Since when was an iPhone worth a human life? Apparently it is in China, if you lose a prototype. A worker from Foxconn, a company that makes iPhones for Apple, was subjugated to "unbearable interrogation techniques" for losing a prototype, which lead him to commit suicide. More in the link below.
http://gizmodo.com/5319275/report-iphone-leak-interrogations-drive-foxconn-employee-to-suicide
A sad story indeed. I wonder how Apple will respond.
~JV
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
The Maxx | Episode 1
MTV has done us all a favor by making "The Maxx" available online. Check it out to find out what the Greg Smith reading is all about.
The Maxx | Episode 1: "In this series premiere episode we meet Maxx and Julie, and enter the gritty world they inhabit."
The Maxx | Episode 1: "In this series premiere episode we meet Maxx and Julie, and enter the gritty world they inhabit."
The Dark Side of Technology
Liz posted this as a comment, but I thought it deserved to have more visibility, so I'm "re-posting". ET
Does technology have a dark side? Don Campbell (2008) who teaches at Emory University thinks so. In a recent article, he writes that “[t]he digital culture has changed the way kids learn, but at the expense of literacy and cultural awareness” (p. 122). He contends that the “digital culture” is “narrowing” the horizon “to a self-absorbed social universe that blocks out virtually everything else” (p. 123). He further quotes another researcher (Bauerlein) who wrote that “[t]he Internet doesn’t impart adult information; it crowds it out”; “[v]ideo games, cell phones and blogs don’t foster rightful citizenship. They hamper it” (p. 123)
Campbell (2008) concludes:
1. We can’t fight technology, nor should we.
2. The Internet is the greatest research tool ever invented.
3. But we must fight the dark side.
What do you think about this? Is there is a dark side? How bad is it, if it even exists?
Campbell, D. (2008). Plugging in, tuning out. In L. Bauknight & B. Rollins (Eds.), Present tense: Contemporary themes for writers (122-124). Boston, MA: Wadsworth.
Does technology have a dark side? Don Campbell (2008) who teaches at Emory University thinks so. In a recent article, he writes that “[t]he digital culture has changed the way kids learn, but at the expense of literacy and cultural awareness” (p. 122). He contends that the “digital culture” is “narrowing” the horizon “to a self-absorbed social universe that blocks out virtually everything else” (p. 123). He further quotes another researcher (Bauerlein) who wrote that “[t]he Internet doesn’t impart adult information; it crowds it out”; “[v]ideo games, cell phones and blogs don’t foster rightful citizenship. They hamper it” (p. 123)
Campbell (2008) concludes:
1. We can’t fight technology, nor should we.
2. The Internet is the greatest research tool ever invented.
3. But we must fight the dark side.
What do you think about this? Is there is a dark side? How bad is it, if it even exists?
Campbell, D. (2008). Plugging in, tuning out. In L. Bauknight & B. Rollins (Eds.), Present tense: Contemporary themes for writers (122-124). Boston, MA: Wadsworth.
So you wanna make an iPhone app?
A few people have talked to me about making an iPhone app for their course project. I found this podcast on the subject. Have a listen if you are considering making an app. This covers the basics of what or who you need to get it done.
So you wanna make an app
So you wanna make an app
Say Something When You Post
Just wanted to give everyone a head's up: write a sentence or two about whatever you are posting. I know it's tempting just to "post and run" but a brief introduction about why/what you are posting goes a long way towards getting others to have a look and/or comment.
Greenscreen Grandmas
CHECK OUT THIS AWESOME NEW VIRTUAL REALITY PROGRAM. New media, old ladies. (Joke)
Monday, February 1, 2010
The Medium is the Message
McLuhan's article The Medium is the Message is almost eerily more relevant today than it was when he wrote it in the sixties. He argued that the way in which a message is sent affects the way it is perceived. In an age where texting, blogging (coughthiswebsitecough), instant messaging, social networking, etc. are prevalent, this has never been more evident.
Let's use texting as an example. How many times do we send/receive a message with smilies? Why the smiley? Let's say I sent a text that said "Loser". This could be perceived in a negative way, since text cannot express emotions/sarcasm/feeling. If I ad a :P or :) after Loser, it would convey to the receiver that I was joking and didn't really mean it.
Another example in which the medium is important in how the message is perceived would be something I heard about: breaking up with someone via text. How might the person receiving the break up text think of the one who sent it? That they don't care enough?
These are all examples of how the medium is changing the way we send/receive messages and it's interesting to think that such an idea was conceived over forty years ago.
~JV
Let's use texting as an example. How many times do we send/receive a message with smilies? Why the smiley? Let's say I sent a text that said "Loser". This could be perceived in a negative way, since text cannot express emotions/sarcasm/feeling. If I ad a :P or :) after Loser, it would convey to the receiver that I was joking and didn't really mean it.
Another example in which the medium is important in how the message is perceived would be something I heard about: breaking up with someone via text. How might the person receiving the break up text think of the one who sent it? That they don't care enough?
These are all examples of how the medium is changing the way we send/receive messages and it's interesting to think that such an idea was conceived over forty years ago.
~JV
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