lot of what I am learning at school, and applying to my company, seem all the more relevant.
Read the Full Story here
The article states that mobile services and computing, which finally have a lot of infrastructure in place in the NY area, are driving a lot of the new innovation and development. I can attest to this as well, as my clients are getting into the act and starting to request Iphone apps, and sites/applications that offer more community functionality.
The smartphone has caused many clients and companies to rethink the way they are communicating with their users and customers, and I think it's something that has real relevance here in NYC. This city, more than any, typifies the "on-the-go", "get me everything instantly" mentality, and whether you find fault in that or not, it's an attitude that will prevail and drive the tech industry for the foreseeable future.
So, it's a good sign, and makes a lot of what I am learning at school, and applying to my company, seem all the more relevant.
Read the Full Story here
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Clicker.com...or, the last in a long list of reasons that I am getting rid of cable tv.
Well, I've done it. Given up cable tv...for how long, we'll see. But as of today, it's done. One call to Time Warner was all it took.
Will I miss it? Not sure yet. But the reality is that I've been watching about 80% of what I want to see via the internet. Sites like Hulu.com, youtube (to some extent), and the individual channel sites have given me on-demand access to the shows I love...when I want them. If I miss the Daily Show at 11 the night before...well, it's on Hulu.com the next day. Anytime.
And now comes Clicker.com. It claims to be an aggregator for ALL of the online television portals and shows, and claims to be the TV guide for the online viewer. I have yet to explore it fully, but it looks like I'll have more time to...now that I've gotten rid of the old tv.
Will I miss it? Not sure yet. But the reality is that I've been watching about 80% of what I want to see via the internet. Sites like Hulu.com, youtube (to some extent), and the individual channel sites have given me on-demand access to the shows I love...when I want them. If I miss the Daily Show at 11 the night before...well, it's on Hulu.com the next day. Anytime.
And now comes Clicker.com. It claims to be an aggregator for ALL of the online television portals and shows, and claims to be the TV guide for the online viewer. I have yet to explore it fully, but it looks like I'll have more time to...now that I've gotten rid of the old tv.
Monday, March 1, 2010
theGlueproject.com Article - To Gate/Cull or not to Gate/Cull?
Gating is the act of closing off a community to only a certain group or amount of people. Culling is the act of going into a community and weeding out those who may not belong do to a myriad of reasons. And explaining why in a transparent way to everyone else.
Eight Points:
Eight Points:
- Use your Mission/Worldview/Creed/Ideology/Purpose/Values…whatever you call your founding idea and values.
- Have Rules and use them consistently and fairly
- Approve Membership
- Use a ‘Cultural Sieve’
- Have a Like-get-Like Strategy
- Accountability. Self-Policing. Transparency
- Charge a Fee.
- Have Courage and Be Kind…and don’t let it get you down.
The many faces of Chiquita Bananas
By taking this well-known sticker and replacing it with a large series stylized faces, designer's Neff Ink have given a subtle sticker a very cool spin. I love how the faces retain the Chiquita colors, but take immense liberties with the expressions, characteristics, and look of each face.
Read full article here.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Computer composers and the humans who loathe them...
David Cope, a professor, music composer, and computer genius at University of California, Santa Cruz, had created a computer program called Emmy that literally wrote classical music...on "her" own.
From the article on www.miller-mccune.com:
"Emmy was once the world’s most advanced artificially intelligent composer, and because he’d managed to breathe a sort of life into her, he became a modern-day musical Dr. Frankenstein. She produced thousands of scores in the style of classical heavyweights, scores so impressive that classical music scholars failed to identify them as computer-created. Cope attracted praise from musicians and computer scientists, but his creation raised troubling questions: If a machine could write a Mozart sonata every bit as good as the originals, then what was so special about Mozart? And was there really any soul behind the great works, or were Beethoven and his ilk just clever mathematical manipulators of notes?"
Cope answers those questions with, amazingly enough, "not much" and "yes". And predictably, he was criticized and ostracized by the music community at large...but only when he revealed the "creative process" behind the compositions. Before Emmy was unveiled, the works were thought of as "superb" and could not be distinguished from the human composers.
For me, I am torn. I cling to my human body and mind and initially am aghast at this. As a lover of music, especially classical music, I am surprised that a computer could capture the inspiration, emotion, and dynamics of a classical piece. In my opinion, Mozart and Beethoven (to take two composers) were geniuses. Beethoven composed while deaf!
But upon further thought, I begin to think of my own experiences with piano, music theory, and notation...with classical music, one music not always have inspiration, but a solid knowledge of music theory...the placement of notes, what notes and chords work well together, and the common transitions between notes and sections. In the end, much of it does come down to having a genius grasp on what goes with what, and I can see how these relationships can be mathematically programmed. So in the end, is writing music just an exercise in basic structures and common themes that can easily be programmed, taught, and manipulated to create something entirely new?
The question isn't that easy to answer now.
Photo courtesy of Catherine Karnow.
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