Time and the Internet

The Internet has revolutionized the way we operate. Since it became public and better yet, since it has become more accessible, it seems as if everyone uses the Internet for something. I use the Internet for e-mail, networking, entertainment, and plenty of other things that I can’t think of right now. I don’t even remember the last time I actually got a letter in the snail mail. The PBS documentary was funny yet educational. It has only been about ten years since that documentary was made and yet so much has changed. I’m kinda scared to see what we’ll have in the next decade to come and i’m still waiting for my Hover-board!

Like most people, I spend more time on the internet than anything else in my life. I don’t even realize how much I use it and how much a part of my life it has become. I use the internet for everything from from socializing to communicating to entertainment to homework and more! I take it for granted that I can easily and instantly find the answer to absolutely any question conceivable with theinternet. The vast amount of information available is amazing.

Honestly, I can imagine life without the internet. It’s amazing to think that generations before me didn’t have it! But watching the PBS documentary reminded me when there was actually a time in my life when I didn’t have the internet. It blows me away to think about how far we’ve come in such a short time. It’s almost scary to think about how quickly things are going to continue to change and it makes me wonder, what’s next??

300 Racist and Homophobic

On the recommendation of my friend Joshua, I went to go see the movie 300 in Imax at the Metreon. I knew nothing about the film except that it was made by the folks who brought us Sin City, which was a very stylish film indeed. I somehow did not get an Imax ticket, and was disappointed until I started watching the film. In addition to being excessively speechy and often quite silly, this film is a blatantly racist and homophobic piece of pro-war propaganda. I’m sorry these people got even a dime of my money. 

300 is the big budget action adventure based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel of the same name that recounts the epic battle between the Spartans and Persians at
Thermopylae in 480 B.C. This is a very famous battle and is often credited by historians as the decisive “defense of Western civilization.” 

That is all well enough, but why is this film being made now? I posit that this film was produced with the intention of stirring up anti-Iranian sentiment by exploiting the fears of 20-something American males, those who would be drafted into war. This movie plays on a fearful population, reminding us of the old formula: be afraid, then turn your fear to hatred. When young males are afraid, they latch on to visions of power and when fear poisons boys against the world, they turn to hate and cruelty. Spartans are exactly the kind heroes a fearful boy wants. The kind of heroes that make him feel that he is superior and pure in the hatred of others’ weaknesses. The film 300 basks in precisely this sort of hatred. 

This film is an abstracted clash of civilizations, full of digitally abstracted violence. It is bad enough that the Persians (Iranians) are depicted as dark-skinned others, but Xerxes, their king, is depicted as an effeminate man dripping with jewelry. Is this intended to frighten young males with visions of molestation? Zack Snyder, the director, admits to doing exactly that. The director says that the film’s (homo)sexual undertones were intended to make young straight males in the audience uncomfortable, because “What’s more scary to a 20-year-old boy than a giant god-king who wants to have his way with you?” 

I don’t know about you folks, but I have had it up to here with
Hollywood using homosexuality and race as shorthand for evil. What scares me is that the average kid will not know he is being disgustingly manipulated so that he can later be used as cannon fodder in a war with murky motives. It makes me sad.

the internet has changed

Over the last twenty years, the internet has changed in many ways.  Advancements in technology have enabled us to communicate quicker than ever.  People say this is the
“age of information”.  I like that term because it describes our current music copywrite situation, concerning “ownership” of copywritten material.  Many products sold over the internet are made up of digital information, enabling them to be copied without the person paying for them.  This was not possible when the internet was starting out twenty years ago.

The internet has also advanced in the form of bandwith.  With millions of people online, moving information quickly has made it possible for all to access free information quickly and at the same time.

Entertainment has changed because of the video and audio-streaming capabilities of the internet.  Show, movies, radio broadcasts and other forms of media can now be found online, making them more acessible and harder to regulate payment for ownership.

the evolution of the internet

I’m pretty old school when it comes to internet; I was around in the days before the world wide web showed up, when we had services like Prodigy and The Sierra Network and even AOL 1.0. I used those services to play games with other people and read the BBS systems for Mortal Kombat fatality move lists among other things. I have fond memories of playing Doom with my Mom’s friend’s husband online, back when playing 1vs1 was incredibly entertaining.

When the web showed up a few years later, it was like internet was new again. Nobody really knew what they were doing with their websites and almost everyone had their own tiny piece of internet real estate on free hosting services like Geocities and Angelfire. In those days people just put up info about themselves, what they liked and disliked, and links to some of their favorite pages. Pretty boring for the most part, but in those days that’s pretty much all you could do.

I think what fundamentally changed what we do on the internet was new programming languages like Java and Flash, and the exponential increase in bandwidth that broadband delivered. Before these innovations, doing anything with music or video online was a tedious, time consuming chore. And the quality was shit.

The same amount of credit also goes to MP3 compression and Flash video players such as Youtube. What’s really changed between now and ten years ago is the widespread availability of broadband and the amount of services that people can use to download content. This brings me to the illegal side of internet.

It’s always been there. The only difference between now and then is that it is much easier to get into the game of piracy than before. I’ve been through all of them: there was the effort-demanding IRC chat rooms, unreliable and unaccessible FTP dumps, obviously doomed Napster, always reliable Soulseek, rest in peace Audiogalaxy, never got good at DC++, mediocre Bearshare, the once king and now godawful Kazaa, and the reigning king of downloadability: Bit Torrent.

Bit Torrent is probably the most important piece of software to hit the downloading community. Speeds can be absolutely heroic at times, and the amount of content available grows larger every day. The best things about Bit Torrent is that it’s easy to use and completely decentralized, meaning the RIAA and MPAA will have a tough time fighting it in court.

I’m one of the few that thinks downloading is ultimately a good thing. At least based on my own experiences, using the internet to download content has increased the variety of content I have been exposed to and increased the amount of content I then purchase legally from proper establishments. The way I like to look at it is here I have this Everything Machine that can give me access to almost anything I want to learn about like never before, including movies, music, and TV shows owned by media congolmerates. It would be a crime to restrict my usage of such a device because the already ‘too wealthy for their own good’ business types want to squeeze a few more pennies out of me. This is information! More information comprehended leads to higher levels of intelligence. That knowledge, if accessed through the internet, should remain as free as possible. It actually isn’t free, we pay our ISPs handsomely. If these RIAA and MPAA pricks really wanted to cash in they should have partnered with ISPs and CD-R manufacturers, though I’m pretty sure they’re already doing one of those.

I mentioned previously in my last post that “Web 2.0″ is fundamentally changing the internet again. This refers to services like YouTube and Flickr and even Myspace, where a vast knowledge of html/java programming and a “shit load” of patience is no longer needed to create decent content online. I’m using one right now, again. In the years to come, we are going to see websites from regions of the world we didn’t even think had internet. I think the next big deal for the internet will be fiber optics in the United States, and broadband reaching farther out into the rest of the world. One laptop per child will be significant as well. Humanity will be able to communicate and hopefully understand one another on a level that has never been possible in the 10,000-odd year history of the species. The potential is infinite.

Writing online

The only time that I would write online is when I am on myspace. I usually comment on other people’s blogs or leave messages on their comment box. I manly read message boreds on web sites that talk about sports. I like to read what people are saying about my team. The good thing about online writing is that you can get comments from other people about anything.

Writing online vs. other form of writing.

I agree with some people when they say that online writing is a much easier tool than any other form of writing. I believe that even if it is impersonal, there is still some form of substance in the writing that can be used by other people. I love to write in a very casual manner and I think that I get my point out in a much clearer fashion. Most of the things these days are online: sports, news events, and other current events so it is only appropriate to write about things (or comment in this case) about what is going on in the world in the comfort of your own surroundings without having to go somewhere.

Online Writing

There are many differences when I think about online writing vs other types of writing.  First, when writing online one is more casual, as if talking to a friend or loved one. I can think of many times when I wrote online and didn’t proofread or spellcheck at all. Second, it seems when people write online they are usually more passionate about their subject, like when posting on blogs or emails to friends about their day or something they’re involved with.  Third, there are many different ways to communicate online with people who have the same interests, so a lot of times writing online is more enjoyable then when writing in a paper or essay.  I definately have a better time writing emails and on myspace then writing for a class.

online writing. easier????

When I think of online writing I think of emails, instant messenger and of course myspace because who know-a-days doesn’t have one. I enjoy these types of online writing as a way to keep in touch with old friends and new ones. I think online writing is a lot more laid back then writing for scripts. When I write an email or post a comment on myspace I do not care about my spelling or grammer and words can be shortened. (ex- I luv u, or where we goin 2nite?) I am a myspace user and love the interaction with friends on it. I do not care about how I type or how I spell but as long as my message gets across then thats all that matters. However online writing is taken seriously if you were a journalist for a website. An example of this would be if you were a sports writer for ESPN.com. They still have a very simple format though but obviously spelling and grammar need to be perfect. What’s great about online writing and blogs is that people who have no idea who I am can understand what I have to say about certain topics. They may agree or disagree but thats the beauty of it because they are my points and they may have no clue who I am!!!

writing online

when writing online

i pay less attention to format

[grammar]

[spelling]

[liberal use of experimental punctuation]

i see the blog as a canvas where writing is more like art. there are less rules and constraints on what is and is not possible, and is an expansive pool for creativity.

i sometimes write on myspace, usually to post a link to a video or news story that i found interesting. i’ll write my own short commentary on it and link to the original source. in that sense, the blogger is a sort of middleman in the “gatekeeping” model. this is the “viral” spread of information that internet is solely responsible for.

other times i’ll write something amusing, something that happened to me or a situation in life that deserves to be written down in the sort of existential prose of a modern short story.

but i’m not sure who is really reading all of this stuff. i mostly get friends reading what i post. in this class it is required for us to read and comment; it would be interesting to see how much feedback this blog would get without that stipulation.

i tend to enjoy writing on a blog better because the potential for creativity is much higher than that of a print publication. with the “web 2.0″ tools like hyperlinking, flash video, and the module i’m using to type on this blog right now, more and more people with little or no html or java programming experience can post good content online for the world to see. this is ultimately a good thing, something that is bridging the “digital divide” between internet users.