Archive for February, 2006
Recent Flash Exercises
Tuesday, February 28th, 2006First, go install Flash Player 8.
Then, check out two of my latest Flash exercises here and here. They’re just exercises. But they were the best in my New Media 2 class, if I do say so myself. ;-)
Emerson Jeopardy
Friday, February 24th, 2006Did anyone TiVo Jeopardy last night? “Emerson College” was the question for the $1600 answer under the “College Knowledge” category and I really want to know what the answer was.
Why I’m not buying from iTunes
Monday, February 20th, 2006(or any other music store) anymore. Or at least, having a hard time doing so when I can’t pirate the song or get a used CD.
As I am working on my directed study, honors senior thesis project, and taking Studies in Digital Culture, the issue of media control is ever present. I can no longer bring myself to purchase music from any source that uses Digital Rights Management or DRM. The media industry is eroding away at copyright’s original intent. By buying media with DRM, we are accepting something far greater than what we realize: an elimination of our ability to creatively build upon the creativity of others.
DRM manages the rights of the record industry, not the fair use rights protected by the Supreme Court. If you wanted to use a song purchased from an online music store for something protected by fair use, you can’t. Current DRM schemes only allow burning a CD, transferring to a portable music device, and listening on a few computers. There is no use of the music outside iTunes, Quicktime, or iLife, and even then it’s limited.
Worse, none of the DRM schemes ever expire. If you still have the file in 95 years when the music’s copyright expires, there is no self-destruct mechanism in the DRM to give you the ability to do anything you want with the music.
DRM was developed because an industry saw its customers as The Enemy. I would willingly pay $.99 to buy a song instead of using a P-2-P application. But I cannot currently buy the song without also buying DRM. DRM is like the steroids in milk. I’m not going to not buy milk, but I don’t like that there are steroids in it.
The government is doing little about this issue because the media industry is every political wallet. This sucks sooo much.
Music: A Little Less Conversation (JXL Radio Edit Remix) by Elvis Presley & JXL
Quote
Monday, February 20th, 2006Nick: i brought all my cds from home to my apartment finally and it’s like a whole new place
Nick: i’m not sure my neighbors are digging it
Me: The people beneath me play boom-boom-ghetto music every morning starting at 9. I want to hurt them.
Nick: you should play show tunes at 8 am
Poetry
Saturday, February 18th, 2006For some reason, I felt poetic walking across the parking lot today. A storm was on its way to Boston and the salty warm breeze was taunting me again. These aren’t poems. They are freeform thoughts.
Storm
I need to live where it thunderstorms.
I need to smell the sense of urgency fill my lungs and
dissipate through me.
I need the warning drops to alert my lips.
I need to feel a force opposing me.
I need to know something is more powerful than my thoughts.
Su Doku
I just realized that Su Doku is just organized chaos
placebo zen
and that’s why it frustrates me.
Haikus por mi Arturo
Arthur got jealous of the thunderstorm and su doku, so he made me pinky-promise to write at least a three stanza haiku. Steph pointed out that haiku are only one stanza, so these are three freeform thoughts to be read with a friend beat boxing a 5-7-5 rhythm.
I used to bed late
But my man has no homework
He needs me to sleep
His side of the bed
Changes at his discretion
He’s the best big spoon
I nuzzle my nose
Along his scruff nicely trimmed
Kissing him is bliss
Music: Watch the Sky by Something Corporate
Solitary
Friday, February 17th, 2006Arthur and Steph are in Nicaragua until Tuesday. I am alone in the apartment.
In so many ways, I feel like I am a freshman again. For the first time in a long while, I am living solo, staying up late, working, concentrating almost exclusively on my projects, and just kind of floating from to-do item to to-do item in the moment of being alone.
This morning was wonderful. My walk across the Bayside parking lot (instead of Boston Public Garden) had a warm salty breeze that smelled of spring.
I love the people in my life dearly. I occasionally can appreciate solitude. The solemn time allows me to stop and reflect on how much I love life right now.
My classes are going amazingly well this semester. My jobs are great. I’m not under too much financial stress. The projects that I’m working on are exhilarating. Life is just good.
Music: The Weight by The Band
After Hours
Wednesday, February 15th, 2006Steph and I attended the reading of After Hours by Jason Roush. We both had Jason for three courses of our freshman year as part of the Honors program. And we both absolutely adore Jason.
Jason is one of those professors that you never forget. He’s quirky. He’s witty. He’s smarter than you. He can poke fun at you with unmitigated intellect while you are completely oblivious to the fact.
At his reading, I felt as if Jason was in his element. Hearing him read his poetry was as if he were sharing secrets about himself that wouldn’t normally come out in a professor/student relationship. The poetry made me giddy to know and have experienced Jason.
Vibrant Media IntelliTXT
Tuesday, February 14th, 2006Recently, several technology-related websites that I read have had green double-underline links appearing under random words after the page loaded. This is the latest method online advertisers (and the content-producing websites that deploy this form of advertising) are using to annoy visitors. The advertising is more visually intrusive than banner ads sprawled along the edge of the page, or in the middle of the story in MSNBC and FOX News‘s case.
Vibrant Media‘s IntelliTXT is to blame for this atrocity. Please, someone, develop a Safari and/or Firefox extension to block these ads.
Explicitly Me v2
Friday, February 10th, 2006I have upgraded to WordPress 2.0.1 and now proudly introduced the Explicitly Me mulligan.
Version 2 of Explicitly Me is the layout that I wanted from its inception. I am working on a brand new theme (especially now that my hair is buzzed), but couldn’t leave this theme undone.
The columns are centered horizontally and vertically. You can use your scroll wheel instead of a stupid JavaScript scroller.
JavaScript is still used to modify the DOM because of limitations with CSS. My site still won’t work in Internet Explorer and I still couldn’t care less. Get a better browser.
I am aware that Safari and Opera has issues with absolutely positioned Flash movies. I couldn’t find a fix. Actually, Safari 2.0.2 works fine. It’s the .0.1 update to the latest Safari that has the problem. This appears to be a bug when using the Flash 8 plug-in and these browsers.
Does anyone know of a way to have a JavaScript function called when the browser window size changes? That would help fix another potential problem.
I moved the Google Ads inside each story. This cuts down my ad exposures by half, but provides a better aesthetic.
Feel free to leave comments / suggestions.
Spirit FM
Friday, February 10th, 2006I learned unfortunate news that Spirit FM has cancelled the LiveWire. Spirit FM is following in the footsteps of the entire Christian music industry: irrelevancy. Instead of playing the game, Spirit FM sits in a holy huddle. The station is preaching to the choir. Their music selection does not reflect the rest of the mainstream radio market. No one except Christians listens to Christian radio because the music does not pleasure anyone not tone deaf.
The LiveWire and ZJAM provided a five hour period of music that related to the unchurched and the Christians who appreciated faith-inspired attempts at music. Spirit FM cancelled this segment with no plans for anything comparable. The broadcast area of Spirit FM is now huge. Unfortunately, the station is a lost cause.
Please call Spirit FM (1-800-774-9798) and voice your concern. Tell them I sent you.
Worthwhile reading: Revolution by Scott Hawk
