Project 3

Here's the link to mine too!

http://sarahcooper-eng303.blogspot.com/

My Blog!

http://facetheday247.blogspot.com/

Here's my blog, go check it out, tell me what you think!

Thanks, Christina

Project 3-please help

http://stressandcollege.blogspot.com/

this is my blog for projectthree. please visit it and post anything.

I need your help!

I need some comments on my blog at www.shouldgrandmababysitfulltime.blogspot.com
thanks.

Project #3

http://getthepoemout.blogspot.com/

Help me out with this anyone? :p

(it's just a short blog right now, not much to read)

Project 3

I am truly big on raising awareness for domestic violence. So for project 3, I have decided to do my topic on domestic violence. Since domestic violence is such a controversial issue, I have decided to create a blog dedicated to those victims who are in abusive families, homes, or relationships. I am hoping this can be a place for current or former victims of abuse to share their stories to others publicly or anonymously. By sharing these stories, I strongly believe that these victims will encourage each other that there is hope and a future ahead of them. On the other hand, people can also go to this blog to post their concerns, questions, or views of domestic violence. By bringing these people together in this blog, I hope that it will unite victims full circle that love does not have to take place in a form of violence. Furthermore, my goal for this project is not just to inform people the effects of domestic violence, but there are other ways to bring people together to be more aware of this cause.

To read further into my thoughts go to my blog:

http://lovesdoesnothavetohurt.blogspot.com/

Ashley Smith
Project #3

Well, as I discussed in class there are two ideas I thought for project three. One was for retired teachers, stay at home mothers or anyone who has time and trained to home school children that have difficulty interacting with people, especially society. For example my little cousin was extremely shy his whole life and passed away about three weeks ago. Being comfortable with is behavior, we as family over looked his issues and now we ask ourselves why. Why did we over look or ignore his introverted personality? Could we have done something about this? Absolutely. So I wanted to bring awareness in bringing help other children that suffer from this.
The second idea was for twins to confirm to other people that they do have their own identity because people assume they are one soul that dwells in two identical bodies. A twin usually has to live under one of the two identities that are most noticeable to others. So twin stories and their own identity are very important for others to understand. For example my twin sister (identical) was very active as a child. She played sports, had a lot of friends, very social, and always was an honor roll kid, so people expected me to be the same way. I did try to match her at everything she did, but she became irritated and so did I because this was not who I was, it was who she was.
I decided to write about twin identities because writing about my cousin would be very sad for me and his mother. I would have to interview her with questions and it’s not a good time for her right now or the family.

A Possible Idea for Creating a Blog

Hey Everyone,

I think I have finally come up with a blog idea. I have really struggled with the idea of creating a blog site and what would be the purpose of that site. After weeks of brainstorming I have decided to create a blog that I think may actually help someone out. In class the other day we were discussing the difficulty that women have when they work and have children. In that conversation I discussed how I felt that it was a bad idea for me to have had my mom babysit full time for me while I worked. So, I have decided to create a blog with the top 10 reasons why you should not use your mother as your full time babysitter.

Please tell me what you think. Is this too negative? I hope not, because my point is to help show how to save a mother daughter relationship from hurt and hard feeling.

http://www.pyzam.com/bloggertemplates

Here is a link to a site that has tons of blog layouts for Blogger.com! Once you have found a layout you like, copy the code for the layout & go back to Blogger so you can edit your layout!
To edit your layout go to your "Dashboard", then click "Layout". This will take you to a new page with some tabs near the top - you need to click "Edit HTML". On this page you can go to the bottom where you should see a text box that says "Edit template" & has a bunch of codes on there that won't make any sense to you.
Select the code in the text box & delete it, then paste the code from the layout you found!
Don't forget to save!!

Here is the Link to my blog!

http://britishracecaller.blogspot.com/

Read it, if you like, and tell me what you think. Plenty of thoughts hopefully on there soon about my racecalling and check out the great artwork I create to identify the horses! ;)

Also you can check out a couple of my calls at: (there is a link on the blog)

http://tinypic.com/britishracecaller

Let me know what you think!

Craig

Creating a Digital Space

hey everyone! Check out the pbwiki site for links on creating digital spaces. The link is on the sidebar under Creating Digital Spaces

Idea for Project 3

So after class on Tuesday, I thought about the random and various things we talked about and I am starting to form an idea for Project 3. I am a very positive person and I always try to find the good in every bad situation or learn something from the bad experience. So, for my Project 3 I am thinking about creating a blog called "Glass 1/2 Full." Kinda reflective of my view of "The glass half full, not half empty"and basically how I try to live my life. I thought it could be a place where people could go and blog about good things that happened to them that day. Maybe be able to pick a cyberspace drink that goes along with their mood, like on MySpace you can pick a smiley face to express how you're feeling. For example, today I completed my 40 hours of student observation with 6th graders, I could have enjoyed a cup of coffee and a place to write down how great it feels to be finished observing! I thought about having Bob Marley's "Don't Worry, Be Happy" song playing in the background. Also I thought about putting some videos from YouTube that are just funny to make people smile and laugh. Overall I want the blog to be a place where people can come and see the positive things in their lives instead of focusing so much on the negative.

project 3

http://eatingdisorder-cowgirlwithwings.blogspot.com/2008/11/this-place.html

here is another one of my ideas. I tink this is my favorite.

Project 3 Blogs

I have made a few blogs that interest me and i want your opinions on which one you believe i should use and how i should further develope them. Please help. Thank you:

http://stressandcollege.blogspot.com/

http://hubpages.com/hub/stresses-of-life

http://heroeswithhooves.wetpaint.com/

My Draft...

Hi People: Apologies for not being at class on Thursday. I am having some fmaily difficulties back in the UK at present..Craig. I will bring my responses to class on Tuesday.

Golf Equipment Aficionado’s (www.4gea.com) is an online golf community primarily concerned with golf club equipment testing, fitting and repair. It has over ten thousand active members, including some very big names in the golf business. However, it is also very welcoming to newcomers and amateur clubmakers/players, who make up the majority of the membership.

There are Three levels of membership. Regular Membership is free and allows the member full posting privileges. Titanium Membership is $30 a year and entitles members to enter into competition drawings and allows very generous discounts on golf equipment and clubmaking supplies purchased from the sponsors of the site. The Third level of membership is by invitation only. You have to be a Titanium Member in good standing and have two recommends from people who have met you in person. This allows you access to the Swop-Shop where golf and clubmaking equipment is sold and traded often at prices far below the wholesale price of the golf clubs. There is also another “hidden” part of the forum dealing with politics. Anyone is free to go there but as it is primarily a golf equipment forum, it is kept hidden from view of visitors.

Although it is hard to profile a typical GEA’r, there are certainly a few common denominators among the majority of posters. Ninety-five percent of GEA membership is male – though many have spouses that play golf. They are overwhelmingly white, (As a moderator there, I know of three African-Americans, a couple of Asians and perhaps a few dozen Euro’s) and claim to be from the middle to upper classes of society. Christianity, especially evangelical Christianity seems to be embraced by many members and from the tens of thousands of posts on the subject(s), the majority appear to be Pro-Life, fiscally and politically conservative (but paradoxically many of those seem to have an obsession with materialism) and Pro NRA.

The forum is split into various sections, Golf, Golf Equipment, Clubmaking and Repair, Reviews, Swing Instruction, Non-Golf and the aptly named Exercise in Futility, which is the political folder. The golf equipment folder is good for showing how gullible the golfing public can be. Whenever, an equipment company brings out a new piece of gear, it of course always says “It will transform your game.” “#1 On Tour”, etc. A promise of an extra five yards on your drive will bring out droves of people posting it is true. Perhaps the longest lasting argument in this folder is called: “Cast Vs. Forged.”

Tech Note: (Promise to keep it brief) A set of irons are either made of cast stainless steel or are made of forged steel. Today, 99% of irons are made of cast stainless steel as it is cheaper and the heads can be made larger and more forgiving than using the forged method…

Double-Blind tests have always proven the golfer can never predictably feel the difference between a cast head and a forged head of the same design. However, seemingly every GEA’r will tell you they can see and feel the difference. I think there are differences, but they are entirely psychological, I prefer the compact forged head look, but many GEAr’s will seemingly create reasons which often have no scientific reasoning behind them whatsoever.

Strangely, the two sides of the GEA is often shown at its most obvious in the Non-Golf Folder.
I own a Rolex. It was a gift from my Grandfather. I seldom wear it and consider it a piece of jewelry. I will wear it for TV, broadcasting if I am going somewhere it may be noticed. I am not really a flashy person, though. Recently, I noticed its timekeeping was not as accurate as it had been and I posted a thread asking to recommend a good Rolex Cleaner with an idea of cost as I have not had it oiled or serviced for nearly ten years. The first response was from someone who has recently sent theirs to Rolex and it cost $600.00 to be cleaned, oiled, serviced, etc.

Three of the next four responses were:
“Someone might observe that $600 would buy a lot of Timexes at Walmart which should last until you die.”

“I just looked down at my Casio watch and realized how for four years now it has kept perfect time. Cost me all of $40.”

“Rolex = Overrated”

A few posters tried to explain that Rolex is a piece of jewelry and some people enjoy the way it makes them feel, in an effort to get the thread back on track. This was met by responses such as:

“I've had a Rolex knockoff for over ten years and it has kept perfect time. Wonder what it would cost to have IT cleaned?”

“Maybe its just me. But people who need to wear a Rolex to let people know they can afford to wear a Rolex are compensating for something.”

Later in the thread, someone brings up a website where you can but the finest “exact replicas” read: Knockoffs.

In total there are one hundred and thirty three posts on this thread. Most of which were of the above sort. Maybe ten of them were helpful and handy, including an interesting discussion of watch movements. And of course, it included someone who has a more expensive watch than a Rolex and their claim they have just spent $22,000 on an ebony case for it!

I like my Rolex because Rolex is associated with quality, its marketing has made it the King. I can admire the kind of people who Rolex choose to associate their product with like Arnold Palmer. If they own one, I am not sure I would be comfortable wearing my Rolex if Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton were featured in Rolex marketing campaigns. But if it is good enough for Arnold Palmer, it represents the values Arnold has and those are values I would like to aspire too.

Myspace Experiment

http://www.myspace.com/sexysarah20081

http://www.myspace.com/sexygirlexperiment

http://www.myspace.com/sexygirlexperiment2

http://www.myspace.com/averagesarah1

Can you guess who is which? :p
I would love love love any suggestions for these profiles.
Thanks guys :)

Broadcast yourself

I'm not entirely sure why, but I added a post last Wednesday and it doesn't appear on here. Without a doubt, it's most likely my own error.

Anyway, to recap what I had attempted to post, I am doing my second paper on YouTube. My family are huge fans. My 5 year old has seen every VeggieTale video on it, my son watches all the cartoon parodies and I enjoy the political and "adult" jokes.

I mentioned a couple of the routes I'm taking in class on Thursday. One such case, a guy dressed in a Star Wars costume "humped" air for 2 minutes and 46 seconds. There had been over 6 1/2 million viewers and over 35 thousand posts. I'm sure most of you have your favorite YouTube video and I'd love it if you would share them with me. Forward anything!!! I love it all. My email is LydiainWVa@aol.com . This will help me with my paper. If anyone knows some ins-and-outs, could you share them with me? I only know the basics. Thanks all.
L.

two things

I have been thinking about doing the project on an online photography community that I am already "involved" in. I mostly lurk around and read other people's posts without really ever participating. I like how open the community is to people who are at a beginner's level. The site provides well-organized information for any skill level, and offer weekly "lessons" that all members can participate in. Each member can then critique or praise contributed work. There are also areas where you can just show off images that are particularly awesome and the artist will tell you /show you the set-up of how they formed the image.

The other idea that I just had recently was to explore ifreelance.com, a site work people who, well, freelance. Someone I met just recently online spends a lot of time doing freelance erotic stories for men who want them. she gets paid about $25 per piece that she produces, and can crank the nasty stories requested of her in about an hour. it's not just erotic stories, though.. it can be pretty much anything that anyone wants. She also was employed to write character descriptions for an RPG game bythe developer. It seems like a good place to build a resume. Eh, I'm still not sure how I'm going to do this. Hopefully, it will be one of these two things.

Due dates?

May I ask when they are please?

My Idea For Project 2

For project 2, I’m going to be doing an observation on an online community called Fubar. Fubar is basically a website that provides an interactive happy hour bar for people ages 18 or older; the only catch is that the drinks aren’t real! The funny thing about this website is that it’s the complete opposite of what you would usually see in a typical Myspace or Facebook website.
After much observation, Fubar, in my opinion is definitely more entertaining and appealing than Myspace and Facebook because you can also join a variety of lounges or bars (chatrooms) in this website that stimulates your interest. For example, I joined this bar called Naughty Italian Village (HAHAHA) not because the word “naughty” sparked my interest, but for the reason that there are over 60 members. Plus, in this chatroom people are able to exchange virtual drinks and also have the pleasure to listen to different types of music.
Overall, , I believe that doing an observation on Fubar will help me investigate what draws millions of people to join this website. I also want to study the behavior and communication interaction among the members. Most of all, I want to further analyze the reasons why people on this online community would rather interact with others by buying fake drinks, instead of living in the reality by going out at a bar on a Friday night sharing a few drinks with friends. I guess whatever works for some people, might not necessarily work for others.

Project Two...

When i heard about what our second project was to be about i was really excited and eager to get started. I decided to do mine on an online horse community. Horse people are a very differant kind of people. They are very open to others and are understanding, and very supportive when it comes to other people and their horse issues. Since i own an american quarter horse and show quite frequently i found this a great way to do the project. When i joined the onlien community they all welcomed me and gave me advice on how to get through college with horses(which can get expensive at times). Horses have opened many doors of oppertunity to myself and others. People who own horses frequently want others to share this passion they have, not only for riding but for the love of their horses.
The first time i registered for this community and creating my first blog obviosuly stating that i was new there it was interesting to me that the next day when i logged on there were tons of comments welcoming me and giving me advice on college. These comments came from people all over the United States. They were very inviting and helpful. Oneline horse communities are where people who own horses, love horses, want a horse, or are thinking about buying a horse can get some really good advice from others who are jsut liek them.

Project Two

For the second project, I'm going to observe my girlfriend and her interaction with Live Journal. As many of you know, Live Journal is a blog where people go to talk about anything. Aside from her own blog that she posts in, there are communities that she belongs to that discuss special topics.

I'm going to observe her as she posts in these communities and responds to the others. I'm also going to discuss the patterns of the members in these communities, whether they post often or hardly at all.

Changing Faces of Music

For my second project I'll be exploring something called "Fancorps". In essence, it's an online community devoted to helping spread the word about bands, concerts, cds, and promotional events across the country. In this community you may join the "street team", as it is termed, and begin posting online advertisements for any number of musical groups. Sometimes the advertisements are pre-made for you to post up, and other times they come out in your own words.

At the moment I plan to be an outside observer of this community and examine the interactions of the highly dedicated music aficionados. I'd like to know what drives them to move beyond simply listening to their favorite band to becoming a promoter. Since I myself don't have this urge as others do, I believe my participation would be biased by my opinions, and thus observing through others will better help me to draw my conclusions.

Vanishing Golfer Cannot Be found...

Hi People!

The online community I am studying is www.4gea.com which as I am sure you know is about golf equipment. For about six years I have known a user on there who goes by the name "sds416." He frequents our chat room and was well known to be a straight shooter.

We have a Swop Shop, which you need an invite to access, to trade golf equipment and back in 2006 - "sds416" traded a set of irons but never sent out his set to trade. He then vanished from the board, entirely. No-one was able to contact him (previously he had been on GEA vacations so many of us knew him) and he just went away leaving someone seriously out of pocket and golf equipment.

A few months later, a new poster arrives in the chat room called "JDalyRules" and a couple of months ago he pulled the same scam as "sds416" and has now vanished. There are at least a dozen of us in GEA Chat who knew "sds416" and "JDalyRules" and in two years he never once made us realize his real identity.

The two people who were scammed spoke and realized they may be the same person. I offered to find out going through public records and such like and indeed they are the same person. Today, I confirmed his address and phone number and he will shortly be visited by some nice men in a tinted car who will persuade him of the error of his ways.

Project two

I'm pretty torn about what I want to do for this one. I'd like to further explore and examine the dynamics in the online group I already belong to, however I used this group as evidence for my argument in the last essay.
Yet, I do feel like I can glean some interesting information from analyzing further.
But I'd also like to try something we mentioned in class, where I would create a few different myspace pages and analyze the responses I get from them. Ie. a myspace with a picture of a half-naked girl with an educated/intellectual profile v. a normal picture of a girl with the exact same profile v. half-naked girl with a brainless profile v. normal girl with a brainless profile.
I'm interested in the results of both projects, so I really don't know what to do.
Also, what are the due dates for this project? >.>

Project 2

Well, I've been thinking of two options I could possibly explore on project 2. Sadly enough I'm not apart of a online community so the first option would be joining facebook. I work in the Admissions Office here at WVSU and facebook is one of the most common online communities everyone working in the office is apart of, therefore why not jump aboard. For option two, I considered interviewing my co-workers on their experience with facebook or any other online community they're apart of, this way I find out some interesting information of other communities and which is most popular (at least in the office). I assume there would be more to write about in interviewing others with their experience than my non-experience with a online community. So in conclusion I think I'm going to observe others experience rather than my own.

Project 2 :)

Yea, I am definitely more excited about project #2! I am not much for online communities but I am eager to take a look at it from a different p.o.v and observe how people interact and choose to portray themselves when they are a part of a virtual community rather then normal, face-to-face interaction. Looking forward to seeing what everyone else has in mind :)

Project #2, hmm this is intriguing ....

OK, so I don't know what is up with my blogger situation but apparently I have 2 "clyoung" profiles? Anyway, I have done some searching on the subject of Project #2 and I have decided to make a Second Life account. I'm going to work on it this weekend and I've decided to make my "person" a total opposite of myself that way I can try and be a whole other person online, spice up my life a little (haha). I'm very excited about this project and to see what type of people contact me when I enter Second Life. Any suggestions? Let me know!

Christina

Help!! Idiot here!

Ok. I did it. Old Gal is now on Myspace! But I'm not sure what to do now. I'm pleading to all sympathetic ears. Check out my Myspace!!
http://www.myspace.com/lydiawithrow

I'm sending this to any and all that will listen. I may or may not get enough info to write on, but I'm not counting on it.

Any other suggestions for my "online community?"

I checked out a couple of blogs on politics, economy, art, and a bunch of other stuff that either pissed me off because of the idiots there or I was the idiot.

I'm wide open for suggestions.... OK, I'm off to check out games now. Wish me luck.

Lydia

Okay, this might seem odd,

BUT

as I'm finalizing my paper I can't decide whether or not the way something sounds when it reads is more important than if it sounds a bit awkward but is relevant..

I'm not addicted to digital culture, Life goes on!

Well I'm not sure what exactly to write about when it comes to digital culture. I grew up in a school system that did not have computers in our school library, only for typing class and those computers were very old in style. I did not have a typing class in grade school, and I'm pretty sure for those students who did, there was no access to the Internet. My digital culture experience growing up was very limited. Yeah my family had TVs, radios, video game systems, etc around the house but nothing really advanced like computers that allowed Internet access. If I wanted to come close to a computer, it had to be in the city library, which was too far from home and too dangerous to walk home from after school. I'm not ashamed to say I have an old soul in a young girls body. I have low tolerance when it comes to new technology and is very comfortable with how things where before. I'm sure this makes me less popular, choosing the opposite vote of a vastly growing digital culture. So my paper probably will be about my limited youth experience with digital culture and how this has affects me today. Although digital culture has took me over walls, making life easier, its still complicating at times.

Just saw this!

This isn’t necessarily relevant to my paper but I just saw this on “House.” Ok… source aside I couldn’t resist looking this up. I wanted to share this in case it may be useful for someone’s paper.

Thanks to the digital age anyone with a pacemaker need only to call in to his doctor’s phone and the pacemaker “talks” to a computer and has the heart rate read. You can be in a third world country and call Duke University or Johns Hopkins or where ever and in seconds be recorded, tracked and diagnosed.

Digitalization has made the medical field a place straight from Sci-Fi. I think this very interesting.

Lydia

(Of course the spontaneity of being able to look up something that has absolutely no relevance to my life is also cool, and relevant to my paper.)

Falling behind or struggling to keep up

I've already written most of my draft prior to figuring this blog out. I hinted to what my paper was going to be on with my lack of knowledge about most of this. I've written about the progression from indepence into dependence of our digital cultural. While I claim to be exempt, I joke. I'm as dependant on my laptop as the next guy. I wish to include thoughts about then and now. How things actually accomplish the same tasks yet are digitalized. ie. mapquest and cell phones. The outcome is the same but the conveinence is all important to a digital driven society. I've come up with alot of ideas. It was fairly simple, considering I lived to see it happen from "birth." Any suggestions would be great.

Lydia

Digitial Age is Nothing New...

I am currently working with former BBC Producer, Barry Letts, on a Doctor Who story we are pretty sure will be taken by BBC Worldwide called “The Power of N-Space.”

Barry and I often discuss his life in television and it is amazing to think how things have changed in his lifetime. Barry made his TV debut in 1950. This was live television of course, monochrome on the comparatively low resolution of 405 horizontal lines. There was one station: “The BBC Television Service” broadcasting for a very few hours a day mainly to the affluent south of England. In 1950, the only way to preserve a broadcast was to make a telerecording of it. This involved pointing a camera at a monitor and recording the image shown and making an optical soundtrack. This further reduced the definition to about 270 lines. Although a little pre-WW2 output remains in the BBC archives (having launched their 405 monochrome service in 1936) with the exception of the 1948 Olympics, very little remains in the archive from 1945-1953.
As an actor, Barry found live television was especially nerve-wracking. The cameras were mainly pre-war Marconi’s, weighed several hundred pounds and were very difficult to move. The BBC’s studios at Alexandra Palace and Lime Grove were extremely small and there were frequent technical errors.
1953 was a landmark year in British Television. The coronation of a new Queen encouraged everyone to watch TV and take it seriously as a medium for the first time. As the UK emerged from post-war austerity, the television became the new thing to have. In the same year, VERA, (they love acronyms at the BBC, as we shall see) changed the way TV was made. Well, it nearly did. Video Electronic Recording Apparatus allowed, for the first time, a direct to video feed of a live broadcast for posterity and almost instant playback. However, the tape speed was measured in meters per seconds, if not set perfectly, the tape head would fly off threatening life and limb to all in the vicinity and the tape was so expensive, it soon became impractical for a television service requiring public subsidy. On the plus side, the BBC were able to obtain the old Ealing film studios and although still very expensive, location filming could now be achieved using 16mm film stock and inserted into live drama broadcasts, giving more time for actors and production crew to move between sets and so on.
The next big step was the miracle of the Helical Scan Video Machine which was introduced in the UK in 1957. By scanning fields at a diagonal angle, the amount of tape needed to record something was dramatically reduced, it also became easier to edit as more information (or data as it was then not known) was shared between frames. From the late 1950’s television drama began developing into something we recognize today. Less live performing, studio shots on video and location shots on 16mm. Though this became an issue in the color era, at this stage it did not matter. Camera technology allowed multi-camera set up’s to become more sophisticated and by 1960, live coverage of the Rome Olympics became possible. To truly see the marvel of the Helical Scan Video Machine in action one only has to see the differences between the two six-part serials produced and directed by Rudolph Cartier in 1955 and 1957. Quatermass II survives as telerecordings and has all the problems associated with early television. Numerous technical errors, badly timed cues for actors and the few filmed inserts are roughshod into the production. Just two years later, Quatermass And The Pit, (now it has been restored) looks as if it could have been made yesterday. No live performances, far superior direction and technical work and no actor fluffs.
1955 saw the birth of commercial television in the United Kingdom. Although not the purpose of this essay, with bigger budgets, television was able to be made entirely on film and had (for the time) truly groundbreaking qualities. If you don’t believe me I offer you “The Saint,” “The Avengers,” “Danger Man,” and “The Prisoner.”
After many years of pleading with the Government, Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, recognized the need for the BBC to lead the way in the UK in television technology and in 1963 commissioned BBC-2, rebranding the original BBC as BBC-1. But, there was a snag. BBC-2 was going to be high-definition…in the mid-sixties? Well, they did it and were able to do so using the existing cameras and equipment. The agreed standard was 625 line UHF as opposed to 405 line VHF (known as FM in the US.) Despite a power cut blacking out their opening night, the new high definition service became home to many music and arts programs, and just as today, there was a demand for sport in the new high resolution.
Although 405 line TV was accessible until 1985, 1969 was the date chosen by the Government for all broadcasters to switch to the 625 line format. But, before that happened, the world was going to become considerably brighter.
July 1967, Billie-Jean King was the Queen of Wimbledon and for the first time, the BBC was transmitting in color, Viewers of BBC-2 with a color television could watch Wimbledon in color and BBC-1 carried the same game in monochrome. It is sometimes asked why the BBC waited until 1967. Experiments with the American NTSC system had proved unsatisfactory (NTSC, to this day is known as Never Twice the Same Color) and as UK TV has higher definition than US TV (625 lines versus 525 lines) the problems were just compounded. Eventually, the BBC adopted the European PAL system, developed by Philips.
Barry Letts takes up the story: “When I directed the Doctor Who story, “The Enemy of the World” in 1967, it was monochrome and I was still using matte techniques I read about in the 1930’s. When BBC-1 announced the autumn schedule for 1969 would be in color, at least in prime-time, I quickly realized in my new job as Producer of Doctor Who, we could try effects which previously would have been too expensive to attempt.”
CSO (Color Separation Overlay) was the BBC’s name for chro-makey or as it is known today, the blue/green screen effect. Essentially, with CSO you can electronically key out a background and move the foreground information, (usually a person) and place them in another setting (usually a model) recorded by another camera. The actor(s) perform against a blue screen and floor and ceiling. Although time consuming to set up, the fact it can be done on video saves considerable money. For the first time, there was no need for expensive back projection using film, front axial projection on video was far easier to achieve using CSO as was the use of model monsters and huge creatures and so on. Of course, the technology was very primitive. Never did CSO look worse than when an attempt was made to mix video and film, (something the Quantel Console, did not really get to grips with until the mid eighties.) Many of the backgrounds were never quite to scale and the figures being CSO’d frequently had fringes around them which made them look incredibly cheap.
However, steady progress was made through the 1970’s and as portable video equipment became more commonplace, it was possible to film exteriors on videotape – combined with improvements in the CSO process. (It was discovered excessive noise and contrasting colors caused the fringing, for example.)
The next issue became one of film versus video. Until the early 1990’s it was still fairly common for exteriors to be filmed on 16mm film and interiors on video, The difference in the texture of the picture is very jarring. Film, although grainy, could pick up greater detail. Video was brighter, required different lighting as well as different make-up and was sensitive to certain bright colors. When programs were made on film, they were transmitted often straight from the telecine machine (which turned the film into an electronic signal) although the machines ran smoothly, the heads often became very clogged as a result, programs made in the early 1980’s entirely on film now look very work indeed. This, of course was a long time before the current fad to filmise video and vidfire film to make it look like video!
Similarly, hand held cameras have more or less destroyed the traditional TV camera set up. Digital technology now enables TV to be made on video in a similar way to film production. You can now film shot by shot instead of scene by scene or episode by episode.

Wandering Theme

Please tell me I'm not the only one who has a new idea for this paper every time I think about it. It's so hard for me to keep my paper on a single motif or theme at this moment that I fear my paper will be nonsensical.

Project Idea: the beginning

I’m a little late at putting up my topic but better late than never I guess. So I was thinking about what to do and was coming up short in the ideas department but then my mother calls me. She’s taking a few classes this semester and for one of her class projects, she has to do an internet research. My mother has never been the internet whiz kind of person so at one point she suggested that I do the research and mail it to her.
That idea didn’t go so well with me so I decided to coach her through it on the phone. Anyways the point is that she didn’t grow up with computers and so she’s not very enthusiastic about learning how to now. That’s when I got my idea for the paper. I want to compare the use of digital culture from where I was born and raised to where I’m at right now. I’m hoping to draw from experiences as to how I got from using a computer whenever I went to go visit my cousins ( which was every once in a blue moon) to going insane without my laptop for a weekend ( it’s sad but true).

recipes for tomato soup

I've been putting off posting anything in here for-- well, let's just say it's been.. more than enough 'biting my nails and in-and-out ideas floating through my ears' days. When I got home from work tonight (where I do most of my deep daydream thinking) I had a few ideas in my head for this paper, and nowhere to really put them.

OF COURSE! THE BLOG!

So, my first thought was this weird idea about how many things are described as "digital." Digital this, digital that, analog wha? How awesome are things that are digital? I don't have to put any effort at all to telling the time, how useful! Little digital things are embedded so far into our brains, we don't even think of them as digital. Digital clock or just clock?

That's how far I got on that train to nowhere, on to something new!

The sequel is much less interesting, because I was thinking about how things that are digital affect animals. This is just a sad stem from me paying attention to how my cat seriously enjoys chasing my mouse pointer across the screen and sleeping on my keyboard all night long in the seriously bright glow of the monitor. I know she can't type, or even spell.. or.. well, you know, anything human-- at all.

My third idea was my original idea when we first got the dish about what we needed to be thinking about.

My latest online purchase was this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Medium_is_the_Massage

Coincidentally, I stumbled upon (no really, I used the Firefox plug-in StumbleUpon) this book and decided to buy it because I really felt a connection with the subject and this course. What's so gripping about this book is that it was written so long before what I think of as modern technologies were even manufactured, but it completely captures the ideas and concepts behind a lot of the technologies that I use day to day. Right after I received the package in the mail through AMAZON.COM (internet!), I started to leaf through the book and I have to say, it's pretty entertaining. That evening at work I took a call from a woman from California who deals used cars and doesn't understand her phone bill about ordering some DISH Network service. After talking about the advantages of satellite television and shitting about some more about long distance charges, we started to talk about technology and how we viewed it as children. I'm not sure if she was completely sane or not, but she had a lot of ideas about "pre-inventions" of things we use day to day that have been realized. We talked BLUETOOTH, walkie-phones, moonboots; we mulled over vo-coders and sex toys that still were attached to electrical outlets vs. the growing market of really, really strange mechanical bull dildos on the market. Obviously, we got off the subject.

Now, I want to tie almost all of these ideas together to form something comprehensible. I think there's something underlying that I'm not seeing or grasping that I need to pull out of all of these ideas. I'm horrible at arranging ideas, but don't seem to have any shortage of useless things to find interesting in everything. See? I don't even know if that makes sense to anyone but myself.

I also littered this with links because I felt they might help deliver the meaning a bit more. Maybe I'm also in the fourth-dimension.

I made it!

OK all! I've finally figured it out (go mo, go me). I'm here. What to do with this is still a mystery to me. This should present a hint about what my paper will be about. I'm working it all through. So far, I've been able to read the post and am currently working on figuring out how to read the comments. Is there not a way to set this up where the comments will automatically be dispayed? I'm confusing myself with flipping from screen to screen.

The long and the short of it is. I'm grateful to all of you that gave me helpful hints. I do not fight technology. I'm just a little slow to absorb it.

Lydia

A Breathing By-Product

Even as I sit here to begin writing this, I have the computer next to me streaming videos of some of my favorite bands playing some of my favorite songs. I’m downloading several movies I never had the chance to see in theatre. I’m tabbed over from editing a picture in photoshop that I took while on vacation a few weeks ago. And I’m resisting the urge to log in to my online community under my pseudonym which people across the nation have called me by for nearly 5 years, Divo. In fact, I met my girlfriend in that online community, and it’s her computer I’m watching music videos on.

My first baby steps in to the digital community came when I waddled over the threshold of online gaming. The game was called Starcraft, and its release in 1998 would forever change the course of my life. Though that might sound a little drastic, I assure you it’s true. Before I discovered this game I had previously spent my time playing hockey, baseball, and even had a sponsor for my abilities on a skateboard. But this game…this game enraptured me and there was no escape. I played Starcraft for 4 years and have since played every expansion, offshoot, and version of it available. That was only the beginning though. I own hundreds of games; most of them with their own unique online communities.

As I said before, I met my girlfriend online. We’ve been together for 3 years now and I feel like she’s perfect for me. Meeting her online was a boon to the relationship. Sure we met one another through pixilated versions of our subconscious. Our first conversations were private messages over online chat. We were inseparable in a virtual world. We’re now inseparable in the great state of West Virginia. I couldn’t think of a better way to meet someone.

I feel as though my life is stored on hard drives to be erased or appended to at whim. Strangely, this does not bother me. I leave my digital footprints all over the internet every day. Sitting down at my computer feels like opening my front door and greeting the world every day. But every time I open that door there are different people behind it. The uncertainty begets the addiction.

I knew at an early age that my contribution to digital culture would be a lifelong ordeal. I only hope that as technology advances I will adapt to it and utilize it as fully as I do at this very moment in time. We are in a time of rapidly changing communication, culture, and sense of self. It enthralls me to think about what I’ll be doing ten years from now in the online community that grows larger every day.

GLBT Literature and Issues on the Net

This is my second post, I know but I wanted to throw out another idea I had since Im leaning more toward it the more I thought about it.It would follow the rise of GLBT(Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered) literature and awareness because of the expansion of the internet.I would try to answer questions I personally and other I know have about why with the rise of all different genres of literature have skyrocketed but the GLBT literature still remains relatively untouched, especially in America.Is it because the subject is still so taboo in America unlike many other contries? I know its not because there is no calling for the market, on the contrary there is a HUGE demand umong not only the GLBT community but others who are just curious about things, want more information about that "lifestyle" (as much as I hate that term), those who may not be in that community themselves but are supporters and advocates for the causes.So maybe someone could give me some ideas as to why they believe GLBT works and authors are highly ignored in our society despite the new avalibility of it.The paper would likely also include some touch points on how the media, with help of the internet and technology, have helped, for better or worse, bring issues that effect GLBT's lives to the mainstreme.It seems as though I cannot go a day without hearing about these debates, like gay marriage, civil unions, healthcare for children in same sex relationships, etc. Before the 2000 and 2004 Presidential elections these issues were pushed to the backburner or simply ignored all together.Has the internet and technology helped push these issues to the forefront? Has it hindered the fight for equality? Any ideas or questions that anyone has or believes would be good for me to address in my paper would be highly appericated.

Has the digital culture dumbed us down?

Writing for another class, I wrote an essay and realized all my heroes as broadcasters were now old, retired, dead or a combination of all three. Has digital culture reduced us to only being able to function with talking heads in set words? These were my thoughts...

I wish to be a broadcaster. And I am not going to end up as the next Trevor Macdonald or Jim McKay by limiting the power of my vocabulary. A great command of the English language will make me stand out in a field filled with talking heads and ex-jocks who speak in sound bites and cliché.
Turn on any news or sport network and by and large the reporters look, sound and frequently act alike. I am not talking about going on camera as a clown and guffawing my way through terror attacks or the final of the Olympic 400 meters, but I am saying there is a better way of announcing, especially in the realm of sports broadcasting, which has been all but abandoned in America in favor of what the late Howard Cosell called the “jockocracy” of American sports broadcasting.
What transpired would turn Cosell in his grave. Sports presenting and analysis has become tabloid journalism punctuated by ex-athletes who clearly do not always make the best journalists.
However, the wheel will turn full circle and I believe there will be a time in the future when serious sports reporting and journalism, not driven by platitudes and sensationalism will once again be required in mainstream television and radio.I have become something of a mentor to the would-be announcers I have met at University and am frequently asked online by other would-be announcers for tips and advice.
Often they are questions which our book covered like: “How do you get into this field?” or “How do you prepare your research?” and of course “What is the pay like?”
When I write back or talk to these (usually teenage) people, I emphasize the importance of being able to describe a situation using correct and concise English. I try to advise them to become well read and develop a passion for words and their usage. You do not have to become a walking thesaurus but you do need the ability to pull the right word out of the hat, especially when under pressure.
For example, I have always loved Horse Racing, but at the age of thirty-two, if I am to become a full time Race Announcer upon leaving University, it will be my experience of using English in other dramatic forms and contexts that will form the backbone of my ability as a broadcaster. This, I believe will help me to stand out in a very competitive market.
As you may have guessed, this generation of American Sports Broadcasters does not impress me, although they have their entertaining moments. I seriously think many of them would lack the ability to put any kind of non sporting event into a global context – many of them struggle with that basic concept, truly embracing the Superbowl winners as “World Champions” of a sport which barely creates a blip on the sporting radar outside of North America.
Sports anchoring should not be rooted in how well you can read the list of sponsors, pontificate about Tiger Woods as the equivalent of the second coming of Christ and how proficient one can be at speaking in jargon filled jingoism. Similarly, sports analysis, should not be punctuated by “personalities” whose lack of ability to concisely explain what is going on is overcome by them saying things such as “Boom,” “Slam-a-roonie” or making excruciating puns about the names of the participants.

If a major news event was to occur at a sporting event, who would best be able to cover it…Jim McKay (if he were still alive and active in the business) or Chris Berman? There are a few exceptions, Al Michaels proved his journalistic mettle outside the sports arena at the San Francisco earthquake, and I feel Brent Musberger would be ok as well. But they are all older guys nearing the end of their active careers.

Maybe I will be the victim of my own advice as I do not claim to be the greatest broadcaster in the world, but I do feel I am doing the industry a service by encouraging would be announcers to look beyond the announcing booth of their favorite sports and become part of the world of words and literature that surrounds them. They can then return to the booth, wiser and one day, it may pay off.
One day I will be able to use the skills I learned through ha study of an English language and maybe inspire somebody and follow in the footsteps of great wordsmiths and not over-hyped personalities. The same comparison could also apply to me in changing from a Communications Major to an English Major.

A final thought: Jim McKay passed on this past summer. I was part of a small tribute to him shown in the Minnesota area. God, I feel old, chances are a lot of you will have no idea of whom I am speaking of... Nearly fifty years of sports broadcasting, yet his most famous words referred to a non sporting incident which will haunt many people forever and illustrates why every would be sports reporter needs to know more than how to announce a sport:

“When I was a kid, my father used to say out greatest hopes and our worse fears are seldom realized. Our worse fears have been realized tonight. They’ve now said there were eleven hostages. Two were killed in their rooms, this mor…yesterday morning. Nine were killed at the airport tonight. They’re all gone.”

Project One Ideas

When I first heard of the topics we were going to cover in this class, I immediately began considering my role in online gaming and overall the role I had in digital culture. Since fall of 2004, I've been a subscribing member to World of Warcraft. For as long as I can remember, I've always played online games and associated with those people. While I was younger I was only interested in the games themselves and what I could get accomplished with other players. As I've gotten older I've begun to realize that some of these people are much cooler behind their online avatars. There are always different types of people to meet and play with when you're playing an online game that supports hundreds of players on one server. My girlfriend and I enjoy playing World of Warcraft together and have friendships we've built with other players inside the game. These relationships and settings for online interaction are the foundation for my first project.

Project 1 Ideas

I too have been bouncing various ideas about about this first project.I have narrowed it down to two main thoughts. My first is how our mistakes are made much more public these days because of advanced technology and recources avaliable at the touch of a button. My other main idea is how some people are shot into the limelight with websites like youtube and myspace that would likely never had their "15 minutes of fame" without them.

Thoughts About Project 1

Hey everyone!
I too, have been contemplating what to write about for this first project. I’ve finally settled on the idea of on the ways we depend on technology in today’s society. I had a horrifying experience about 9 years ago that single-handedly defined major aspects of my life – specifically the ways in which I relate to others, not to mention how I felt about myself for a very, very long time. The technology impacted the entire series of events because I relied on an object to get me out of a situation instead of my own “know-how”. On-the-other-hand, had I been in the same situation a few months later, everyone I knew would have had cell phones instead of super lame pagers. Having a cell phone would have definitely changed how everything developed because I could have left an actual message to ask for help, instead of some random phone number with “911” after it.
It seems as if today we view our cell phones, Sidekicks, laptops, and other endless hand-held devices as if they are part of us. I know I feel extremely anxious if I don’t have my cell phone with me at all times. Is this healthy? Cell phones are awesome, but do they seriously have to be answered in class, or in the movie theater, or in church? C’mon now, that’s just ridiculous! Aside from people annoying me with their cell phone etiquette, or lack there of, I have also noticed that my memory is crap these days…maybe that’s because I don’t have to remember anything - I have an organizer to remember everything for me! Is the issue that we can't help but to take everything to an extreme or are we just too lazy to do anything for ourselves?

Repeat of Below Titles

I have apprehensions about posting about my project ideas. To somewhat echo Craig's sentiments, I feel like people reading my drafts or picking through my ideas is kind of like being caught half naked and having someone point out your flaws. :p
I guess that would make Dr. J.P. and her bar friends a bunch of nudists, eh? I guess it's something you have to become comfortable with over time. I once read something by an author in a book about creative writing who stated that she would lie awake in terror at night that someone might break in and read her partially created story if she left it out on the typewriter. I can relate to that.
In any case.
I guess I'm pretty involved in the "digital culture." I'm part of a group brought together by the Wheel of Time series by the late Robert Jordan. They're novels of the Fantasy genre, which I never would have read but my husband convinced me they were worth a try, despite my loathing of Fantasy. He was right, they were very good.
When I joined the site, I had just moved to this part of the state from Concord University. I hated the school, but a I had a lot of friends there, so the move hit me pretty hard. Forum posting and chat (the site has an IRC webchat) kept my social meter up (you'll get that if you've ever played the Sims.) I didn't really know anyone here, I wasn't in school yet, and I couldn't work since I didn't have my greencard. I was pretty lonely, and the site I joined kept me from falling into depression. I've since grown to really care about these people; a few I've met in person and I plan to meet many more in October.
Anyway, here's the link if you're interested: http://www.tarvalon.net/news.asp

project 1 ideas

When this project was first assigned i worried about how i may tackle it, i looked at several approaches and ended up with several pages of scratched out words and phrases. My first instinct was the fact that technology influences someones image of their self or others. I personally have been involved with problems with the medias influence on body image. I was thinking about focusing my paper on how the digital culture has influenced our perception of ourselves and of others, as well as how it has effected our college, academics, and even how we meet each other and interact. Myspace and facebook are two big examples of how we meet each other and become friends with people we have never seen. Has anyone stopped ti question if these people they meet online are really the person they say they are? Also, has anyone noticed that since the digital culture has boomed over the past ten years that the obesity of our children is greatly on the rise? i believe there is a link somewhere there that i believe may be good to include in my paper. I too am not that involved in digital culture outside of myspace and occasionally facebook, which i use mostly to email friends and keep up to date with what is going on with everyone.

Project #1

Hello all! Well I've been brainstorming and brainstorming ideas for Project #1 and so far I have come up with a few ideas but I don't know...I'm so indecisive. First and foremost I would like you all to know that I am not one for being involved in "Digital Culture" as an extremist (internet wise). I simply use the internet to check my MySpace, Facebook, e-mail, and occasionally look for a good buy on eBay. However, since I've been in this classroom I have been introduced to several other outlets to the web. For example, this blog. Yes, it's true I've never blogged before and to be honest it's quite refreshing! However, I am involved in "Digital Culture" through the cell phone. Oh my, I am obsessed with texting; however I hate talking on the phone, ironic huh? So for Project #1 I am considering using the cell phone and not being a big partaker on the internet and use it to my advantage, what's your thoughts? Perhpas writing on how I could expand my horizons of the net? Any comments would be helpful!

Project 1 Thoughts

Over the past week, I have struggled on what topic to write for this first project. I have questioned myself millions of times what exactly is my role in the digital culture? Moreover, I even told my fellow classmates, "hey, I don't really have a digital role, all I do is check my e-mail, my myspace, and facebook." But it is clear I do have a role in the digital culture, I just wasn't realizing it. Technology has definitely changed my life in manys ways I can't even imagine. So for project 1, I have decided to write my paper about the dangers of online dating and how this has affected me. Although this may be a controversial issue for some, I hope to support my reasons by using my past experience of online dating. This is such a tough issue for me to talk about, but I truly want to share this experience to everybody because I want people to know that technology can also have its negative effects. Besides the negative impact technology has placed on me, I am willing to understand and listen to others on how technology has played a positive role in people's lives.

Ideas for Project 1

Being a non-traditional student has presented several challenges for me during my college career. Specifically, the assumption that we are all on the same level technologically. If you haven't guessed yet, I'm not tech savvy on any level. Therefore, I thought about writing my paper discussing my battle with computers, cell phones, Mp3 players and so on. I mean, just keeping up to date is a battle. Think about it, the moment you purchase the newest hottest cell phone with all the bells and whistles, it's outdated and replaced with something even better. I can't keep up.
I think one of the issues I want to discuss it how technology was introduced to me back in the day. And, how hard it was to accept the changes, even today I struggle with keeping up to date with all there is out there. For example, this is the very first time I have ever been on a blog chat. How bazaar is that.
Suggestions are welcomed. Lisa.

thoughts for project 1

I haven't really thought about exactly how I want to do my paper, but I do know that instead of writing about one specific experience I want to write more general thoughts about how technology is such a big part of my everyday life. I can't think back of a time where I was in college and didn't have a computer or internet, but I can explore how technology has changed and continues to change and whether or not it has impacted me.
This is where i am as of now and within the next few days I plan to have gathered my thoughts and started my paper :)

But if I tell you how I do it...

Hi People:

Rejoice! I shall not be in class tomorrow as I am being carted off with a group of Cheerleaders to commentate on WVSU in the Chicago Classic this weekend. I know you will all miss me...

I definitely dislike free writing - but I dislike even more showing it on a public board. As my second favortite incarantion of The Doctor (see above) played by Patrick Troughton maintained:

"Acting is like magic If I show you how I do it, it spoils the illusion." I feel very much the same way about writing. Think of the times you have had to give a presentation - although notes are a safety net, if you can commit to memory what you are going to say, you can then concentrate on other aspects of your work to bring the presentation to life. The same goes with writing. Don't show them how you got to your literary masterpiece...just know it well enough so you can wow them with your delivery.

Any thoughts?

Craig

Weclome

Hello all and welcome to the blogspot for English 303!

This is of course our second blog, the first one decided that we were spammers and not to be trusted....that is definately a topic for conversation in class!

Here you will post your blogging inventions, that is some pre-writing for your projects. How you pre-write is up to you, but you will need to post it here. See the directions for posting located on the side bar. You have all been invited to be participates in thus blog so you will be able to post and comment. You will be expected not only to post invention writing for your projects, but also comment on your classmates inventions. This is the place to work out your projects so while you must post once per project, you can also post as much as you like (granted the postings are about class and project topics!

Have fun!