Culture

Creative and Tech conference in Zurich

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A conference in Zürich where I might go on November 9-10th. It's roughly a festival for media culture & digital lifestyle and there are relevant people in the program as mentioned here:

Zum Beispiel darüber, wie Science-Fiction-Szenarien plötzlich Wirklichkeit werden: in «the hacker crackdown» des legendären US Science Fiction Buchautors Bruce Sterling. Wie technologische Innovationen die Kultur verändern, ist das Thema von «a researcher's outlook on life with computers in 10 years time» mit Dr. Walter Hehl vom IBM Forschungslabor in Rüschlikon. Aus Japan angereist, wird Fuminori Yamasaki, der Chef der japanischen Roboter-Entwicklers iXs Research Cooperation, im Speech «robots are better dancers» seine Visionen darlegen, wie unser tägliches Leben mit Robotern aussehen wird. Wer in Zukunft Informationen und Wissen kontrollieren wird, beschäftigt in «who owns the information society?» den Europa-Präsidenten Georg C.F. Greve der Free Software Foundation. Und wie Kunst als systematische Urheberrechtsverletzung verstanden werden kann, legt in «the Net Art Generation» die in Berlin und Hamburg lebenden Medienkünstlerin Cornelia Sollfrank dar.

Talks will be both in english and german/hochdeutsch.

No remote control for the first VCR

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This is the Ampex VRX-1000 (aka the Mark IV), the first videotape recorder. The cedmagic website has a good introduction about it (picture taken from there):

Research on recording video on tape was begun in the early 1950's, and Bing Crosby Enterprises demonstrated a prototype system in 1951 that ran at 100 inches/second and had 16 minutes per reel. But the quality was poor. RCA demonstrated a better system in 1953, but it ran at 30 feet/second and only had 4 minutes per reel. The small Ampex Corporation came up with the ideas of using rotating heads, transverse scanning, and FM encoding which allowed broadcast quality recording at 15 inches/second and 90 minutes per reel. The VRX-1000 set off a storm when it was demonstrated on April 14, 1956 at the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters Convention

50,000 bucks at that time! There seems to be a Buddy Holly look-alike in the background.

DVD with Guy Debord's movies

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Read in the french press today: for Guy Debord and situationists fans, the DVD box with Debord's movie is goind to be released on November 12th (french edition), there is also a cinema release (october 8th).More about it on the french wesbite http://www.guydebordcineaste.com.

Could be bought on Amazon France (Zone 2 unfortunately).

  • Hurlements En Faveur De Sade - 1952
  • Sur Le Passage De Quelques Personnes À Travers Une Assez Courte Unité De Temps - 1959
  • Critique De La Séparation - 1961
  • La Société Du Spectacle - 1973
  • Réfutation De Tous Les Jugements, Tant élogieux Qu'hostiles Qui Ont été Jeté Sur le Fil « LA SOCIÉTÉ DU SPECTACLE » -1975
  • In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni - 1978

I am really looking forward to watch this!

nethnography!?

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I was not aware of this buzzword: nethnography (which I found in this article: The Field Behind the Screen: Using Netnography for Marketing Research in Online Communities by Robert V. Kozinets):

Netnography is ethnography adapted to the study of online communities. As a method, netnography is faster, simpler, and less expensive than traditional ethnography and more naturalistic and unobtrusive than focus groups or interviews. It provides information on the symbolism, meanings, and consumption patterns of online consumer groups. The author provides guidelines that acknowledge the online environment, respect the inherent flexibility and openness of ethnography, and provide rigor and ethics in the conduct of marketing research. As an illustrative example, the author provides a netnography of an online coffee newsgroup and discusses its marketing implications

Why do I blog this? mmh why using this new buzzword?

Mapping MUD (Multi User Dungeons)

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Don't know whether there are still some people around using MUDs and MOO (I still do) but I am still interested in MUD/MOO (a MUD is a a multi-player computer game where everything is described with text) as a platform to investigate various concepts. Spatiality for instance is a very interesting topic to address with MUDS (see for instance in this paper some reference about it). Now that there is a map/space visualization frenziness, it's funny to find MUD maps like this one:

It's basically a model of a MOO called BayMOO. It's:

one of the most notable efforts to map the topology of MUDs was undertaken by architect, Peters Anders and his students at New Jersey Institute of Technology [3]. Anders, in an email interview, said his motivation to map MUDs was because they are designed by the players rather than professional architects, and they offered "…a source of great opportunity for architects since MUD spaces aren't subject to the consequences of material construction - and could possibly supplant built spaces in the future."

The methodology to do this quite crazy:

Mapping MUDs using field surveying and handcrafted maps obviously does not scale well to cope with many hundreds of rooms. What is needed is some means of automatically surveying the MUD as you go, recording your movement room by room and drawing the map from the results. This can be done in a simple fashion with the zMUD client from Zugg Software which includes an automapping tool

What is very smart is what they get from the analysis of this map:

Anders says his work reveals the distinct structure of a MUD from the topology of its rooms, much like a fingerprint provides unique identification of a person. The fingerprint of a particular MUD, is determined to a large degree by the political structure of the MUD, and Anders says that: "MUDs whose maps resemble an orthogonal grid of cubic rooms reflect a strong administration of wizards - a top-down control of construction in the domain. On the other hand, in democratic, bottom-up managed MUDs, users are free to build spaces without constraint. LAMs of these MUDs tend to be shaggy clusters of spheres, as the directional grid is not followed rigorously."

Why do i blog this? I like these old-school maps which I find very relevant even nowadays. Of course it's simple, but I still consider MUD/MOO and their virtual space as a good metaphor.

More about this here: "Envisioning Cyberspace: The Design of Online Communities" by Peter Anders.

Computer science goes multidisciniplinary in NYT

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Interesting article in the NYT/IHT about computer scientists now moving forward by including other fields in their domain.

Jamika Burge is heading back to Virginia Tech this fall to pursue a doctorate in computer science, but her research is spiced with anthropology, sociology, psychology, psycholinguistics - as well as observing cranky couples trade barbs in computer instant messages. (...)

"If you have only technical knowledge, you are vulnerable," said Thomas Malone, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management. "But if you can combine business or scientific knowledge with technical savvy, there are a lot of opportunities. And it's a lot harder to move that kind of work offshore." Â Burge's research, for example, is in a hot niche called computer-supported cooperative work, which studies the ways people use technology to communicate and collaborate in work groups and social networks. She spent the summer as a research intern for IBM, and her job prospects seem bright. Â On university campuses, the newest technologists have to become renaissance geeks. They have to understand computing, but they also typically need deep knowledge of some other field, from biology to business, Wall Street to Hollywood. And they tend to focus less on the tools of technology than on how technology is used in the search for scientific breakthroughs, the development of new products and services, or the way work is done.

Why do I blog this well I feel I am part of this trend. It's funny to see that this does not go without problems:

Of course, such multidisciplinary shifts are still predicated on a solid grounding in computing. And there are worries that too few students are getting a technical education. While the need for technical expertise is growing, the number of students choosing computer science as a major is 39 percent lower than in the autumn of 2000, the last of the dot-com bubble years, according to the Computing Research Association. Â This trend has troubled Bill Gates, the co-founder and chairman of Microsoft, who traveled to several elite universities in a campaign-style tour in the spring of 2004 to stir up enthusiasm for computer science.

Let's relax a bit with a quote

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Spengler: Don’t cross the streams.Venkman: Why? Spengler: It would be bad. Venkman: I’m fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean “bad”? Spengler: Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light. Stantz: Total protonic reversal! Venkman: That’s bad. Okay. Alright, important safety tip, thanks Egon.

Ghostbusters, 1984

Your image and search engine, in the long run

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Thanks Fab for pointing me on this NYT article: Loosing Google's lock on the past. It's about the huge fingerprint people leave on the web: everything can be found on google:

Marissa Mayer, director of consumer Web products for Google, said that people call and e-mail the company regularly to request that links to their names be removed, though she would not estimate how many. Web masters who want to remove their own content from cyberspace are directed to Google, where they can learn how. But people like me, who do not own the offending material, must contact a Web master directly.

I like this statement:

RATHER than trying to have uncharitable comments and images removed from the Web, Mr. Weber said, people should go with the flow of the Internet. "Go in and be part of the community," he said, "and share and be transparent and be open." (...) The most effective way to define and control your digital persona is to start a blog or put up a home page.

"Web logs come up very high in a Google search," Mr. Palfrey of Harvard said. "By creating a personal Web page, particularly one that has lots of links to lots of sources, you can create a gateway to your online identity." (...) "The Internet is a very good analogy to a company," Mr. Dash said. "There is always going to be somebody complaining. At least the first voice they hear is yours. (...) THEREFORE, the secret to burying unflattering Web details about yourself is to create a preferred version of the facts on a home page or a blog of your own, then devise a strategy to get high-ranking Web sites to link to you. Many people assume that a Google ranking has something to do with Web traffic, but that is incorrect, as is the notion that the more links a site has, the higher its PageRank.

The Zombie effect: people staring silently into their computers in WiFi Café

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After reading anne's post about the fact that a local Seattle coffeehouse has shut down its free wi-fi on Saturdays and Sundays because "it seems that nobody talks to each other any more", I stumbled across another paper in the Financial Times about it: Wake up and smell the coffee, wi-fi users By Simon London.

Coffee shops across the US are finding that offering free wireless internet access to customers is leaving a bitter taste. “There are times when 90 per cent of the people in here are surfing the internet,” says Jen Strongin, co-owner of the Victrola Coffee & Art cafe in Seattle. “It has really changed the atmosphere.”

Students of coffee-house culture call it the “zombie effect” people staring silently into their computers, oblivious to those around them.

Zombies are not only anti-social but also bad business. A single laptop user can take up a whole table. It is not unusual for web surfers to eke out a single cup of coffee for hours. (...) Her solution is simple: from now on the wi-fi network will be turned off at weekends, the Victrola's busiest days. (...) Armando, manger of the Konditorei café in Portola Valley, advises: “Wi-fi etiquette? Keep using it until we kick you out.”

That's how life goes...

Loosing gadgets everywhere

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The IHT has a funny piece about tgis new fact: people have more and more gadgets but they are losing them more and more by "misplacing them in airplanes and airports, hotel rooms, restaurants, cabs and rented cars."

A study conducted by Pointsec Mobile Technologies, a mobile-data protection software company in Chicago, found that the number of laptops abandoned in one London cab company's taxis rose 71 percent in the second half of last year from the same period in 2001, while the number of personal digital assistants left behind shot up 350 percent. (...) The plague of forgetfulness has given rise to several services that locate vanished goods. Trackitback, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and at www.trackitback.com, uses coded identification labels and a reward system to encourage people to call a toll-free number when they find a lost item with the affixed label. A lifetime fee of $9.99 covers standard shipping costs.

How can designers create stuff with a "presence" reminder so that the object is not left aside on the sidewalk after you made a break and alsmot forget your powerbook?

DIY, punks and fortune

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Great piece on Fortune about the rise of a Do It Yourself economy. It's funny to see how the values of the underground (like the DIY attitude adopted by the punks since the 70s) is now contaminating the mainstream capitalism. Now, it's not only a matter of concepts/trends/ideas/meme that become mainstream, the 'methods' of their creation/emergence in the avant-garde scene are also used by the mainstream economy.

Numerous currents have converged to produce this reaction. Bloggers, those do-it-yourself journalists, showed big media that the barriers to entry (like owning a printing press, say) didn’t much matter. Podcasters took radio into their own hands, creating audio shows and putting them online. Amateur music producers, using software that was once the province only of major labels, invented mash-ups: combining songs into totally new ones, then giving them away or selling them. And with the advent of services like Google AdSense, which let people easily put advertising on their sites, these tinkerers could—while not vaulting themselves into Bill Gates territory—at least break even.

I would say that it's a positive move ;)

Animal deliberately producing an IR signal

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According to Nature, Aaron Rundus "is testing the mechanisms squirrels use to ward off rattlesnakes using a stuffed squirrel simulacrum that swings its motorized tail aggressively to generate heat that snakes are sensitive to"More about it in popsci

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have discovered that the squirrel’s tail actually heats up during battle, radiating an infrared signal that can send rattlers slithering. “This is the first instance of an animal deliberately producing an IR signal—and one that seems to be selected for a communicative function,” says UC Davis animal behaviorist Aaron Rundus. All warm bodies emit IR radiation, which animals sense as heat. But the ground squirrel’s tail normally stays the same temperature as its body, even when flailed at other predators, such as gopher snakes. The hot IR signal is brandished exclusively for rattlers—smart, since the rattler hunts its prey with highly sensitive IR-sensing thermoreceptors. Next, Rundus will use his custom built “Robo Squirrel” with a remote-control IR-emitting tail to test how rattlers react to cool-tailed squirrels.

A ground squirrel gets hot-blooded—from head to tail—in this infrared camera shot.

'The Simpsons' has almost reached its halfway poin

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An important landmark: 'The Simpsons' are not over, they just reached half of their path. A cool paper about it in the NYT

Mr. Groening, in spite of his own hints in previous interviews that the show might be running its course, has found a second wind. "I think the show has almost reached its halfway point, which means another 17 years," he said - and this of a show that is already the longest running now on television.

There also seems to be a movie around:

Mr. Groening, along with Mr. Brooks and several of the show's longtime writers, are all hard at work in an office on the 20th Century Fox lot on the long-rumored Simpsons movie.

\'The Simpsons\' has almost reached its halfway poin

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An important landmark: 'The Simpsons' are not over, they just reached half of their path. A cool paper about it in the NYT

Mr. Groening, in spite of his own hints in previous interviews that the show might be running its course, has found a second wind. "I think the show has almost reached its halfway point, which means another 17 years," he said - and this of a show that is already the longest running now on television.

There also seems to be a movie around:

Mr. Groening, along with Mr. Brooks and several of the show's longtime writers, are all hard at work in an office on the 20th Century Fox lot on the long-rumored Simpsons movie.

Debate about cheating and computer uses in classroom

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An interesting debate about cheating in ACM's Ubiquity. Donald Norman reply to Evan Golub. Golub's point was to question the open-book/open-notes exam that may trigger cheating situations. Norman's take is about defending cheating:

I was disturbed by Golub's article because the emphasis was on cheating by students and possible counteractive measures. Never did he ask the more fundamental questions: What is the purpose of an examination; Why do students cheat? Instead, he proposed that faculty become police enforcers, trying to weed out dishonest behavior. I would prefer to turn faculty into educators and mentors, guiding students to use all the resources at their disposal to solve important problems. (...) But in real life, asking others for help is not only permitted, it is encouraged. Why not rethink the entire purpose of our examination system? We should be encouraging students to learn how to use all possible resources to come up with effective answers to important problems.

Then he adresses "the origins of cheating, and by solving the root cause, to simultaneously reduce or eliminate cheating while enhancing learning.":

Consider this: in many ways, the behavior we call cheating in schools is exactly the behavior we desire in the real world. Think about it. What behavior do we call cheating in the school system? Asking others for help, copying answers, copying papers. Most of these activities are better called networking or cooperative work. (...) How much better to reward procedures for coming up with answers. Emphasize understanding of the issues and knowledge of how to gain insight and resolution. Emphasize cooperation.

From space invaders to rubik space

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French artist Spce Invader now investigates a new domain: Rubik's Cube His new exhibition started on March 24th at GALERIE PATRICIA DORFMANN in Paris (61 rue de la Verrerie / 4th arrondissement).

As a matter of fact, the guy is now moving from space invaders to rubik's cube (he already worked on this concept for the NYC "While you were playing Rubik's Cube" in 2003). Stay tuned!