Over Reacting?

http://chikaprincess.com/2010/12/plug-in-installations-prompts-mozilla.html
I completely forgot about the last post, so here it is.
In my opinion they are over reacting a little bit to the "trojan horse" idea of Google invasiveness. I definitely agree that they do some iffy things, but this really isn't that big of a deal. What bothers me more is sites like Facebook that track me to decide what to advertise me. I don't even have a sexual preference listed for many reasons yet they solicit me particular sexual preference sites. Seriously, Facebook, how do you know this kind of stuff about me? Either they're really intuitive or they're seriously stalking all of us in a majorly creepy way. (Not that there's an uncreepy way to stalk people.) The internet is completely eradicating our control over our choices and definitely our privacy. Does anyone else have any qualms with the new big web binoculars that seem to be watching our lives?

Rhetoric: Serious to Hilarious

The above video is a auto-tuned song version of an actual news story about a man jumping inside someone's apartment window and trying to rape her. This just goes to show how new technology, even in audio, can change the rhetoric of a situation from serious to hilarious!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og5znBpNEh8&NR=1&feature=fvwp

Above is an actual cbsnews.com interview with Antoine Dodson about the youtube sensation and his feelings about the victimization of his family being entertainment. I also thought it was really interesting that this news story is online. Pretty sure, all television can just be online to watch at any time at anyone's own leisure. That's already how I watch television, and people will start to shift over because of accessibility and convenience.

-Lindsay Gross

Well I nearly forgot about all you blog readers out there! My last blog entry is going to concern VCRs. Yes I know they are ancient history. I have a problem though. You see I grew up on good old VCRs like so many of us did, and now I am unable to watch all my childhood favorites! I'm sure I could find an old VCR someplace to play those awesome Disney movies, but what about when my kids want to watch Pinocchio? By the time I have kids there probably won't be DVDs anymore. So what to do? I would sure like to save all those VCRs that I have stashed away in a box. I have heard you can copy them onto DVDs, but I have to wonder if it would now be better to make them into video files like the ones on Netflix. Not sure how that would happen, but it sounds like an idea.

Another app to add to the list..

When it come to cell phones and all of their fancy apps these days it always seems that there is something on the rise. I'm personally a part of #teamdroid (twitter talk for those of you who don't know) however have always been curious about the use of blackberrys. My #teamblackberry friends all brag about their use of BBM (black berry messanger) in which they can exclusively talk to other blackberry users. This sense of exclusiveness gives the blackberry users a type of superiority over #teamdroid and #teamiphone.

Now, however, all worlds can unite. The newest application on the yard is Kik, a knock off version of BBM that is compatible with all smart phones that accept applications. As a droid user, I can now communicate with blackberry or iphone users in a way other than text messaging. Similar to AIM or Skype, it is a streamed conversation between two people.

Shouldn't we all be excited about this unification of technology users? Well, you'd be suprised as how many people just aren't having it. When Kik came out, my twitter BLEW UP with slander back and forth between droid, iphone, and blackberry users. #teamblackberry called Kik a knockoff-wannbe and said that they were the originators and all others were just copy cats. #teamdroid and #teamiphone seemed to do the na-na-na-na-boo-boo attitude that wanted to flaunt that they now had something just like BBM.

Overall I think that this is just a very interesting topic that has come up and is seeming to overflow my twitter timeline. http://www.kik.com/ is the offical Kik website that offers more information. I guess the question that lies within is.. What team are you on?


-Natalie Friday

The Truth about 3-D Televisions

Are there any 3-D fans out there? Personally, I don't care for it. Maybe it's because I get motion sickness from just about anything and the thought of dishing out mega cash to go to the theater and wear goofy glasses the whole time makes me cringe. I do agree that the 3-D movie experience can be cool, but does it really need to take over television as well?

This video shows some of the not so obvious truths about the new wave of 3-D television. In fact, the New York Times website has a lot of great humorous videos that show the hidden catches with products (I viewed one on Apple T.V.). Anyway, if you are a fan of everything 3-D, the new televisions in the market may seem to be perfect. However, as the video states, there are a lot they don't tell you. First, there's the fact that you have to buy yet ANOTHER television set (2,000 dollars). Second, you only get two pairs of glasses that need to be charged. Plus, any extra pair will cost you 75 dollars! Third, you'll need to buy a Bludisc player and brand new 3-D versions of any movies you want to watch, including titles you may already own.

This has been a running trend with any technology (buy the latest phone, computer, video game system) for a while. Despite the cost, there will still be many that wish to experience 3-D day after day. There's nothing wrong with that, I suppose. However, I say no thanks.

-Sarah

Technology's Metamorphosis of the RPG

I am a bit late on submitting my last blog entry.  I truly apologize for that.  The thing is, I haven't been really sure what to write about.  Throughout my previous entries I've spoken about obscure and questionable material, such as dating sims, visual novels, and the social systems on message boards I've been on.  Well, I'll briefly talk about RPGs, my favorite genre in games that has really changed because of technology.

A character record sheet for Dungeons and Dragons where the player keeps track of their character's stats.

Role Playing Games (RPGs) have been around for decades, dating back to the original table-top RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons.  However, it wasn't until around the time of video games that RPGs became more accepted.  Sure, there is still the stigma that people that play RPGs, "grinding" for endless hours to attain specific levels or acquire specific items, are nerds, but the video game made it less of a hassle to get into an RPG.  With Dungeons and Dragons, one must have a group of friends in order to get a good game going.  Also, there needs to be a dungeon master who creates all of the plotlines and controls all of the events.  It's a daunting task, which I haven't yet been a part of a successful Dungeons and Dragons group.  However, with video games, you don't need to come up with the plot, it is written for you.  You don't need to play with friends, the player often has control over his "party members", or allies, or there might be an artificial intelligence in place.  You don't need to calculate what level your character is at, you don't need to keep track of what items you may or may not have, and you are less likely to get in an argument with anyone over problems that might pop up.

Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra, an RPG for the Playstation 2.

Granted, video game RPGs do take away some of the creativity of table-top RPGs.  In video game RPGs you are given a specific role, a specific quest, and very little say in the matter, though that depends on the specific game.  RPGs such as Mass Effect and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion really try to give the player that they have control over the events that transpire throughout the course of the game.  Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) further go back to the table-top roots of the genre, allowing players to inhabit a world filled with other live players, customizing their characters and choosing quests as they see fit.  And games like the RPG Maker series gives the player the roll of dungeon master with a, mostly, easy interface to do so.  And even though you may be playing alone, the story and characters in an RPG can be presented so well that you might find yourself attached to the characters you follow in a video game.

Because of technology, RPGs have split off into two different categories: video game or table-top.  There are fans of both and those who choose to stay to one.  I find it interesting that technology has caused such a distinction in play styles for a single game genre.

-Tyler Trosper

Angie's Technology Evolution Series: 4- The Television

My next and last series for this blog will be the television. Again, with this piece of technology, it's a love-hate relationship. It's everything from the provider of our source of entertainment to being called the instrument that is damaging our children....

Anyway. On with the boring history.

The article I read named a handful of people that put in some kind of effort for the TV starting in 1907. It was mostly the little mechanical things that were invented by different people to produce the infamous "boobtube." Believe it or not (that's funny because that was a television show.. ha. ha.), the rabbit ears came before the coloredness of the TV. Then came the wonderful remote control, then cable, closed captioning, and finally webTV was introduced in 1996.

It's amazing what the TV can do to us. It can bring a family together to watch a show, or it can separate two people because they have completely different interests. Basically, the future of the TV has little to go, but I still don't doubt that the future of the TV will surprise us.

Make sure you check out the video up top. It's pretty humorous.

Where did I get my info? Check it out.

http://inventors.about.com/od/tstartinventions/a/Television.htm


It's been a fun past few Tuesdays!


-Angie Green