blogsearch

Google's blog search feature raises an interesting question from the user perspective. I'm sure there's a wonderful technical explanation for this, but still, as a user, you have to wonder about this:

How does Blog Search work?

Blog Search indexes blogs by their site feeds, which will be checked frequently for new content. This means that Blog Search results for a given blog will update with new content much faster than standard web searches. Also, because of the structured data within site feeds, it is possible to find precise posts and date ranges with much greater accuracy.

My question - why can't the blog search results be incorporated into "standard web searches"? To be more specific, why can't Google's regular search results incorporate the blog search results? While you're asking about combining results from several search engine companies, here's a case in which a single company (Google) can't combine its OWN results.

The Politics of Technology

Since its election day tomorrow I had better say something political; Mmmm
I am not going to vote for the Greens tomorrow. They want to stick up dozens of wind farms around the country, in the name of protecting the environment. I cant see how these are so clean and green. Firstly the inefficiency of them requires acres and acres of giant rotating blades to create enough energy for a small town. Besides the noise (I've been to Holland; they make noise) it ruins the landscape for farmers and property developers alike- they are just plain ugly and intrusive!
One maybe wondering why I should bring up such a point in a techno-media blog, well think about it from this point of view; We are film students who one day might want to make a film in this clean green country. What offshore investors will pay to come here to shoot on supposed untouched landscapes- with windmills in the backdrop? The NZ film industry certainly won't benefit from this ridiculous scheme.
I imagine one could argue against this from a technological determinist viewpoint; This technology imposed upon us will shape our lives and media. So like the mobile phone (wich probably causes cancer, and a few years ago was regarded as an intrusive social gadget) these giant wind farms will become part of our everyday lives. They will be incorporated into the backdrop to all those southern man Speights ads. They could even stick webcams on the top and invade the privacy of the sheep grazing underneath - since no-one else will want to be around them.
I do realise this is a rather extreme argument, but what the hell I'll post it anyway.

read this before you vote

Hi there, before you vote tomorrow just have a wee read of this. Its so relevent. Its also so so important to think about how we want the future of this country to be. Its true that all governments are semi impenitrable, with issues like the business round table etc and every government having to pander to the interests of the big business dollar - but, our country is small enough that if we make waves about what we think politicians are affected.

Tax cuts are going to help you out next year, the year after - but for every action there is a consequence. Think about New Zealand like a person managing their lives - would you want to be in massive debt for short term relief? Would you want to undo all of the work you had done on the personal relationships in your life because you wanted to make sure someone who you had taken something from in the begining, was using your own systems and ways of personal governance to try and fairly sort the issue out with you ??

OK - so Im totally ranting and the whole nation personified thing doesn't really translate. anywhooooo - have a read of this much more eloquent blog entry.
http://www.publicaddress.net/default,2530.sm#post

Webcams...

I was reading Jen M's post on webcams and I agree that the thought of walking around somewhere not knowing you could be being watched is quite a scary thought! It's definitely something to think about when we address the idea of privacy, and I also believe that there are certain areas that should remain private.

All this talk of webcams made me think of one that i know is operating in NewZealand. There could be more, im not sure - but the one i know of is in Mount Maunganui. The site http://www.citynews.co.nz/webcams/index.php shows a number of areas, such as Bayfair shopping centre, the movie theatre, the surf beach, harbour beach and a view of the city. These cams however, have created a lot of debate because not only are these webcams able to view people in public spaces, but people sitting behind the computer watching are able to control the camera and navigate around to look at what they want to. They are able to move the camera left and right, up and down, as well as zoom into anything they wish to. For many, and especially people lying on the beach in the middle of summer for example, this takes privacy and webcams to a whole new level! Awhile ago, these webcams appeared on the news as there had been a number of complaints from members of the public. They complained that it was too freaky to be on the beach and have someone that you cannot see, zoom the camera towards you. A fair comment in many ways i think! Who knows who is behind the computer controlling the camera! As i understand it, you are only limited to a minute in 'control' of the camera, but there doesnt seem to be a limit as to how many times you can use it etc.

Do you think that being able to control the webcam is crossing the public/private boundary?? Or do you think that this is no worse than cameras in general?

Flip-flopping the polls

The election is nearly here, then come the pork barrel politics determining what party policies will really be. Ignoring suspect promises of jam today, for me the most interesting feature of this election is the surprise that media commentators are showing over the seeming random nature of poll results. My feeling is that this is a result of the use of technology, especially the speed and ease with which these polls can be carried out and analysed.

Years ago polls were big events, done by mysterious experts with all the pseudo-credibility that implied; this is a blog, I can be judgemental. I come from a generation who if approached by a pollster would try to give an accurate answer; far worse my response would affect my final decision, just through the process of being asked, making a response based on feelings now, then feel that I should be consistent through an obligation of some kind. In effect the observer was affecting my long term behaviour by hailing or interpellating me as a subject who has little ability to reappraise my current ideas in the future. But, like others, I'm relearning the noble art of stroppiness. With the increasing fluidity of information that our now very immediate media technology give us (is this immediation, bet somebody has invented the word), we seem to be getting better equipped to resist being interpellated by pollsters. They ask, we answer, then we change our minds. This is a good thing, part because it makes the pollsters look daft, part because it indicates an awareness of this effect and how it can be used, perhaps unintentionally, to control our future actions; we're getting stroppier.

People are finding their inner flip-flop, and no matter what Karl Rove may say about it, it is a good thing, it is flexibility and the ability to make up your mind based on the now not some pre-packaged idea from the past, then we can revise that idea later as new information floods in from all that technology. At least I think it was Rove who defined the way the Republicans attacked Kerry because he thought about issues rather than basing his thinking on prejudice, so they kept calling him a flip-flopper.

Of course, on the other hand, people might be lying just to annoy the pollsters, well that would be good too and just as indicative of our adaptation to the new media world. And that is something the media gurus haven't latched on to yet, certainly have not adapted to. They will, but lets hope we can keep our edge.

Final point, like Kevin said, do vote. It may be that politicians lie and cheat and don't do what they promised but that does not take away our responsibility to make sure they know we care and will remember those false promises next time. Just keep on using their technology against them, be stroppy, flop-flop, get into jandal mode.

Google Blog Search

Just a quick post because i saw that Google has launched a blog search now! I did a search for technoculture and new media and this blog was on the first page :) Some very interesting Blog's out there and this makes them a lot easier to find.

Google Blog Search

CNN Article

Where Have All the Feelings Gone?

I was in the middle of talking to someone online today through AIM when I suddenly discovered something about instant messaging. I told the person "I had to hide the knives so I didn't cut my wrist over my girlfriend" and they thought I was serious! This was an amazing discovery to me, that it is difficult to broadcast emotion, or in the case SARCASM in big letters, over IM. Not only through AIM, but email, flogging, txt messaging and many other forms of faceless communication.

I must admit that it is possible to encode emotions into texts. They can all have an underlying tone, but its just not the same. There is so much lost in the message without the facial expressions and voice inflexion. Barring emoticons, which are extremely helpful in conveying some emotions, there are few options available to correct this problem.

I'm finding that the only methods to create the necessary tone are through the aforementioned emoticons(smiley faces and all that jazz) and internet speak (j/k and LOL). These methods of emotion transference are better than nothing, but that's about all the credit I can give to them. If I can't make a joke about cutting my wrist then there needs to be a new solution. I suppose the emoticons are the best and most often used current method(for IM at least), but what about cell phone txting?

The latest ideas seem to be the replacing of txting with actual video messaging. Whether this idea will actual catch on or not remains to be seen, but it does solve the problem fairly well. It recreates the facial expressions and voice inflections. There may be some body language still lacking, but there is no replacement for face to face communication. There will always be the lag time and the awkwardness of sending messages by technological means. It will never be quite the same as chatting in person.

So, should we abandon our newest communication methods for the old face to face format? Well, for the time being the lack of some emotions has not proven that large of a problem for many. I guess for myself, I'll have to avoid the 'suicide jokes' until they make and 'I'm just kidding about killing myself emoticon'.

---gabe

Scammers hit TradeMe

Hey everyone, just reading Ayesha's post http://technoculture05.blogspot.com/2005/09/email-scams.html regarding email scams etc and I thought I had better edit this post.

I remember getting similar emails and even letters in the post from someone in Nigeria wanting to transfer some money. All he needed was your bank account details and a cheque for his admin costs, etc, and he could give you so many thousands of $$$ for your troubles. Yes, sadly many fell for it. And there are so many more scams out there. They prey on people not confident with computers using shock tactics (I'm sure you've all had those pop ups: "Your computer has critical errors" which look like a windows warning box and almost impossible to close.) Anyway, back to my original post:

Well, I recently sold a mobile phone on trademe.co.nz and the winning bidder was, you guessed it, from Nigeria. He told me he was buying the phone for his uncle and he would pay by 'Bidpay' (A legitimate company similar to 'Paypal'). Of course the sceptic in me said WTF? and I told him that I wouldnt send the goods until I recieved they money.

After doing a bit of 'googling' (nigerian buyer scams etc) I found a number of websites detailing a particular scam happening on Ebay at the moment. What happens is exactly as I have described. After a few days the seller recieves an email supposedly from Bidpay saying that the money is ready to be paid to his/her account once the shipping has been confirmed. These emails were always sent from bogus addresses (such as 'bidpay@hotmail.com' - as if an international company would have a hotmail account..) Anyway, so if you were sucked in you would send the goods to Nigeria and never see any money for them.

Ok, so I figure I am in the middle of one of these scams. I have emailed trademe (still waiting to hear from them). I am waiting for the bogus Bidpay email before I decide how to deal with the dirty scamming ... person. I could do what joewein.de suggests and send a package containing a dead squirril, dog waste and used cat litter to the Nigerian address. (see http://www.joewein.de/sw/fraud-bidpay-get-even.htm for details... very funny). Or I could just tell him to get lost I suppose..

I just thought everyone should know about this scam as it is probably going to do the rounds and unfortunatley many will fall for it. I am also considering writing to the Herald (eww) or Craccum just to get it out there. And of course I'll let you all know how this turns out.

overloaded

Hi all,

I have found yesterday's lecture very full on. I could hardly make any notes because the lecture was speaking way too fast. I tried to sink in the topics he discussed but when I tried to another point was already made. It seems he was trying to talk too much in the two hours we had. I found it hard to comprehend some of the points he was making. I think he should have edited some information out. The second half of the lecture about CGI and the process he explained about something to do with perpendicular and the y-axsis and x-axsis and Z-axsis for 3-D models, was very interesting. It is with the use of CGI, green screen, digitization in films that help highten the suspense and the aesthetics bewild our eyes for example, Lord of the Rings (Gollum), the film with Goldie Hawn (with the other actresses neck twisted) and the Pseudopod effect, it is very interesting that these science of visual effects involves many calculations like when and where the pod of water would bend in 'The Abyss'. Another effect I found interesting but cannot remember in great detail is 'The Genesis Effect', that was used in 'Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, 1982. Can anyone help explain what that effect was, something about the planets? Another thing, does anyone know what the lecturer meant when he said that Sin City is shot digitally but is argued that is it animated or live project actions?

Sony's responds on the hack of PSP

As i discussed the hack on sony PSP last post, people trying to install something different on PSP such as desktop changer,emulators, 3rd party software and hack of umd games. Sony's are now force PSP user to upgrade their system software to be able to play the newest UMD games. But hackers seems found another way to slove the problem. Hackers from Italy introduced a programe which called "DEV-Hook", what this program do is it can temprarely do a fake upgrade to the newest version which sony realease, after you playing games, you can resart the PSP and it will back to the old version again. Sony now seems did not find a proper way to treat the new program, but they may realease some more update to stop the 3rd party program running. I will do some follow up as soon as get news.

Digitalization

Before I begin my blog, I would just like to say that yesterdays lecture on Digital Film Production was pretty hard out! I don’t know if it was just me, but I found it hard to keep up with notes, as well as listen to every detail of information! But in saying that, I was extremely impressed at how fast Gabriel spoke and let rip with the high quality information! I don’t think I have ever had a lecture where the speaker has rattled off so much in such composure. I was wondering when he was going to ask for a glass of water though…

It seems that almost every movie you see these days has an element (or many more in some cases) of digitalisation in it. As a result, a lot of movies are progressing into the science fiction area. The human imagination has taken people to extremes with
un-human mechanical/sometimes gooey (like they have just bathed in a pool of mucus)/mutated and in most cases, realistically scary beings. Obviously we don’t believe that these beings are going to appear from under our beds or from behind blind corners on the streets, but digital workings on the computer have made it so life like, it can only make one ponder about what they will think of next.

And its not only for characters on films that digitalisation is making its mark. Some of the landscapes (as mentioned in the lecture with ‘Sin City’) are filmed on green screens then edited in the studio. Although the movie isn’t released until December, an advert (cant remember which one it is) shows small snippets of Peter Jackson’s next box office film ‘King Kong’, (the ad’s giving away a trip to New York to see the premiere) and from what you can see (and should already presume, I know King Kong isn’t a mysterious creature that’s been bred and kept hidden all these years waiting for the re-make) it looks insanely digitalised. Which leads me to ask: does the digitalisation factor make or break a film? If more and more film producers are becoming reliant on technology as opposed to the ‘real goodness of the earth’, is it going to alter the way we feel about what we see? Or is it just that producers are looking to go outside the box to bring viewers the extraordinary nature just cant provide? Perhaps all the story lines have been exhausted and the narrative factor is getting to the point where we need to become weirdo’s to keep interested. Maybe. People will continue to believe/watch whatever interests them anyway, but it will be interesting to see what new string of movies come out over the next few months that have once again, relied on digitalisation to power their narratives, and make them ‘compelling hits’.

Is Gollum any less deserving?

In yesterdays lecture, Gabriel made a passing comment about whether or not the actor who played Gollum in LOTR should qualify for a nomination for Best Supporting Actor, due to the CGI involved with his character. While contemplating this I found it difficult to draw any real difference between this and actress Charlize Theron's portrayal as mass murderer in Monster, for which she won Best Actress. Obviously it was her physical self playing the role but surely the extensive make-up and prostheitics used are hardly that much different from the digital rendering used for Gollum. It is still Andy's voice and movements, it's just the external appearance that is different.

Hollywood has always been about smoke and mirrors, so I do not see how this is really any differnt or less legitimate form of film production. Films are not always about true representaion, in fact they 90% of the time they are not so is using digital technology any different from very good characterisation or costuming? Baudrillard says that within the context of the signifier, the signified and the referent, there is no referent. I believe that digitisation and CGI reflects this proposition.

Charlotte

secure line networks

anyone else at all familiar with the use of an "anonymizer" network? probably refer to it more as a server of privacy. but however worded, i just saw a bit about it on a news program. this absolutely-guaranteed-private server idea originated as a means of free speech for those in countries or areas that were prohibited from speaking out on their political, religious, etc. opinions.
the original prospect, as many seemed to agree, was a real nice idea. providing opportunity to those who otherwise couldn't speak out with the assurance of not being tagged with authorship.
but this idea led to the use of anonymous server networking for displays of people's innermost. whether necessarily private or not, among the posts appeared confessions of murder, child pedophilia, and various acts of destruction; all displayed and put out in the public display, but carrying no trace (and no means to find out) where the expression came from. also leading to the curiosity of whether or not the expression was one of truth.
perhaps an example of advancement, designed for the benefit and outlook of the general public and decent citizen, but further twisted (and seemingly abused) by the sick minds of some people out there.
further use of the concept is being pushed as some are now wanting the networking simply as a means to keep privacy from co-workers. as people may all be connected to a public network in the work place, what they do or say from their office space may be desirably kept anonymous.
so perhaps an original idea for free-speech expression has grown into some method of criminal display. a method that is altogether too easy to utilize and virtually fool-proof. people's paranoia of being individually found-out is definitely not a factor with the use of these secure-line networks.

Religion and Technology

Last Sunday as I watched the six o'clock news on One, they featured a segment about a new cell phone that was made for the Muslim faith. This new cell phone had an inbuilt compass system, which can point, towards Mecca, a service that will prove very useful for Muslims. This new development in the cell phone market has so far proved very popular in the Middle East allowing the owners to honor their religion in today’s modern day society. Technology however can also be considered disastrous on religion, for example the other day I was talking to a friend on msn who told me she was talking to God, so I was like ok well fair enough there’s nothing wrong with that. Until I learnt she was talking to “god” on the Internet, strange you might think but true, sure enough she sent me the link which I curiously uploaded to be welcome to the site called “Igod: Repenting made easy” (http://www.titane.ca/concordia/dfar251/igod/main.html). After entering the site and choosing a skin the site is uploaded with a simple window that claims that you are now chatting to God, personally I found this site just slightly offensive because even though I am not highly religious, the thought of some sad human being or computer program claiming to be God is pathetic. Therefore technology and religion is something that ahs to be approached with caution, the Mecca cell phone uses technology as an advantageous way of finding the general direction of Mecca, whereas the “Igod” site is blasphemy.

Webcams and (Loss of) Privacy

In response to Vinny's post about webcams, I want to question the idea that webcams invade privacy. The site that Vinny posted was certainly interesting to view, but I found myself a little uneasy at the thought that many of these people don't know they're being filmed, let alone broadcast live across the net.

There's a webcam that I visit regularly at www.earthcam.com, it has many cams but I like the ones in Times Square and the cam at the Empire State Building. These cams are located in public places so to me they don't seem to invate the privacy of an individual. Also they are legitimately posted on the web at an official webcam site. The site Vinny mentions is slightly different, because these webcams are sought out by the website and many don't know they are online. I also think it is slightly different in the sense that it's not always large public spaces that are filmed, but also more intimate private settings like offices and lecture theatres. As these are more private settings, it seems a lot more voyueristic to be watching them. I feel like at any minute they will do something like pick their nose or scratch themselves because they don't think anyone's watching, and there's something quite odd about people watching this.

I believe that there truely are some things that aren't meant to be seen, there should always be an element of privacy within society, and it seems with all this new kind of technology that the idea of privacy is rapidly slipping away. I am sitting in the tut room in the HSB building right now and for all I know I could be being filmed and broadcast worldwide! I feel like there could be someone watching, and with this kind of privacy invasion this could really become a part of everyday life. Well, I'd better not pick my nose...

Charlie and the Choclolate Factory

Having been a fan of Roald Dahl, Tim Burton and of course Johnny Depp, I decided I had to check out the website for the movie, http://chocolatefactorymovie.warnerbros.com/index.html, and sure enough it didnt disappoint. The site is full with Burton's delicious designs and looks great, while Danny Elfman's music plays overtop (however this does get irritating as it is looped and there's only so much you can take of the puppets opening song.) The best bit, in my opinion, aside from all the downloads and media you are able to look at are the games. Oompa Loompa Roundup, Fudge Frenzy and Bubble Trouble are just three of the games that each feature one of the lucky Golden Ticket winners. They are fairly basic and easy but each does target a different kind of skill and are a fun way to pass the time. If your bored and want to have a play or find out more about the film, I'd recommed you take a look.

Discussion Throw Back

Well, not to kick the dead horse, but news is stirring in the VoIP world. I’ve discussed in past posts some of the developing technologies in the VoIP world, but to just kick out a couple real fast to get them fresh on the mind, Skype, AIM, Yahoo, DialPad, Teleco, Packet8, Net2Phone, GoogleTalk. All of these are either VoIP active or VoIP bound. As another quick refresh, VoIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol. Many of these are owned by major companies. FOr example Teleco is getting purchased by Microsoft, Google is working on GoogleTalk. Well now, the first in the list is going corporate owned but the surprise is by who. Skype, a major player in international communications and VoIP and Cell2Cell communications is being bought by none other than eBay. (http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/?p=645) eBay, renowned in the states as the one stop shop for auctions on just about any item now is getting involved into a new communication medium. This is their most expensive purchase to date ranking at above 2 million, PayPal being behind that by about one million. (http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5860055.html) Why should we care about this however, it lends to some interesting discussion. Up until this point, online mergers haven’t been of major issue. Microsoft buys some sort of software firm, we learn nothing of it and they just take the technology and make it proprietary. No biggie. Even if they consume Teleco and go VoIP, they won’t have an international marketplace pushing this, they will more than likely just consume it into the products they already offer and no one will use it for fear up upgrading. (Who says newer is better?) However, with eBay buying a communication company like that, what does it mean to the bidders already in the market. Does it become a required tool for effective bidding and selling? Do we get forced into this new money stream just to get the best price? Can an online company such as eBay force a seller or buyer into such a situation? It becomes an interesting complex when they add new tells and possibly integrate them in such a method that we the end user could not live without them, and then are forced into paying for it in the long run. What’s interesting is it’s hard to compare how this will work in eBays company image. We can’t compare past mergers as the consumption of PayPal was done by end-user demand. Users needed an easy, safe, and secure way to pay for items won. eBay tried developing their own system, users didn’t like it and PayPal stuck. The demand was so high, the old system got dropped and eBay bought PayPal to keep users happy. Now No one knows where eBay would be without it as it stands as a corner stone of eBay. Will Skype be the next corner stone? I can’t help but wonder through healthy discourse if this can truly have any benefit for us. I know I don’t want to personally talk to some people i buy from on eBay. A non descript email is enough, however if I were to per-say bid on a car online, id very much like to talk to the owner, grill them for answers to make sure the item is in truly good shape being its costs being so much higher than most on eBay. What do yall think about this merger?

Crimson Room Walkthrough

http://technoculture05.blogspot.com/2005/07/game-crimson-room.html

Hi everyone, remember the game I post up few weeks ago. It seems many people still have trouble getting out of the room, so I have posted up a walkthrough for those who can't pass.
For those who haven't played the game, have a go and if you can't pass try the walkthrough.

Highlight the text to see the walkthrough

==================walkthrough====================

The Memo
Inside the top-right drawer in the dresser.

The CD Case
Inside the top-left drawer in the dresser.

The Small Golden Key
Click on the pillow on the bed to lift it, then get the key.

The Small Silver Key
Open the curtains and take the key off the ledge

The Thin Ring
In the bowl on the top of the dresser.

The Thick Ring
Open and close the curtains until a ring falls down behind the bed (takes five or six shakes). Pick it up.

The Cassette Tape
Underneath the dresser

The Battery
Hard to find.
Look at the big red wall and click in the very bottom-left corner to move the camera to the end of the bed and get the battery.

The Metal Stick
Also hard to find. Click on the line between the top of the matress and the headboard to look into the gap and then get the stick

The Power Cable
Use the Gold Key to unlock the bottom-left drawer in the dresser. Open it to get the power cable

The Mystery Box
Use the Silver Key to unlock the bottom-right drawer in the dresser. Open it to get the box
The KeyUse the Power Cable with the CD player to give it power. Press the 'on' button in the top left of the player to turn it on. Press the CD drawer to open it and get the key inside

The Safe
Look at the Mystery Box. Put the Thick Ring in the left circle, put the Thin Ring in the right circle and put the Small Metal Rod into the slot. Now open the box and put the Battery next to the one already in there, place the Cassette in the holder and click on the projector. Watch the dancing man and wait until near the end, when he will point at a small cross on the wall. Put your mouse over the spot and wait until the show finishes, then click three times; a rectangle will appear on the wall. Click on it to expose the safe.

The Screwdriver
Click on the safe to get close-up. Read the Memo and put the URL into your browser to get a short message containing the code to the safe (1994). Enter this and use the Key to open the safe and get the screwdriver.

Escape
With the Screwdriver selected click on the door to get a different view angle. Use the Screwdriver on the edge of the doorknob to remove it. Now just click on the door to open it and leave.

==================walkthrough====================

Pretty tricky aye~~
A sequal of the Crimson Room coming soon!

Keeping In Touch

Yesterday a friend of mine handed me a disk with photos from his digital camera of a party I threw on Friday night. I had promised to pass these photos on to people, so I resized them and was going to email them around instead I decided to upload them on Ringo. Ringo is one of two sites (the other called Bebo) which I singed up to after receiving emails from a friend, it keeps a list of all your friends, which you add by sending emails, and as long as they keep the site updated you stay updated with their contact details, very handy to simply change details on one place than sending out many emails. These sites also allow you to upload photo albums and create blogs. So why did I decide to use this service to upload my photos, simply because only my friends can see them, it's easier than trying to email them which I always have found a hassle especially with hotmail and better than posting them on any sort of publicly accessible site (you never know when your little corner of the net will be displayed in a media studies class) it seems like a good way to share my photos with my friends. Although Ringo has it's good points about been an address book that will update itself I have already found one glaring problem, what if your friends don't update their details? You can't change them, already I am aware of some people with out of date cell phone numbers recorded. So now having an address book to store email address is not enough, there are whole sites dedicated to keeping you in touch and up-to-date with your friends, however it will never help good old human laziness, for each friend who uploads photos and keeps info up to date I have 10 who will probably never visit the site again.

Mobil phones only for Muslim

Mobile phones make our daily life much more convenient. Recently we have got the most updated product--3G mobile that makes the two phone companies compete against each other drastically. However, the mobil phone producer in Dubai who breaks the custom and adds a new value to the cellphones that will be able to help the highly sacred religion Muslim to prayer around the world.

The phone does not just make calls to muslim to prayer it also contains the religious text Koran in both English and Arab versions. More, it shows the Muslim the direction of the city of Mecca to prayer. These characters of the phone give special cares of the Muslim people to help them overcome no matter where they are they can be a good prayer to pray 5 times a day.

Some people might think this product changes the traditional way of prayer which is not good enough but to be a good Muslim this is better than not remembering to pray in this hectic world.

End of the Actor? Digital Doubles and KING KONG

If you haven't checked out the official behind the scenes web site of Peter Jackson's King Kong, ( www.Kongisking.net ), do! Its fantastic. Intimate and interesting it gives us an inside look into the production of the 2005 version of the 1933 classic. Live chat opportunites, message boards, latest news as well as PJ's Production Diary make for a stimulating site.

The Production Diary, film footage narrated by PJ and other members of crew, is a weekly commentary providing the viewer with plenty of behind the scenes footage and short but detailed accounts of various tools used in producing the film we will be seeing on the big screen, including clips on Rotoscoping, Foley FX and ADR recording. Its intersting stuff if your into it!

Talking about special FX in the lab today, made me take a closser look into an effect used in King Kong, Digital Doubling. Going into post production mode now, this is becoming a handy tool for the crew. Digital Doubling is basically about creating a high tech stunt double for an actor or actress, produced by sacnning and creating a perfect replecar of the individual. Apparenlty the work done with Digital Doubling on KK is a huge advancement from the work done of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, which already created amazing stunt effects. Creating a digital double allows a scene to be shot visualising the cast doing actions which could quite possibly kill them, and also allows for placing cast in environmnets which are difficuilt to build. It also allows for actions to be craeted after the cast have left the set. Basically the cast all have digital stunt 'clones'.
PJ concludes the segments by expressing that some critics belive this could spell the end for the need of an actor, replacing the 'clones' to create the action. But its the actors and actresses hearts and souls which give the action meaning he says, and that the body alone cannot provide everything the film needs.


Just released is the trailor ( www.kingkongmovie.com ) Cant wait!

sound for the brain

The way that all humans in part develop their brains and learn to communicate with the rest of the world is aural and verbal. The vibrations of the spoken word must affect the brain of a child in many very complex ways which I personally know very little about from the biological / medical aspect. But hearing language - the ways that the actual tones with the vibratory highs and lows are registered within the brain of a human must have a massive impact before and above the actual recognition of what the word means or is associated with in the physical world.

So I wonder what the increasing use of the internet means in terms of the evolution of the human race. The way in which animals adapt to changes in their environment by either gaining new facilites to cope or by losing old ones because they are no longer needed is somthing we all recognise and accept. So what will the increasing loss of aural stimulation mean for the future? I wonder if our brains are going to start adapting and sending signals to our body in which it communicates less of a need for the ears? or the mouth? I mean, I know thats an extreme example - but at some stage along the way we stood upright (or whatever - you get the picture).

In more spiritual terms, the German (or Austrian - not sure) anthrosophist Ruldolf Steiner argues that positive vibrations, especailly those from the spoken words of ones family memebers, affects the healthy development of a childs vital organs. The brains obvously being considered the most important organ in the body. Whether or not you want to take the spiritual bent or not is irrelivant, as its clear that spoken language developes the brain.

So back to my question of what this means in evolutionary terms. What you reckon?

caution on tech

Specialised ring tones and images has dominanted some of cell phone fans’ lives. No matter when you sit yourself on the bus or you walk in the street, you would hear different kinds of interesting ring tones coming from people’s phones. Ring tone makes our cell phones unique relatively to others’, but meanwhile, it may raise problems as well. Recently, I read a piece of news about a Chinese guy, whose ring tong ruined his future for pursuing studies. This guy is a high school student, who just finished his Bursary and waited for admission from the University. Couple of days later, when he was still waiting, he went to the University he enrolled in and asked for progress. However, after he showed his ID number, the stuff asked. “Why didn’t you answer my phone when I rang, and you said ‘I just don’t want to answer your phone, damn you,’ It is you who don’t want our school, so why do you come here and complain me about it?” After hearing this, the guy realised that it is not him, it is his ring tone, which said “I just don’t want to answer your phone, damn you” has grabbed the chance he enter in this University. He was regret but he could not do anything to rescue his future. After seeing this news, I started to feel anxious and immediately checked all my cell phones’ ring tones to see if they could cause me any trouble or not. At the same time, I think not only ring tone, but broadly saying, modern technology could do both goodness and evil to our life. So don’t be over relay on technology. Be caution to the ring tone, and be consciousness to fascinated technology.

Digitalization

Through out the development of the technology, many things has been digitalized. Almost everyone has a computer and internet access. Most things can be found from the internet, even our study materials has been digitized, eg. Digitized books. We can access books on the internet from the e-library, and we can complete our assignment on the internet too. Just like what the article mentioned on: http://edition.cnn.com/2005/BUSINESS/08/15/execed.libraries/index.html. Also the development of those search engines such as 'google' and 'yahoo' it made a big convinience for the students to get useful materials from all over the world. It's not only good for the users, it's also an advantage for the business people, who can advertise their products. As we see digitalization is a very good movement.

Internet

Internet surmounts the physical boundaries (bounding walls and territorial boundaries) between people and enhances their connection with each other. Take ICQ as an example, users could know new friends and chat with them on-line even they are thousand miles away. This is an important feature of Internet and could be using in some other areas. I just read this article on http://www.tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411419/609988, Internet a tool in hunt for loved ones.


Internet a tool in hunt for loved ones

Sep 9, 2005

After 9/11, descriptions and photos of missing family, friends and co-workers were plastered on walls and bulletin boards in lower Manhattan, but with New Orleans a ghost town after Hurricane Katrina, the Internet is now the medium of choice for those seeking lost loved ones.

"My aunt Geraldine, age 95, lives with her 75-year-old daughter, my first cousin Bernadine Givens...in New Orleans...We believe Geraldine's 76-year-old half brother, my uncle Raul Maurice, was also with them," read one posting on craigslist.org, a popular community bulletin board.

"Geraldine is in a wheelchair. Please Help Me. I spoke with them on Sunday August 28th, the day before Katrina hit...and nothing since," said the posting under the "missing people" icon in a New Orleans section of that site.

While the power of the Internet offers promise to people struggling to reconnect with hurricane survivors, people and pets, several phone calls on Sunday - six days after the Category 4 storm hit the Gulf Coast - yielded only one happy outcome, recounted by Kristina Carapina, 21, of Houston.

"Today is my birthday & yesterday I heard from the Red Cross that they were rescued from the roof. "They called at 11:30 last night from a shelter...They were in St. Bernard, the worst hit area. They were on the roof for five days."

They were her boyfriend Brian, 27, Tim McHughes, 24, and their mother, Dianne Clement. They were "a little worn out and bruised up, but they're good. "They brought a barbecue up to the roof. They had some canned food."

Still, two people from that family remained unaccounted for in the ruined city - a grandmother and an uncle.

'Searching for my cousins'

And that was among the most gratifying outcomes. Salvador Mendez of Ohio's posting on craigslist read: "I am searching for my cousins, David Roberto, Luis or Matilde Mendez of Taqueria Corona as well as their mother Aminta Huezo Parada."

Contacted on Sunday, Mendez said, "Unfortunately, I don't have any news about them." He had also posted notices on the New Orleans site nola.com and findkatrina.com. Of those sites, he and others said craigslist was most user friendly.

The Web search wasn't limited to people. Billie Sue Bruce of Jonesville, Virginia, said she was outraged to see television footage of a white bichon dog named Snowball torn from a little boy's arms by a guardsman as the boy was evacuated by bus.

Bruce posted a $500 reward for return of the dog to the boy and was joined by others. The reward, now posted on craiglist, and other sites like savejustone.com and smallpawsrescue.com, had risen to $2,500 with other contributors.

"That story terribly upset me because it was a combination of a child's heartbreak and an abandoned pet," said Bruce.

Bjay Lateny of San Diego posted on craigslist a search for Marie-Helen Poulaert from Belgium, saying she had used the Web site in the past for "getting rid of stuff in my backyard...looking for work," but never for anything like this.

"I went to high school with her in northern Arizona. She was an exchange student. But I've had no word. You're actually the first call," she told this reporter.

News Web sites including CNN.com have also set up Internet help centers, including missing persons lists, resources for survivors, ways to donate and volunteer. The success of these sites in bringing survivors together with friends and loved ones could not be immediately determined.

No place like INTERNET

In response to Rebecca's insert of how internet is really an essential part of our everyday lives, the more i read the blog entry the more i realised how much the internet is an essential part of my everyday life. I find that everyday since ive started studying at Uni (2004) that i have become increasingly dependent and well, addicted, to the net. Everything from downloading that Milli Vanili "Blame It On the Rain" track that ive been searching for ages to googling any resources for that last minute assignment - has pretty much become a necesssity in both my studys and leisure times.

The course reader, New Media: A Critical Introduction, makes an point saying that "New media is embedded in everyday life and its domestic and urban environments with CCTV, spectacular advertising and new forms of mobile communications all permeating the mundane activities of banking, shopping, entertainment"(220). While the net is a great source of research i find that majority of the time, both at uni and home, the net is means of entertainment. Movie trailers, the latest "fiddy" video on MTV and the increasingly popular hi5 Friends network are just some of the many activities that i participate in online. Particularly hi5, the whole concept of connecting friends to your network - meeting and reuniting with friends has become quite addictive since i signed up early March. I was never really into Friend networks online before until i was reunited with family members and friends on this network, and these are people i havent seen for awhile. Sounds corny huh? Well it is, but as corny as it may be, im hooked man.

However I must say that the internet has become my best friend particularly during those all nighters i seem to pull off for every assignment ive ever done at Uni. Files upon files, resources upon resources are there on your screen. No wonder my local library card is negelected of any use - why? Because i can access the net at home without having to frantically search for that book i need desperately only to have to be issued out and those gurelling que ups at the library.
Speaking of que ups - i must say that 99.9% of the people i talk too all say that the computer facilites at Kate Edger and the .. rush .. i suppose to get a comp is one annoying mother of a!!!! I swear man, there have been countless occassions where i have waited for quite some time for a particular computer and all of a sudden some twit snatches it off me. Just the whole competition to get a computer annoys me! I must say, that there are some good people out there to offer a computer to you - waiting or not.

Yeah, the internet is my common ground for everything now. I use the net more than i use my gel. Its crazy. But im not worried that my life is being mediated by the new media 90% of the time. Its all good. No place like internet aye ...

Unbelievable! New Zealand is the second biggest source of internet security attacks worldwide

Internet security is increasingly becoming a serious problem in the process of informtation technology development. Hackers and viruses raise the cost of informtation society development very much. However, Do you believe that "New Zealand is the second biggest source of internet security attacks worldwide"? Today, I read a brief news from NZ Herald that argue that it is true!

Here is that news:
An IBM survey shows New Zealand is the second biggest source of internet security attacks worldwide, a BBC report says. The US came top with 12 million attacks over a six-month period, followed by New Zealand with 1.2 million and China with one million.
Reference: (Sep 11, retrieved from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=55&ObjectID=10339780)

Although Hackers and viruses are a real threat to internet security, there are a variety of methods can be taken to control their negative influence. Especially, security software is an effective way to do that.
I would like to recommend you to read another news which is relevant to a new security software:
Cucumber Software to block prying eyes
By Owen Hembry
Cucumber Software says it has a system to keep prying eyes and light-fingered hackers out of networks that transfer sensitive electronic documents. The Tauranga-based company has been testing the system with law firm Sharp Tudhope and plans a commercial launch within two months. Cucumber general manager Jodie Tipping said the company would initially focus on selling its document transfer system to law firms and medical bodies. "For professional services firms - like lawyers, accountants and health professionals - being able to guarantee confidential transfer of information to their clients can be a significant point of difference," she said. Sharp Tudhope is pleased with the trial so far. Chief executive Neal Blackburn said the system was more secure than email, which was reassuring. The software uses a web browser and a Microsoft Word toolbar extension to manage documents. Users are able to search the company's network for related documents, filtering by key words and date. The system also prohibits external access to the company's network, with client documents posted to a secure area on a web site. Once a document is posted, an email is automatically sent to the client informing them they have a document waiting. "Military-strength" encryption and digital signatures can be applied to the document for added security and for clients to confirm authorship, the company said. Dave MacFarlane, from Tauranga furniture exporter Design Mobel - a client of Sharp Tudhope - has been using the system to access property, sale and purchase documents while travelling abroad. "In the past, I'd sometimes receive up to six different documents from Sharp Tudhope in six different envelopes in one day," he said. "That was neither efficient nor environmentally friendly, whereas this new system is both." Andy Walker, a Cucumber designer, stresses the need for simplicity and says overly complex software applications limit the benefits of technology for users. Simple, user-friendly software design was essential for clients to focus on running their businesses, not their IT systems, he said. "It has to be, because there's heaps of very good core technology out there, but they're usually not packaged very well for the non-technical." Tipping said the secure access system had given the company "another string to our bow". It's a string that has led to the UK, where she said early talks to market the system were under way. "I think there's a really big market," she said. "Everyone has a need to store information but particularly in the law and medical industry."
Reference:
author:Owen Hembry
Sep 11, retrieved from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=55&ObjectID=10339779

Who will win in the fight between Hackers and Protection methods? I hope the latter will, and you?

Sony Walkman Phone

I was in Hell's Pizza the other day (I know I still do it the old way and go in to order my pizza, but it is on the way home from work!) and I was looking through one of their magazines. I came across an advertisement for the new Sony Walkman phone.

Basically it is the same concept as the iPod phones but just a different brand so different product. The walkman phone is packed with extras (mainly the same as other phones avaliable but with one or two additions). The website is really intriguing in the way that one of the sections allows you to move your mouse over to "see" whats inside (the walkman phone), to illustrate the features including; video/picture camera, bluetooth, radio, torch, web browser, to name a few.

The Walkman part of the phone is achieved by the use of a computer program, that can rip your music from a CD then transfer the music to your phone and save it to the memory stick (that can be upgraded to 2GB.)

I am not sure when Sony invented the Walkman Phone but with the announcement from Apple regarding the release of the iPod phone, I think that this is going to be a very competitive market. Both Sony and Apple must believe that there is a market for such an item, as I know it does become annoying to juggle your Walkman/iPod with your phone (one phone from each network, Telecom and Vodafone, seems to be the fashionable thing at the moment.)

Check out the website here Walkman Phone.

DMB

Satellite DMB is a new concept in multimedia mobile broadcasting service that converges telecommunications and broadcasting.The buzzword in the South Korean mobile phone market is ``cellevision,’’ the video-on-the-go services that deliver television to cell phones.Local handset makers continue to pump out new models that sport mobile broadcasting capacity and cellevision services are catching on with the nation’s tech-savvy users.
Satellite DMB enables people on the road to enjoy crystal-clear video, theater-quality audio and data with handheld devices like cell phones or in-automobile terminals.DMB phone offers nine video channels like drama, sports, games, news, music and movie as well as 25 audio broadcasts.

The latest news about DMB is that Samsung Electronics introduced its innovative horizontal LCD design last year with the Samsung V500 and is expanding this design trend for mobile phones, especially DMB phones. With the B250, users can make phone calls or send and receive text messages even while watching TV. The DMB broadcast received by the phone can also be relayed to a regular TV. The Samsung B250 phone has external buttons that allow users to play MP3 files without opening the phone. The 128-polyphonic sound chip has been built in to provide exquisite ring tones. Also Samsung introduced Navigation Mobile TV combines GPS and DMB.

I think the biggest advantage of terrestrial DMB is that it is a free service tailored toward providing over-the-air programs to all people on the go while the satellite DMB is a fee-based commercial feature.

For the lazy computer owners

I use my laptop everyday to listen to music and I like to just put iTunes on shuffle and let it play songs at random... but of course it will inevitably play a song I'm really not in the mood to hear and I always find myself wishing I had a remote or something so I don't have to get up and press skip on the keyboard.
Fiiinally I stumbled across a remote that does just that, the 'Keyspan Express Remote'. It's a simple piece of technology to use: you plug the infra-red sensor into a vacant USB port on your computer and then use the remote as you would for your TV, DVD-player etc. I know this isn't the most amazing piece of technology out there, but the convenience it provides can't be overlooked. It also comes with software that allows the remote to control a variety of mediaplayers for your computer like iTunes, WinAmp, RealPlayer and Windows Media Player.
I haven't had a chance to look around town to see which places stock this, but I would assume Campus IT would be a good store to check out. It retails for around $59.95 (US).

It's not just Big Brother watching...

At the risk of appearing very seedy, I thought I'd share a little something that I was linked to a short time ago (hopefully most of you haven't seen it before). The page is at http://www.opentopia.com/hiddencam.php and basically shows live footage from hundreds of different cameras around the world.

The description the page gives of itself reads:

"These webcams were found automatically through Google with a variety of clever search techniques. Their owners might or might not have intended for them to be public. But they obviously are. Many of them are security cameras in companies or semi-public places. If you hover over the picture you'll see what location information is available. If you click on it, a window will open and you can see a live video feed, plus comments and ratings and other information."

Now, I'm sure this will seem pretty dodgy to alot of you, and it probably is. Alot of these cameras aren't meant to be broadcasting over the internet, but the site's disclaimer reads that the "snapshots you see here appear as fair use according to copywrite law."

The site shows footage from cameras around the world that have IP addresses. The cameras may be in public places such as parks, or in an office building, school gymnasium, or even aimed at something like a fish tank. All of these cameras are fundamentally webcams, and the people captured in the images most likely don't even know that they are being filmed, let alone having their actions broadcast over the internet.

It's strange to think that you could be walking through a park, and at the same time a foreign person on the other side of the world could be watching you on their computer. All they have to have is the internet, curiosity, and perhaps a slight lack of ethics.

When I first saw the site, I began to wonder who would think of such an idea, and why it was so popular. I guess it really does reflect the times we live in, and the vast reaches of technology.

Incidentally, as far as I can tell, there are no cameras broadcasting from New Zealand...yet.

veges. vegys. vegies.

In response to Josephine's blog, dealing with the internet becoming an essential part of living.
I agree with you, so much. My internet at home is really
really
re
a
l-l-l-
y really slow.
I also can't open any wordpad documents, or download anything, including simple files from the auckland university website
(which makes it totally awesome when i'm writing last minute essays, need to download a lecture or ten, and find it won't let me).
So I also spend a substantial time on the internet at uni. But I hate the lining up, wandering around aimlessly in vain hoping someone will hop off etc. The etiquite of the computer rooms always keeps me entertained, I gotta say. Those times where you see people leaning against the walls, waiting for someone in their selected computer row to evacuate the seat, and eventually someone does. But then, sometimes, someone casually walking past the recently open computer space notices, and jumps onto the chair, taking the computer before the poor leaning against wall student has a chance. That's happened to me before, a couple of times, and everytime I end up all "oooh, man I'm totally gonna give them a piece of my mind. Maybe. Maybe I'll just let it slide. Maybe they will realise they did wrong. Oh, no they wont and I'll just stand here pretending to be sweet with it". It happens to others on a regular basis, it is such a small thing but it really does agrivate me. Common courtesy is overlooked these days.
But I'm not internet dependant just for academic reasons. Email, tv listings, keeping up to date with news etc keeps me busy.
And then there are forums. Admitedly the only ones I go to are based on music, but I have this weird...addiction to them. I know I shouldn't, but it is just so strange. I find if I haven't visited them in 4 days or so, I start wondering what I am missing out on. Are there secret gigs happening that I don't know about? Has someone responded to my post, hailing me as some fantastic all knowing girl? Has someone else torn my argument or opinions down, making me look like an idiot? And then I experience this bizzare feeling of expectation and dare I say it, excitement at reading a whole load of new posts. It's like I wait, and let the posts build up until I know I can read them for long enough to down my lunch.
And then if I ever use these forums at uni, I constantly have this feeling that someone is watching what I am posting, under what name etc, and also proclaiming myself an absolute nerd. Or worse, some wandering person dying to do an assignment will see me using the internet for casual purposes and hate me forever.

And even though my computer at home is slow, and old (it's best childhood friend was this weird beast thing called t-rex. I wasn't born in time to know him)I still use it, everyday. For msn or sites with few animations. I know alot of people that have myspaces, or friendster profiles. I have neither, but those that do have proclaimed they end up spending most of their leisure time on their myspaces/friendsters. I know that with these kind of things I would also become addicted, so I've ignored them.

I am addicted to the internet. I am addicted to pizza. And with the hells pizza website, you can get it delivered to your door.
This is not looking good for my arteries.

Email scams

I've had my yahoo email address since 1997, around the time the Internet (though terribly slow) first entered India. In the last 8 years I have hardly received any spam emails or anything in my actual Inbox of my Yahoo mail, as it all goes to the Junk Mail folder today. I have always heard about these scam emails being sent to people asking them for their cooperation to win a few million dollars and more from a person who is trying to get their money out of Africa, or winning a lottery, but never in my life did I actually imagine to get one of those mails myself. It finally happened this year and I opened the mail and just had to laugh.

First of all there are some spelling mistakes that an official email would not have, including the word "quater" for "quarter" in the beginning of the mail. If you look at the little Fifa support thing at the bottom, you can also see this: F餩ration Internationale de Football Association. They have attempted to make it all official with the name but have carefully edited it out at the same time. Here's the mail:

FLASH FORTUNE LOTTERY

FIRST QUATER OF THE YEAR 2005

YOU ARE THE WINNER OF THE

COMPUTER PROMOTIONAL DRAW

THIS MESSAGE IS FROM THE PROMOTION MANAGER, INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS/PRIZE AWARD DEPARTMENT

OMEGA CROSSING SA

YOU HAVE WON ON THE COMPUTER BALLOT,

THE SUM OF US$ 820,000,00

PLEASE CONTACT

(MR. JOHN KHUMALO)

YOUR CLAIM AGENT.

FOR YOUR IMMEDIATE PAYMENT

ON PHONE NO. + 27-83 940 6792,
email: johnkhumalo1010@yahoo.com


(GLOBAL MEGA LOTTERY)

PRIZE AWARD NOTIFICATION


We are pleased to inform you of the announcement made on.. AUGUST 8TH 2005, of winners of the FLASH FORTUNE LOTTO INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS, as part of our promotional draws.

Participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from 2,500,000 email addresses of individuals and companies from all part of the world as part of our electronic business Promotions Program.

Note that your email address qualified for the draw, as a result of your visiting various websites we are running the e-business promotions for. You/Your Company email address, attached to ticket number 100-309-7482, with serial number 513-10 drew the lucky numbers 3, 8, 13, 22, 27, 41 and Bonus number 12 and consequently YOU HAVE won in the Second Category.

Your winning Ticket is Number. 343-221-8756 Your Serial Number. 454-17 Your lucky draw Numbers are. 3, 8, 13, 22, 27, 41 Bonus Number 12 Your INSURANCE Number: FLS433/453L/GMSA

You have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of US$820,000,00 in cash, which is the winning payout for Second category winners. This is from the total prize money of US$17,650,000.00 shared among the Seven international winners in the Second category. CONGRATULATIONS!

Please be informed that your transferred of the sum of US$820,000,00 is now with Omega Crossing Finance and Security Company insured with your email address which won you this prize, therefore you should contact (OMEGA CROSSING SA) your agent and give them your full names so that they will re-insure your transferred under your full names.

Please note that OMEGA CROSSING your paying agent, will invite you to their office in Johannesburg South Africa for your immediate payment, you have to hurry up and contact them immediately.To begin your claim, please call your claim agent immediately, and also to send an urgent message to Mr. Nomara Chris through Phone or Email address

MR. JOHN KHUMALO
FOREIGN SERVICE MANAGER, OMEGA CROSSING SA. # 25 RICHARDS RYLAAN, AUCKLAND PARK,0083 P.O. Box 524, AUCKLANDPARK JOHANNESBURG 2001 SOUTH AFRICA TEL:27-83 940 6792 EMAIL: johnkhumalo1010@yahoo.com

NOTE: In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please remember to quote your reference and batch numbers and other information provided above and below in every one of your correspondences with your claims agent.

REFERENCE NUMBER: GML-S343-KKT-8811
BATCH NUMBER: 56T-DTH78-SAR99


FLASH FORTUNE LOTTO PROGRAM IS A BONUS FOR THE WHOLE WORLD FOR THE 2010 SOCCER WORLD

Congratulations'' once again from all our staff and thank you for being part of our promotions program.

Sincerely,
MR. MERVIN NKUMATHE PROMOTIONS MANAGER, FLASH FORTUNE LOTTERY. 2nd Floor SABC Radio Park Building P.O. Box 91711, Auckland Park, 2006 Henley Road. Johannesburg, South Africa.

OMEGA CROSSING SA
GOES INTERNATIONAL
AS THE 2010
WORLD CUP
WILL BE HOSTED BY
SOUTH AFRICA

THIS PROGRAM IS SPONSURED BY: SOUTH AFRICAN LOTTO AUTHORITY. AND SUPPORTED BY: (F餩ration Internationale de Football Association) FIFA SUPPORT

Recently I've started getting a lot more of these emails and its been frustrating me. So far I've received about four stating that they are some person trying to get their money out of the country and would really appreciate the help, and would be glad to pay me for my help. The wierd one was actually in the last one I recieved, they actually took the name "Cooper" and used it and said that a relative of my native country (thank god they didn't say India or that would have been a bit scary) has died and they have been searching for a family member and were so glad that they got a hold of someone finally. Of course the sender of the mail was apparentaly their lawyer, and at the same time wanted to keep 60% of the inheritance only giving me 40%.

Sometimes its bugs me so much, because I have lived in a country with corruption and problems. It saddens me to see the worlds technologies being exploited and used... and of course saddens me more when gullible or naive people fall for this kind of thing. When I first went to Boston and we had orientation over there, we were actually lectured on keeping our accounts and cards carefully and not falling for any scams like these. We had many examples of such incidents with people walking down the street. Of course while I think most people should know better than to share their accounts with someone, I'm sure it can happen to the smartest of people.

My dad is pretty much computer illiterate and basically uses the computer to send us emails. One day he was opening a page when he got one of those pop ups which said "Your computer has spyware" and tells you that you should clean it up and gives you a web page to go to. Once you go to the web page it asks for your credit card, and basically my dad fell for it. When he tried to work the program (after it finally downloaded, I think it took quite a while), it didn't work at all, and I think that was when he realised his mistake and decided to call us to find out. Well, of course we told him to cancel his credit card straight away, but there was still some money spent in the account by the time it was cancelled.

I just hate the fact that we live in a world where it pays not to trust easily. And where you have to be so cautious with whatever you're doing, because there's always someone who is out to exploit the innocent for all they have. And with new technology that becomes easier and easier. I guess that's why as Sel posted, adware and spyward makers are starting to target kids as they are easier to get to. It just shows how any technology can be abused and misused for personal gain.

Computer Generated images.

I have recently seen a trailer for Peter Jacksons King Kong due out december, and to me the figures which are computer generated such as King Kong the Dinosaur etc appear caricaturish and not smooth. Although there is no denying that there has been major advancements in computer generated imaging in the last few years it I tend to think that the figures themselves do not look as realistic as they could whereas computer generated backgrounds that are made to reflect real or fictional places such as used in the Lord of the Rings trilogy appear much more realistic and these images on the whole seem more realistic. I personally am a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to film and would prefer if as low a number of computer generated images were used as possible however movies such as Sin City that use solely comupter generated images for backgrounds and settings are very effective in their own right although CGI is not advanced enough to fully intergrate Comuter generated characters into a live action movie themselves

still more on uni technology

A number of people have already spoken about technology at university and I agree that it has its pros and cons for our learning. For example, when I did Stats in my first semester at uni…a time when I didn’t know you could choose to do classes at times that suited your whole timetable…I picked the Stats stream at 8.00 every morning of the week and then had like a 3 hour break till my next class three times a week. As you can guess…it was extremely tempting for me to miss Stats and come to uni at midday. However, I would have missed heaps of work if I’d done this. BUT when I bought my course book I also got a CD that had the whole semester’s lectures recorded on it along with the slideshows for each lecture. It was great! Especially for people like me…with the well co-ordinated timetables;). So I didn’t go to most of my 8.00 lectures…but there was a downside…although I missed lectures because I told myself I’d listen to the CD instead that night, more often than not, I didn’t, and therefore ended up missing out on the lecture material anyway. So although the CD made Stats more convenient for me, it encouraged me not to attend lectures and to only end up missing out on a whole lot of stuff…I know this is completely my own fault as I just lacked the motivation to sit down and listen to the CD. The way I see it, technology gives students a lot more independence and freedom with their learning but it depends on the students to make sure they make the best use of this technology if they are to benefit from it.

Reading 'The Mind’s I'

In the book entitled The Mind’s I, by Douglas Hofstadter, philosopher Daniel C. Dennett posed the following problem: Suppose you are an astronaut stranded on Mars whose spaceship has broken down beyond repair. In your disabled craft there is a Teleclone Mark IV teleporter that can swiftly and painlessly dismantle your body, producing a molecule-by-molecule blueprint to be beamed to Earth.

There, a Teleclone receiver stocked with the requisite atoms will produce, from the beamed instructions, you—complete with all your memories, thoughts, feelings, and opinions. If you activate the Teleclone Mark IV, which astronaut are you—the one dismantled on Mars or the one produced from a blueprint on Earth? Suppose further that an improved Teleclone Mark V is developed that can obtain its blueprint without destroying the original. Are you then two astronauts at once? If not, which one are you?

After first reading this essay option, I thought the section concerning the Teleclone Mark Ⅳ was no more than a trick. If I was dismantled on Mars, presumably I would remember pressing the button, and the next thing I knew I'd be on earth. Then, of course, the duplicate on earth would be me since, within the complete genetic copy, all the same memories, physical and mental conditions would render me exactly the same for all practical purposes.

But what about the soul? To most non-religious people, the only evidence that might show the existence of a soul is the body’s immediate loss of 21 grams after death. However, this explanation endows the soul with a physical attribute, contradicting the theological definition of a soul. If we consider the effects of the Teleclone Mark IV on a human with such a theological spirit, we should expect that, while the machine produces a molecule-by-molecule blueprint to be beamed to Earth, the soul, which is not a physical object, would not be transmitted. If, according to Christianity, a soul is the symbol of unique individuality, then, upon pressing the button, such a person would be the duplicate on Earth in a physical sense, but would cease to be in a spiritual sense. Some reject the idea of a soul and may, in a larger sense, doubt the existence of God. It seems to me that, upon pressing the button, such a person would become the duplicate on Earth in the most complete sense.
The Teleclone Mark IV’s upgrade provides an even more complex scenario. There seem to be four logical options: A, I am on Mars; B, I am on Earth; C, I am on both Mars and Earth; D, I am on neither of the two planets.
As I understand it, this whole problem regarding which astronaut I am is posed in order to prompt me to explore what defines a unique being, that is, the identity of an individual.The notion of two identical beings raises a larger question: Am I identical to myself throughout space and time? Teleporting astronauts make us to consider our identities in different spaces, but what about in different times?

Can ATM machines be trusted...?

I recieved an email the other day about a warning with regard ATM machines. I'm not sure how factual it is but it was based on the idea that bank ATM's can be converted to steal the bank ID's of customers!

Apparently a team of organised criminals have been installing equipment to steal both the ATM card number and the PIN. The team sits in a nearby car recieving the information that's transmitted wirelessly from equipment they install on the front of the ATM.


The equipment is used, is cleverly disguised to look like normal ATM equipment. A "skimmer" is mounted to the front of the normal ATM card slot that reads the card number and transmits it to the criminals sitting in the nearby car.




The email also says that at the same time, a wireless camera is disguised to look like a leaflet holder and is mounted in a position to view the ATM PIN entries.



Sadly enough, the thieves copy the cards and use the PIN numbers to withdraw thousands from many accounts in a very short time, directly from the bank ATM.



This picture shows the camera installed and ready to capture PIN's by looking down on the keypad as you enter your PIN.





I'm not sure as to how accurate this email is, but its a scary thought! When I've been to an ATM since reading the email I have had an eye out - 'just incase!' Maybe its not necessary, but i guess there is always that posibility!!

Technology in Day to Day Llife

I really agree with what Vicki wrote in her Blogg about talking on the phone in privacy. I love the fact that when I am on the phone I can be doing whatever I want at the same time. I too hate talking to people I don’t know on the phone and if they could see me that would be even worse. This idea made me think how technology is not interested in increasing or keeping privacy. All the new gadgets being invented do not allow the private sphere to remain the private sphere. The introduction of the radio, then the television and then the internet has meant that the public sphere has been pushed into the home. Of course there are positive sides to this. You can watch world breaking news from the comfort of your own home. But the line between public and private has blurred and is this really a good thing overall?
I also find it amusing how technology has taken over a large chunk of people’s lives. I am guilty of this and I am sure many other people are, when you see your friends the next day the first point of conversation is about last nights episode of Shortland Street. I have heard people in the street talking about programs as if the people on them were their best friends. The same goes for tabloid news. People will discuss Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt as if they know them and they have insider information on what actually went on. This again illustrates my point that what is happening out in the public world manages to infiltrate the majority of peoples day to day lives.