16 May 2008
Posting from Media Convergence Course
As part of the course, we're all supposed to familiarize ourselves with the basics of blogging.
Link to the course website: Convergedmedia.net
Link to the course website: Convergedmedia.net
07 September 2005
Laundry Listing Time
Upcoming Books that I want to read/get (in case I forget):
1) A Feast for Crows - George R R Martin (Nov 8)
2) Shaman's Crossing - Robin Hobb
3) Illium & Olympos - Dan Simmons
4) Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
5) Woken Furies - Richard Morgan
6) The Big Over Easy - Jasper Fforde
7) Vellum - Hal Duncan
8) The Wizard - Gene Wolfe
9) The Hallowed Hunt - Lois McMaster Bujold
10) Absolution Gap & Pushing Ice - Alastair Reynolds
11) The Mark of Ran - Paul Kearney (Nov 29)
12) The Atrocity Archives - Charles Stross
13) Knife of Dreams - Robert Jordan
1) A Feast for Crows - George R R Martin (Nov 8)
2) Shaman's Crossing - Robin Hobb
3) Illium & Olympos - Dan Simmons
4) Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
5) Woken Furies - Richard Morgan
6) The Big Over Easy - Jasper Fforde
7) Vellum - Hal Duncan
8) The Wizard - Gene Wolfe
9) The Hallowed Hunt - Lois McMaster Bujold
10) Absolution Gap & Pushing Ice - Alastair Reynolds
11) The Mark of Ran - Paul Kearney (Nov 29)
12) The Atrocity Archives - Charles Stross
13) Knife of Dreams - Robert Jordan
09 July 2005
Land of the Puritans
I just read this article on some politician in California criticizing the ESRB for failing to give the video game, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas a more strict rating. Seems like all the fuss was that there's a mini sex game in GTA that had been blocked off by the game programmers but intrepid gamers have discovered a way to unlock that content.
So obviously it must be the fault of the ESRB that they failed to find out about that. They should have given GTA a more strict rating. After all, the game ONLY got a M for Mature (Not for those below 17).
It must be really tough working at ESRB. How are they supposed to rate game content which has been blocked and disabled by the programmers. Are they supposed to go hunt down all the Easter eggs in a game? And there's no indication that the programmers expected this. It was not even Easter egg content. In short, the mini game was scrapped (not surprising, considering the fuss everyone is making now) and that should be it. The ESRB cannot be expected to rate something that would not be easily available to the average user. Not everyone will even know about the mini game but after making such a big deal, it is guaranteed that everyone will want to try it out now.
Besides, the game is rated Mature and cannot be sold to those below 17 years anyway. With the internet widely available, can anyone imagine that those who can find a way to unlock the silly game cannot find the Paris Hilton sex video if they wanted to?
Which leads us to the whole sex and violence issue in the media, especially the US media. Where you are more likely to get away with bashing a guy's brains out with a sledgehammer than flashing a tit. Nudity = Sex. And we all know sex is taboo (What will the kids think!). Never mind the context. Never mind if the nudity is that of a dead cadaver during an autopsy. (Argh, you'll go blind if you see a breast!)
Just goes to remind us all that at least some Americans are descendants of the original Puritans. And with the rise of the religious, conservative right, the Land of the Free may soon be the Land of the Puritans, among other things.
So obviously it must be the fault of the ESRB that they failed to find out about that. They should have given GTA a more strict rating. After all, the game ONLY got a M for Mature (Not for those below 17).
It must be really tough working at ESRB. How are they supposed to rate game content which has been blocked and disabled by the programmers. Are they supposed to go hunt down all the Easter eggs in a game? And there's no indication that the programmers expected this. It was not even Easter egg content. In short, the mini game was scrapped (not surprising, considering the fuss everyone is making now) and that should be it. The ESRB cannot be expected to rate something that would not be easily available to the average user. Not everyone will even know about the mini game but after making such a big deal, it is guaranteed that everyone will want to try it out now.
Besides, the game is rated Mature and cannot be sold to those below 17 years anyway. With the internet widely available, can anyone imagine that those who can find a way to unlock the silly game cannot find the Paris Hilton sex video if they wanted to?
Which leads us to the whole sex and violence issue in the media, especially the US media. Where you are more likely to get away with bashing a guy's brains out with a sledgehammer than flashing a tit. Nudity = Sex. And we all know sex is taboo (What will the kids think!). Never mind the context. Never mind if the nudity is that of a dead cadaver during an autopsy. (Argh, you'll go blind if you see a breast!)
Just goes to remind us all that at least some Americans are descendants of the original Puritans. And with the rise of the religious, conservative right, the Land of the Free may soon be the Land of the Puritans, among other things.
07 July 2005
"Happiness is a moment like today."
Those were the words Sir Bobby Charlton said yesterday when London won the bid for the 2012 Olympics. Indeed, it turned out to be a short-lived moment as elated Londoners were brought crashing down to reality and chaos this morning.
At first, it just seemed like normal disruptions to the London Tube. Even the authorities were puzzled over the initial cause. Then the truth started to filter to the masses. The underground train network was down. The sight of a eviscerated London double-decker bus filled with the injured and dying will probably be all over the papers tomorrow. So far, scattered reports have the death toll at ten dead and hundreds injured but I doubt that would be the end of it. Explosions in a crowded subway at peak hour. Hit the subways, so that people will evacuate by bus then hit the buses. Do the math. This is sheer diabolical evil.
Terrorists? All the signs seem to indicate so; the coordinated attacks point to the handiwork of the Al-Qaeda. The timing of the attack, with the G8 meeting and PM Blair out of the country was coldly calculated. Security was also probably more concentrated at the G8 venue in Scotland, leading to less security personnel in London. I guess that London winning the Olympics bid was more like a bonus for these ruthless masterminds. With the city celebrating, there was bound to be some security lapses. And the bad guys have certainly seized their opportunities.
It goes to show that all the planning and security will never be foolproof. Reports do seem to indicate that the contingency plans were working and that there was no widespread panic. So I think that's the best they could have done. Eternal vigilance may be a good idea but all the terrorists need is one chance. Then the innocent suffer. The faceless, uncertain spectre of terrorism hangs over us all, waiting to remind us. Can we win this war? Not with guns and not with arms. We will probably have to live with it because terrorism is like a hydra with too many heads and I can imagine other groups with other causes emerging like maggots from a corpse.
There's no end in sight; greater minds and hearts have tried.
At first, it just seemed like normal disruptions to the London Tube. Even the authorities were puzzled over the initial cause. Then the truth started to filter to the masses. The underground train network was down. The sight of a eviscerated London double-decker bus filled with the injured and dying will probably be all over the papers tomorrow. So far, scattered reports have the death toll at ten dead and hundreds injured but I doubt that would be the end of it. Explosions in a crowded subway at peak hour. Hit the subways, so that people will evacuate by bus then hit the buses. Do the math. This is sheer diabolical evil.
Terrorists? All the signs seem to indicate so; the coordinated attacks point to the handiwork of the Al-Qaeda. The timing of the attack, with the G8 meeting and PM Blair out of the country was coldly calculated. Security was also probably more concentrated at the G8 venue in Scotland, leading to less security personnel in London. I guess that London winning the Olympics bid was more like a bonus for these ruthless masterminds. With the city celebrating, there was bound to be some security lapses. And the bad guys have certainly seized their opportunities.
It goes to show that all the planning and security will never be foolproof. Reports do seem to indicate that the contingency plans were working and that there was no widespread panic. So I think that's the best they could have done. Eternal vigilance may be a good idea but all the terrorists need is one chance. Then the innocent suffer. The faceless, uncertain spectre of terrorism hangs over us all, waiting to remind us. Can we win this war? Not with guns and not with arms. We will probably have to live with it because terrorism is like a hydra with too many heads and I can imagine other groups with other causes emerging like maggots from a corpse.
There's no end in sight; greater minds and hearts have tried.
05 July 2005
On the Dreaming
Neil Gaiman in Singapore!
Yes, the Dream King himself is in town for three days. Eager for a glimpse of the 'rock star' of the literary world, I took the day off for his book signing at Kinokuniya. Alas, I had seriously underestimated his local fanbase as despite arriving almost an hour before the actual event, I was already two hundred fans too late. Still, without a clear look at the queue, there was hope. 2 hrs later, I knew I would never get my turn. Gaiman was painstakingly signing off everything for his fans, including this lucky guy who got a drawing of Morpheus on his Mac. He was literally jumping up and down with joy and swearing not to use the laptop forever.
Sadly, I could only look. And take pictures with my friend's camera. And console myself that at least I got a place at his talk later. Which turned out to be great. Starting with some stuff that had been in his blog, how Singapore is ranked 5 in terms of visitors to his blog despite our small population, how that intrigued him enough to want to stop by and how the fans here seem to be wild mostly about his Sandman comics.
Then, we all got a reading of his latest book, The Anasi Boys, due in Sept. He was quite good at it, lively and animated. Everyone just loved the jokes and there were lots of laughs. Finally, came the much awaited Q&A.
Ranging from a question on tips for publishing (Keep it short. Preferably 100k words. Also quoted Heinlein's 5 Rules to Publishing Success.) to his ideal actress for Death in his upcoming movie (He couldn't really answer that due to the sensitivity of this, as the casting has not been confirmed. However, the young Audrey Hepburn was his choice if nothing is impossible. ;)) to whether he believed in evil (Yes, but his idea is the evil is banal, not romantic, e.g. Holocaust evil perpetrated by normal people vs the Hannibal Lector kind of evil.) to whether there will be a sequel to 1602 (There will be a project for Marvel but not a sequel.) to the experience of working with Terry Prachett on Good Omens ("We live in the same world mostly, but in my part of it, the street lights are not working.")
In short, Gaiman is damn funny and witty. Even the answers were peppered with interesting ancedotes that rarely failed to draw laughter from an appreciative crowd. All too soon, it was time's up and with thunderous applause, he left to continue signing books for his fans....poor fellow.
Anyway, I didnt managed to get my books signed, though hopefully I will get that done in tomorrow's session at Borders. Stay tuned. Pictures to follow... once I get them.
18 May 2005
On Sleeping
Many are times I envy those who can just sleep anytime and anywhere. It's like these people have an inbuilt switch that can be turned on/off at a moment's notice. Meanwhile, I toss and turn in my bed, lost on the way. I think about things that happened recently which somehow becomes a starting point that inspires the restless mind to go skipping around in a muddle of memories and ideas. I believe I get some 'interesting' ideas that way.
Interesting in the sense that the ideas may have seemed quite good then though they have rarely withstood the coming of dawn, when a clearer mind prevailed. Or maybe I just forgot the better ones or reduced them so much in order to remember that they ended up losing all meaning.
There was once I had sketched out a pretty good (I felt) intro for an article I was doing. Yet I was only able to reproduce a pale imitation of it the next morning, mainly because I only remembered a single word, a case of over-summary. Which just makes me wish that there was a device that could 'take notes' when I'm lying down, trying to sleep. Something simple and convenient where I can jot down those elusive ideas before they are lost in the well of sleep, yet not so obtrusive that it makes my brain even more awake and harder to fall asleep. Like some kind of recorder that could translate my brain waves into coherent words or visual images while I'm falling asleep, which I could review the next day.
Does that sound like an oxymoron? Even while trying to sleep, I'm thinking of such useless thoughts. No wonder I can't fall asleep right?
P.S: I got the 'inspiration' for this entry while I was tossing around (for 1.5 hrs) last night.
Interesting in the sense that the ideas may have seemed quite good then though they have rarely withstood the coming of dawn, when a clearer mind prevailed. Or maybe I just forgot the better ones or reduced them so much in order to remember that they ended up losing all meaning.
There was once I had sketched out a pretty good (I felt) intro for an article I was doing. Yet I was only able to reproduce a pale imitation of it the next morning, mainly because I only remembered a single word, a case of over-summary. Which just makes me wish that there was a device that could 'take notes' when I'm lying down, trying to sleep. Something simple and convenient where I can jot down those elusive ideas before they are lost in the well of sleep, yet not so obtrusive that it makes my brain even more awake and harder to fall asleep. Like some kind of recorder that could translate my brain waves into coherent words or visual images while I'm falling asleep, which I could review the next day.
Does that sound like an oxymoron? Even while trying to sleep, I'm thinking of such useless thoughts. No wonder I can't fall asleep right?
P.S: I got the 'inspiration' for this entry while I was tossing around (for 1.5 hrs) last night.
15 May 2005
On Blogging
I have finally decided to abandon Xanga and switch my allegiance to Blogger (yet another Google service). Which leads me to start thinking about the whole idea of blogging.
There was this interesting article in the papers the other day, about the predicted demise of newspapers by 2040. How many people, especially the younger generation, are turning to blogs for their daily dose of news. They do not want their news delivered like 'gospel' from the approved media sources. Instead, what we have are countless blogs that exemplify our postmodern society, where there are no right or wrong posts/comments/opinions, just individual, 'IMHO'-type of opinions and everyone has a voice that should be 'respected'. It may seem utopian to some, this democratization of the media, giving every netizen an outlet to express their opinions, even those averse to HTML. And more importantly, as a budding tech 'journalist' does it spell the end of the traditional media as we know it?
Yay, everyone can read about anyone else's opinions. We are entering a new era where people from diverse backgrounds and cultures can interact and discuss anything under the sun. It's like the forums of Ancient Greece, just many times more egalitarian and inclusive.
Sadly, like most of the 'ideals' associated with the Internet, the reality is far from that. As the SF writer Theodore Sturgeon puts it succinctly, "99% of everything is crud." I don't mean to sound elitist but that's the truth. I'm sure there are very useful and thought provoking stuff on blogs out there but many are shallow and mundane, including yours truly. I shall not even comment on those which think it is 133t to use abbreviations and slang that make them incomprehensible to all but a select audience. That is why we have search engines.
Maybe that's why Google bought Blogger.com in the first place. What they get is self sustaining, free content creation by millions of people and of course, to sift the chaff from the wheat, you will need a search engine like Google. I'm not going to talk about the ever increasing reach of Google and its services. There have been enough talk about whether it will or has already betrayed its 'Do no evil" motto. The end result is that we are now even more dependent on search engines to collate the useful information for us. Google News is only the beginning.
What we may see is traditional media becoming decentralized in terms of its format and style as the media move towards shorter, more blog-like reports and opinion pieces. They will become more personal but there will always be a demand for good reporters and writers. How many blogs are non-partisan, factual and neutral in tone? How many flame wars occur in a typical forum? Yes, personal opinions are important and an intimate style of writing can be more engrossing. After all, the mainstream media has not been exactly free of biased reporting and lack of integrity. Yet, I think there is still a need for objectivity (if such a thing is possible) in reporting and the most obvious of all, good communication skills.
The reporter of the future may be your Everyman but he or she will still need to learn proper punctuation.
There was this interesting article in the papers the other day, about the predicted demise of newspapers by 2040. How many people, especially the younger generation, are turning to blogs for their daily dose of news. They do not want their news delivered like 'gospel' from the approved media sources. Instead, what we have are countless blogs that exemplify our postmodern society, where there are no right or wrong posts/comments/opinions, just individual, 'IMHO'-type of opinions and everyone has a voice that should be 'respected'. It may seem utopian to some, this democratization of the media, giving every netizen an outlet to express their opinions, even those averse to HTML. And more importantly, as a budding tech 'journalist' does it spell the end of the traditional media as we know it?
Yay, everyone can read about anyone else's opinions. We are entering a new era where people from diverse backgrounds and cultures can interact and discuss anything under the sun. It's like the forums of Ancient Greece, just many times more egalitarian and inclusive.
Sadly, like most of the 'ideals' associated with the Internet, the reality is far from that. As the SF writer Theodore Sturgeon puts it succinctly, "99% of everything is crud." I don't mean to sound elitist but that's the truth. I'm sure there are very useful and thought provoking stuff on blogs out there but many are shallow and mundane, including yours truly. I shall not even comment on those which think it is 133t to use abbreviations and slang that make them incomprehensible to all but a select audience. That is why we have search engines.
Maybe that's why Google bought Blogger.com in the first place. What they get is self sustaining, free content creation by millions of people and of course, to sift the chaff from the wheat, you will need a search engine like Google. I'm not going to talk about the ever increasing reach of Google and its services. There have been enough talk about whether it will or has already betrayed its 'Do no evil" motto. The end result is that we are now even more dependent on search engines to collate the useful information for us. Google News is only the beginning.
What we may see is traditional media becoming decentralized in terms of its format and style as the media move towards shorter, more blog-like reports and opinion pieces. They will become more personal but there will always be a demand for good reporters and writers. How many blogs are non-partisan, factual and neutral in tone? How many flame wars occur in a typical forum? Yes, personal opinions are important and an intimate style of writing can be more engrossing. After all, the mainstream media has not been exactly free of biased reporting and lack of integrity. Yet, I think there is still a need for objectivity (if such a thing is possible) in reporting and the most obvious of all, good communication skills.
The reporter of the future may be your Everyman but he or she will still need to learn proper punctuation.
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