Bloggings about what I consume.....and what consumes me.

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Cracking SandCastles

" Its unbearable to watch something that you love and was so innocently passionate about become so clouded by the two things that you HATE THE MOST!

The formation of a curdled fear of failure mixing with

The crushing feeling of insurmountable pressure"

Jon-Jon Daco

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

As the credit rolls . . . .. .


Disney's Brother Bear 2 came out 2dai! A sequel to Bro-Bear 1 made rite here at DisneyToon Studios Australia!!!

And I couldnt wait to check if I made the credits or not.
....hehehe...I did, thankfully

U guys watch it, its geeeeewd, not just becos I workd on it ;-p

Peace,

Chase

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

More info on Web 2.0

Using the Web 2.0 write up in Wikipedia this video is to help teach educators about Web 2.0 tools.

Summary:
  • the term Web 2.0 was popularized in conferences in 2004.
  • Refers to application development of the Web, derived from a combo of technologies from the late 90's. podcasts, wiki, blogs, tags etc.
  • A synonym for Semantic Web.
  • Features the abiltiy of a combination of social network systems. (Basis for Semantic Enviro)
  • Features tag-based delivered media. (Basis for Semantic Enviro)
  • A computing platform, serving Web applications to end users.
  • Open communication
  • Decentralization of authority
  • Freedom to share and re-use.
  • Creates a more organized and categorized content - deep linking Web architecture.
  • Surpassing the Dot.com boom of the late 90's
  • Possibilites of inventive Web applications and service - Explosion of Web 2.0 tools in 2005.
  • Innovation and open sourced projects reached an all time high.
  • Examples of Web 2.0 flickr, delicious, digg and technorati.
  • Contributing to Web 2.0 blogs, wikis, podcast, rss feeds,
  • A move away from static website, from search engines and surfing to a more interactive Web.
  • Becoming less under the control of Web designers.
  • Info sent less through email, but rather posted on blogs and sent thru rss feeds.

What Is Web 2.0? Short Version documentary


A couple of weeks ago Michael Arrington got together with a number of startup CEOs and executives to video a discussion about Web 2.0. Participating in the discussion were Aaron Cohen (Bolt), Scott Milener and Steven Lurie (Browster), Keith Teare (edgeio), Steven Marder (Eurekster), Joe Kraus (JotSpot), Jeremy Verba (Piczo), Auren Hoffman (Rapleaf), Chris Alden (Rojo), Gautam Godhwani (Simply Hired), Jonathan Abrams (Socializr), David Sifry (Technorati), Matt Sanchez (Video Egg) and Michael Tanne (Wink).

  • Is Web 2.0 different from the Web 1.0 bubble?
  • True growth - Now we have technologies, user-generated content, proven business models .
  • Fundamentals are stronger, more people online, the cost is lower, etc
  • If there never was an Internet boom...it would be right now. (Chris Alden)
  • 'User-generated medium' movement
  • User adoption trends
  • To make all of our content able to move, and change and that the Website page is controlled by not the ppl who made the company but by the ppl who use the page. (Aaron Cohen)
  • PRIMART TREND: Users are learning how to communicate directly to other others, as opposed to publishers communicating to the users. Now it is part of our lives, the current generation of kids has grown up with it, there not feeling around in the dark, there looking for ways to expand and explore and communicate with it, that the couldn't even think about in Web 1.0. (Scot Milener)
  • Our passive time, has become active time, and we are actually creating stuff.
  • This articfial distinction between a producer and a consumer is dissolving - The participant economy.
  • Atuned to more of a conversation than a lecture.
  • All the different sites begining to be fused together, where you will see a bit of one site on another site and vice versa.
  • Open sourced software, cheap hardware.
  • FOUR PRIMARY ELEMENTS:
  • Search
    Tools/applications
    Content
    • CommunityAjax apps. vs. Flash apps.Users can interact with applications as if they was desktop applications
    Increase in query length
    Factors:
    Sheer number of users is increasing, (almost 1 billion)
    Demographic is changing (the millennial generation - just grew up with technology)
    Spending more time online
    Content owners are beginning to realize that the value of their data is much greater if its distributed outside their environment, then if its locked up within a single environment.

Researching Web 2.0

Reviewing:
What is Web 2.0

FLICKR: settling for 2nd place, cos there is no where else 2 go

Myspace is for musicians
The consensus so far is that Myspace is a great platform for emerging musicians, following the success of Lily Allen, Sandi Thom

Youtube for video artists.
The consensus so far is that Youtube is a great platform for emerging artists to gain mass exposure, following the success of OK GO! And cult online shows whom seem to broadcast straight from their own home.

Flicker for photographers
Now there is a rant, that Flickr should only be used for photos, as an excess of art-work material get in the way of searching for fotos of that object. Resulting in their work to be made NIPSA (not in public site areas).

2nd rate citizens stay for 1st class benefits
Besides this sense of user alienation, artists continue to commit to Flickr as there is no hosting service to date that can match the sense of active-community and feed back that is found between member groups of this hosting service.

Trading in xposure 4 integrity:
A method has been found by users to ‘un-nipsa’ a Flickr stream, is to go through your work and tag all non - photographic images as 'may offend', where the real use of that button is to report porn or worse.

Zoomr…..the other white meat:
Zoomr, what seems to b Flickr’s closest competitor, has approached this posting of artwork policy with a little more leniency, and gives freedom to users to post artwork as they see fit. Zoomr, also has almost the same facilities as flickr too

Deviantart….too deviant for main stream
Beside Zoomr, the only other moderately known site besides flicker to:
1) Post your photos and artwork
2) Get a sense of exposure and feedback from an active online community

is http://deviantart.com/

It is more of a artwork based site, but is no where equal to the sheer size and growth of flickr’s active online community.

So the dilemma continues….

FLICKR: From NRMAL to NIPSA

photographic or just plain graphic, WE R ALL ARTISTS!

Flickr is forcing people with more art than photos in their photostreams to be marked 'not in public areas' or 'NIPSA'. This marking is invisible to the artist, and they do not tell us about it.

What it means is that our work is NOT searchable. Our tags are NOT searchable. We become invisible, except when a particular work of ours is in a public group or in a contact's favourites list. Which means, unless you happen upon such an artist's work, OR you have their gallery's direct address, you will not be able to find them.

Paraphrasing the Community Guidelines on Flickr its states:

"With some exceptions, it's OK to post other images, but if
the majority of your photostream contains content other than
photographs (like illustrations, screenshots, diagrams,
etc.) it's very likely that your account will be marked Not
in Public Site Areas (NIPSA). NIPSA means your photos won't
show up in photo searches, but they will still be visible
in your pages, your groups and contacts."

Please help put pressure on Flickr to relax this policy

Here are the best ways to do this:

(1) Use their 'Help by Email' link, and send them a polite note asking them to change this policy.

(2) Please visit DIGG, and vote for the story to be pushed up the popularity polls. That way, Flickr will be forced to take notice of the story, as they won't be able to dismiss it as 'just another artist making a noise'.


URsay doin the rounds. .. .
Vidalia
Why don't you just add more photos? I don't get it. This is a photo hosting site, not an art hosting site.

kimwyatt4000
I know this sounds crazy, but when I search flickr for photos of stuff I want to find photos not paintings or drawings. I wish there was a way to specify that my images are art so they do not show up in photo searches.

I'm sure flickr only started this practice after multitudes of complaints from people looking for photos and getting art instead. I think they are trying to do the right thing for their original client base.

sarabat
Perhaps Flickr could classify all its "nipsa" accounts under a new label, say, "Flickrart", and tell internet surfers that this is the option to click if they are searching for paintings, drawings or if they wish to explore the artists' realm. Artistic members themselves should also be allowed to choose to be in "Flickrart" or remain in Flickr at large (but with the risk of being nabbed and nipsa'd later by some admin!). From the surfer's viewpoint, he or she would be able to select whether to search within Flickr for photos only, or Flickrart for artistic images only or both.

this_is_not_a_name
yes

plus if you want "exposure" you need to move beyond flikr , you should set up a blog and use flikr as an image host.

then network with other blogs etc etc

flikr is a hosting service , very stale as a community

Hello Doodle!
"flikr is a hosting service , very stale as a community "

I don't know where you got that one from. I find Flickr a very active community. My contact list has with time became a great network of friends, and all of the three groups created by me are very active and often reffered to as "photo clubs" rather than just groups.

the butterfly collector
It would be fantastic to have a website like flickr for all creative types, imagine the wonderful souls that would join and I'd imagine that everyone from www.etsy.com would join too! Great Idea, come on someone who knows how to make this happen!!! Actually I'm surprised Flickr themselves have'nt thought of this seeing as there are so many of us in here!

is_not_a_name
no , create a blog each and blogroll each other

then you get way more exposure.

you just use the "blog it" function in flikr and use flikr as a host

"web sites" are so last century :]

Hello Doodle!
This_is_not_ a _name was banned from "THE Biggest Group" with a reason. He creates a lot of smoke, but no fire.
This NIPSA thing is such an old issue that it's not rellevant anymore. This has been raised many times in during the past 18 months or so. And if you go and read others' posts, you'll learn that most of your NIPSA'd artworks can be reverted. What you need to do is to manually make all of your (nipsa) private images public again. Then go ahead send administrators a message asking to review your photostream once again. It shouldn't be much of a trouble, and I know tons of people who were allowed to have their artworks public again.

pincdesign
it seems to me that the internet as a hole neglects artists (when it comes to the blog/networking/uploading sites) for example look at my space, its music spicific profiles have helped meny bands to find there audience, but theres a certine limit to what you can dow with it in terms of showing work. there defanatly is a need for a sight devoted to promoting art and most importantly intorducing artises to each other. however i'm far more intrested in creating "art" than mantaining an art websight, an i would have thought thats how most of us feal.

so this is a pritty good second best.

this_is_not_a_name
i ll also repeat myself: NIPSA is a "marketting approach"

flikr's market is DSLR users who spent 1500$ on gear. that s who pays the bills. I m happy i can get hosting for so cheap.

the NIPSA thing is just a silly software attempt at keeping a unified look for the site from the outside.

lost4words
Hi Silentpoetry.

I'm NIPSA too - lots of us are.
Flickr is a photo sharing sight and people searching Flickr externally don'yt come here looking for drawings etc.
The only problem I have with this is the method used to un-nipsa a Flickr stream.
You are supposed to go through your work and tag all non - photographic images as 'may offend'.
To mind, the real use of that button is to report porn or worse.
I believe that if we had a separate button marked 'non-photographic image' which we could use to remove or artwork from the search programme, it would be a good compromise.
After all, there are lots of art sites on the net where we can post paintings etc and we would still be able to take part in all the internal Flickr social stuff ie groups etc.

vanmeir
This does seem misguided. I know Flickr styles itself as a "photo" sharing site, but I see no reason to exclude other types of images. This is particularly true in the era of Photoshop, when the line between photographs and other types of "created images" is blurry at best.

GerryNiger
If you are an artist go to deviantart or something, flickr is for sharing photos!

Pensketch
That's like saying a hammer is just for hitting nails. A tool is a tool.
This isn't new. I started my Pro account over a year and a half ago and was NIPSA'd right out the gate because I pulled everything I'd had at Smugmug onto Flickr. So, when they reviewed my account they marked me as verboten. They didn't tell me however. That was something I found out over time.

When I did I went back and fourth with Monish for about four rounds of emails until I had sufficiently jumped through the hoops. All of my non-photo work is marked private and now I can be found. Except my art can't. Which still pisses me off.

Rather than try to get them to change their policy on artwork, which I highly doubt they will, we should try to get them to start up a sister site for artists to display their work. Ideally they would offer a discount for people who also have a Pro account on Flickr. It should be easy to do.

The only reason I'm even remaining with Flickr is because I like their level of community. If another image sharing site that is friendly to artists can capture that level of community, I will drop Flickr like the art hating **** they appear to be.

I'll check out Zoomr as well.

bdteacher51
I totally agree; if zooomr or deviant art would set up the ability for members to create groups I'd be gone in a New York second. It is the groups that create the community.

Thomas Hawk
Hey feel free to send your art to Zooomr. We are happy to have both you and your artwork and will not Nipsa you. If you are also a blogger we are giving free pro accounts for bloggers.

Yahoo Adds Flickr Photos to Search

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews
August 24, 2006, 3:34 PM

Yahoo said Thursday that it had begun to integrate Flickr photos into its search result pages, allowing users to search through Flickr's vast collection of user-submitted pictures. While the service is currently limited to a select number of keywords, Yahoo plans to expand the program in the future.

The Sunnyvale, Calif. based search company bought the social photography site Flickr in March of last year. Social networking has become somewhat of a hot commodity for big Internet corporations, with several making acquisitions of their own.

Fox bought MySpace last year in a half-billion dollar deal, and Sony Pictures acquired social video site Grouper on Wednesday for $65 million. Even YouTube is reportedly looking for a buyer -- the company has apparently put a $1 billion price tag on the service.

How to build a laptop stand . . . McGuyver style

If ur a penny-scrounging student like I am, you will find this how-to very enlightening. I decided to build this stand, from spare parts lying around the house, cos my desk is too low and its giving my a hump everytime I use my lap-top.

Step 1:
Find 2 yellow/white pages lying around the house.....it doesnt matter which year, but it will help if the are both the same width.
hint: I found mine lying outside my house, it must have been dropd there wen they came out, and no1 at home was botherd to put it inside.


STEP2:
Now find a binder folder, hopefully one that no one is using, and place it on top of the 2 yellow pages which form the base of the stand while the folder will form the incline of the stand. Make sure that the binder end of the folder is face away from you, so that the lap=top will form a forwarding slant to the typer.

STEP 3:
Now this is the most important step, find some spare blue tack somewhere, anywhere, enough to make two 1cm balls of it. I found some on old posters, in a box I have on top of my wardrobe.

STEP 4:
Now your lap-top stand is almost done, u can place it on the binder folder now, find a position where it feels stable on it, and get ur blu tak ready.

STEP 5:
Now with the lap-top in a stabl position, get ur rolled blu tak balls and put it underneath the base corners of ur laptop closest to you (on the lower end of the lap-top incline). Now slightly put pressure on the laptop so that the blu tak squishes into the yellow pages base. This is to stop your lap-top from slipping off the stand.

And now your done! Viola!!!

Monday, August 28, 2006

Self portraits......so far







































To make any comments, or to just see how my self portratis are evolving, just clik on the images or please make a bee line to . .. .

The weak that was....August 22-27

This week was the first week that I had attempted to see what kind of identity I can forge thru online communities. And, if I was going to describe this week's experiences in 3 words they would be hectic......fustrating......and educational.

I have been feeling a lot of pressure from my supervisors to get a wiggle on, and its tuff becos, I still havent been able to knuckl down wat I am trying to prove out with my project

but then again, i did bring it all on to myself for making the assignment sooooo broad. I must give my supervisors credit, they did warn me many a times about it, but I stubbornly ignored there subtle hints.

A slightly, sorta wish I was more open about it, I really do need guidance, well Im more open about it now tho.

but is it too littl too late??????....sometimes I wish I just choose to do seminar.

Well its been a hard road, trying to learn such web 2.0 tools such as wikis, bloggers, and profile pages, and what i learned so far is that each has its own benefits, and distinct features, but to my own detriment, unfortunately they seem to have there own computer language code, and that if one wantd to fully xplore the potentials of them. U GOTTA LEARN IT! Shesh!

It was hard the first few days, but I found some online tutes on Youtube, so that has sorta helpd me out a bit.

Besides trying to learn a completely new language, and get a grasp of web 2.0 tools that I have only vaguely come across b4, more obstacles that have presented them to me, we has nothing really to do, but everything to do with me completing this study has to do with my computer problems.

Yes, yes, yes! It was one of those weeks were all my computrs at my house decided to crash and break down......So I had to make do, buy hooking theNet cable to a lap-top I have borrowed, and temporaryingly (but seems ever so permanent) to work off that instead.
It looks sooo strange, logging around a lap-top all around the house, with a cable that looks like a placenta cord. (hahahaha, I took the pic to the lft straight afta a showa, its funny how much u can get away with wen wearing a towel) But I do like the advantage of being able to type and research where every I want around the house, in bed before sleeping, in the kitchen while cooking, ouside the front door, after I get sik of being lockd up in my room.

The only thing I dislike is the inner mouse pad, it give me rsi after an hours, so I hookd up a mouse thru USB.....bettr :-)

Its been a week of mostly borrowing equipment, so that I can really experiment with designing things for my web pages. besides a lap-t I borrowed a wacom so that it will be easier to make self portraits in adobe illo/f-shop which I post in my flickr page.

Time is very important when communicating online. with having to update things daily, u need equipment that will be able to create the best quality work in a finite amount of time. Its taking my hours to do just a singl self portrait, but as I get more accustomed to the equipment and programs it shud get faster.

Im left handed, so working with a mouse its like working backwords, when trying to draw something on my comp. plus, the sytlus tool feels so much more instinctive.....only if I can get used to all the shortcuts the programs hav.....hehehehe......i guess it would b bettr to learn wat the r first, instead of just guessing.

I even discoverd that when ppl are online, they are usually busy doing something already, so it its really quite difficult to steer them away to spend their time on my project for a while.

I tried to get friends to comment on my site, but they were like later,later, later. Which I can understand, since when Im online, I busy being a active user too.

So it is important to work fast but still create good work, becos there is alot of stuff out there online, mayb I would evn call it an oversaturation of stuff.

In youtube and flickr, that sometimes its just too much to sort thru., and on some blogs, the paragraph lengths are toooo long and u just get turnd off reading it! To get noticed u gotta try to stand out of the pack, over something nue, interesting, and relevant, all within the 3 initial seconds....

so b CLEAR......SUSCINT......and..DIFFERENT!

To check out my self portraits visit:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/chasing-sandcastles/

Besides living online, I had other obligations to attend to in the real world, such as my tax, social commentments and fix my good damn! youth allowance at Centrelink (don't get my startd at their inherent incompetence!)

So alot of the week involved alot of travelling and waiting. And nothing electronically could have accommodated me in this situations more affordably then simply a notebook and pen that I carry around with my notes.

My of my best ideas are done, on the run....the only problem now, is having to re-write them on my comp., Oh wellz, I least it will give me time to revise what truly is the 'crux' of my assignment.....identity?


Toddles....
Chase

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Ok go - A Million Ways

I think this is wat startd the craze, well b4 'Here I go again'. Well at least it did for me. I couldnt believe, how many ppl re-enacted this choreography with their friends, let alone posting it on the Net! U mo-fos r craz-eeee!!! I wish I can take the credit for finding this gem myself, but my friend sent a link to it to me thru msn.

YOU KNO WHU U R!? ......... U BASTARD NOW ILL NEVA B THE SAME!!! ;-P

Chase

OK GO!.....Uhmmm...a while ago!

I was watching video hits on Saturday morning, like I usually do if ever I wake up in time, and to my surprise, OK-GO!'s song was on it! I was, as per usual, chatting to friends as my wake up ritual on msn when this happened. Funnily enougf I was in the midst of talkin to a friend, whom I told her how great they were, when she was telling me the other day her sister had sent her a link from Youtube of their video too, about a week after I did.

This group as a huge following on the Net, esp. Youtube and it made me think about the issue of passive vs. active viewer, with TV and radio being passive, and Web 2.0 being active.

As I continued chatting online, still present in the twilight of time between sleep and awake, when I heard the host, Axel Whitehead, talk about Kelis' song ‘Bossy‘, discussing her past work, and furthermore introducing the song as her new one. My first gut reaction was a bit of ’No!!! U-DID-NT!‘as it seemed a far cry to be able to call it ‘new’ as I have already known and seen the single on Youtube at least 2 weeks ago, and OK GO! I think even longer.

And today, as I drove home from a friend’s BBQ @ Centenial Park in Homebush, I was listening to triple J wen once again the hype about OK GO! was turned up, as they were saying how they hav broke so many online music records, which must have been a topic in the air, with Lily Allen, whom I also watchd on Video hits on Sat, as she discuss her own online fame, thru her online myspace shows.

And then it dawnd on me how slow, tv and radio pick up new things that rise out of our cultural surface. To me, Youtube is a medium for active viewing and is a better receptor for new and emerging things, in this musicians and artists, which exist at our cultural fringe.

The only downside I see in the advent of the successful rise of the underground bands such as OK GO! is that it is a little annoying to get ‘re-xcited’about them again once you were one of the early passengers to board that ship….becos once their one the radio or being interviewd on tv, in most cases that it has happened to me, that ship has already came and saild, that as the 2nd round of adopters get all xcitd about the music I cant help to feel a slight blunting about the whole thing, as the music that I once saw as so cutting slip further and further into the mainstream, slowly and gradually getting old and tired.

This weekend’s instances has stressed to me the point of how much I hav left the influences on my own musical taste to the in many ways out-dated radio and tv. I feel that I shouldn’t have to work my weekend morning schedule to catch/tape these shows, becos in many cases, the contents is at least a week old, and in the circles that I run in, that’s ancient bro!

It is a lot more convenient to watch them on formats like Youtube, becos you can decide to watch them at any time that suits u, u just need to search for them, or look up tags that relate to them. I only find the radio a useful format to use, because it allows me to put it in the background, and zone in and out of it as I tackle more important things, like drive, or do work, or household things. I feel like as it would be much more wiser to allow me, an avid listener to music, to give myself greater control on the expanse of my music listening repertoire.

To sum up, being an active user, has alot more to offer than being a spoon-fed passive user. You are connected directly to the source, hav an ear to the ground of new and emerging aspects of our culture, and if u have any motivation in ur spare time to just go and rummage in the cultural waste bin of Youtube, U might find something that u really like, or act least, feel a littl bit proud of urself, that u can put a stamp of discoverying it, a day, a week, or a month, b4 anyone else u kno.

Cheers big ears!
Chase.

RECOMMENDATIONS. . .Gamelife/Episode 1

This is the pilot episode one of the shows I found on YOUTUBE, its a gem!

There already up to there eighth show, the last time I check.

I doubt that without the advent of WEB 2.0 tools, such a show as this would not have been able to be made, nor an audience of the capacity that it now has, be reached.

Gwen Stefani says.Wat chu waitin 4!!!. . . . . .. Go find the other episodes!!!

Saturday, August 26, 2006

ways of walking AROUND a bad situation

Typing on my laptop positioned at the edge of my bed, my big tv screen viewable right infront of me in the background, with the dvd screensavr bouncing off the tv's edges, while my bedroom computer comfortably hums to the left of me on my messy-ass corner workstation. I cant help but feel happy to kno that I made it thru yet anothr busy, hectic and frustating day....

With my feet proped up against the wall, lying stomach down, I type with a pillow under my chest for support. My hair is wet and rustled, and is slowly drying as the heat from the bath continues to escape my body. It is moments like this, I cant help but feel refreshed and relaxed.

Today wasnt busy really in a productive way, more rather in a 'brik wall in ur path way, in which u spend most of ur time trying to jump over it.

For me, that wall was flickr, photoshop, my computer, my savd work cd's, my dad, and my clothes which we dying to be taken out of the basket and , hehehe, chuckd into my wardrobe.

And as is the case, with all barriers in our paths, we find out in the end, aftr many a faild attempts to either jump over or jump thru it, that it has always been much easier to walk around the wall, and that this option has always presentd itself to us, if we realli took the time to stop, and look at the biggr picture.

So I did.........but only figuring it out at 3 pm today, when I was up since 10am. I found my stride in multi-taskin thru today's obstacles, which fell by my feet, like a court to its king.

So my bedroom computr said my f-shop was out of date....so wat did I do!?.....I propd my lap-t on my desk, and did work I was going to do on my comp on that instead, multi-taskin from doin work on my lap-t while trying to reinstall f-shop.

It is 11.20pm at the mo, and after installin it, and removing it, then reinstalling it thru adobe custom suite but to no avail, and then trying to reset my comp to an earlier restore point but wasting my time, I can safely say, after 7 hrs of trying to install photoshop cs, I finally gav up, and instead succeeded in installing photoshop cs2 instead :-)

Flicker also screwd my over, but from my earlier posts, that is already out of my system. My dad annoyed my today 2. I dun get dads and there im too old to change' attitudes. His trying to fix the comp in the lounge, and I was half way thru my 2nd attempt of installin f-shop cs, wen he comes in and asks me to chek to see if i can connect to the net, by which I said I was half way thru something rite now (the boy can only speak the truth), he then took that as an erratic refusal and left annoyd at my supposed act of abandonment for the rest of the day.

I made him a midnite snak, cos I kno, tho he can b really moody that I also took time to acknowledge that he had a long and laborious day and through-out all this caffuffle, he probably had just forgottn to take off his 'overworkd grumps'-pants'.

Still, I cant wait until that lounge comp is fixd, becos its twice as good as the one in my room. Everyday my beddy comp tells me to clear up space in the c drive cos its running out of memory and I dun really want to use my lap-t too much becos i want to keep it for as long as I can for emergency use, and giving presentations.

It been a week full of bugs and moments of absolute buggery. Of setting up shop on my beddy comp, then running into a glitch again, which snowballs in to me resavin my work, and makin like a gypsy and migrating bak to my lap-t. (my grating is RIGHT!)

THANK-GOOD FOR USB FLASH DRIVES! i m all out of spare blank cds! All the backing and forthing between my comp and lap-t is enouf to make me sea sick...lol....i SEE a glitch, and it makes me SICK. (hehehe simple thins humour simple minds)

There sure was alot of waiting around todai, for things to upload, and programs to install (or unistall) I maintained my sanity luckily by finding things to do in the meantime. Whilst I waited, I went online and researched about Web 2. and rummaged thru my 3 and a 1/2 yrs worth of saved uni work cds which are more disorganized than virgin's first attempt at sex.. . . WITH SOME1 ELSE!.

Well else did I do.....I also finally folded my clothes, or made some dinner, or wash the dishes, or read/made some notes, or 'researchd' on msn, youtube and rang friends bout 'work-relatd' issues.....hehehehe....when ur topic is about youth culture and online interaction that can include just about anything!.

So really it wasnt all that bad. I pulld thru, I made the most of a bad situation, and I guess thats why, 'after all u put me thru....I wanna.THANK-U!...for making me that much strongr'(private joke)

I am left with a sense of accomplishment of rising to the occasion :-) hehehehe, I cant hardly wait wat 2c wat the stars hav in store for tomoro, isit gunna b a day of serendipitous luck, or well it ring tru to the last few days I've mangled thru...time will tell.

All I kno is I aint gunna b ready to face it with atleast some geeeeeewwd shut eye, and on that note, I think thats where I will leave it for today (besides my elbows are feeling a littl unloved from resting on them a littl to long).





'Smile!!! it confuses ppl!!!'
Chase

Flickr.. . .. . . from bad to bettr

oKAY, I figured the loop hole. Wen entering yahoo, instead of typing in ur yahoo ID, u type in ur flickr ID.

Finally, something is going right agin.

Still, the process was very confusing, b4 I work it out. Time was against me to think logically. Therefore, I just click thru pages without reading the instructions. But I think every user is like that. I mayb spend 10 seconds scanning the page, I look for landmarks to help me navigate to where I want to go. I zone out when I see large bodies of text. Buttons=good.....instructions paragraphs=Bad!


Chase

Flickr's Flying Fuk-ups!!!



I'm tired, Im hungry, and now thanx to Flickr Im pissed. Ive had a shitty day all day long. Firstly, wat I planned on spending 1/2 an hour to do another self portrait and upload it to flickr, ending up taking 4 hrs. 3 hours, conceptualizing it, (I can be a picky bastard) and another hours cos from my stupid Photoshop program screwing up on me. I ready activated it a month ago, and now its saying my 30 day trial has expired! Watever! from the sounds of it my photoshop trials and tribualtios are just begining.

So anyway, I had to reshift to using my laptop (which is something I didnt really wanna do, becos with all the computers in my house crashing left and right, the last thing I need is a broken xpensive laptop) which has a functioning copy of photoshop, but the catch was I had to reload my wacom, and upload my illo and f-shop files on it, and that was such a laborious pain!!!

And then to make thing worse, after trial and errorizing, hahaha, design terrorizing, todays self portrait, it ended up looking SHIT! it lookd so much better in my head. (It probably would have taking only 1 hour to do, if I wasn't experiementing on trying to make it look better). Another set bak was since im not that good at either f-shop or illo, I kept switching between the two programs for different needs, like f-shop for shading, and illo for quick shapes. And I bet u can do it all in either one of the too. I just cant be bothered. Theirs just too much reading!!!

So i settle for second best. Evn tho my vector illo files look shit, and I lose all my layers wen I turn them into jpeg so i can use them in f-shop. DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY ADVICE ON HOW I CAN PROBABLY DO ALL THE WORK IN ONE PROGRAM!? PLEEEEEZZZ!


So anyway, I finished the portrait and tried to load it on flickr, which, up until yesterdai I loved. But they got this stupid yahoo account log in then flicker account log in and its just sooooooo confusing. And their retrieval prcess is a nightmare. I wasted another hour trying to re-enter my site, until, u guessd it, MY ACCOUNT GOT DISABLED FROM SOOO MANY BOTCHED ATTEMPTS!

So I decided to write an entry in my blow to vent out my frustries, and keep pre-occupied until I can attempt to log onto flickr again. Its thats stupid flicker login, after the yahoo login that I get stumpd with, cos it tells me I should merge them, and if I dont want to, it doesnt allow me access to flickr! It keeps saying its wrong, and i try to access it thru yahoo, and they say their emailing it to me. But their not.

I wonder how I got into the Flickr site yesterdai!?

Oh man! Does anyone kno wat im doing wrong?!!!

Friday, August 25, 2006

Wiki-wiki....Wah-wah all the way home!!!

OMG!!! Wiki's are soooo complex!!! Im so totally confused, I just want to runaway and hide under a pile of coats, and hope everything turns out awwwwwwwlll rite...

By far, Wiki's are the hardest format to write in, but as I was reading throughout the site, it does sound like the most obliging, and it better be otherwise Ive just wasted 2 hours self teaching myself ((note to self - write an entry called"Self-teaching a Moron: the survival guide"). (Man this posting box is so small, i can hardly make out my errors)).

It practically does everything that was obviously missing from Livejournal and Blogger. (Table making, more academic, etc) It blows my plan for designing a blogging format that is suited to academic work . . BECAUSE ITS ALREADY HERE!FUDGE!!!

THE ONLY CATCH...is that u have to be like Bill Gates of something to truly take advantage of it, and by that I do not mean, trying to be the most bullied kid at school, or invest in wearing vests only grandma's like to buy their grandsons ( BTW I think Ive finally found that store, all i need to kno is how to get in, hmmmm). Wat I meant by trying to be like Billy G is that u need an almost above average understanding of Interenet code.

My yr. 10 Computer Studies classes are slowly coming back to me, but still, Im moving at the pace of a snail, and I want to do so much, but just do not kno how. And the help menu in pbwiki, is really confusingly designed. To date its still a total mess in there, that I needed to blog away vent my frustration!!!

For eg. I began clicking on the icons on the horizonal tool bar on my laptop inbuilt mouse table (cos both my bedroom comp & lounge room comp are being attackd by viruses and is giving me the shits but thats a whole other posting altogether)and within a hour I got rsi in both my fingers. So i took the mouse from the comp in the lounge room and hookd it onto my laptop. Navigation is so much easier now, less rsi from the scrolling down the editing screen.

I'm at the point where I don't even use the icons no more, its takes longer than just adding in the code requirements with the keyboard. I manage to win this battle Wiki!!! but im not looking forward to writing the code to make a table though....

On intial observation, Wiki's are difficult, but acheiveabl enouf to teach yourself through trial and error, like the approach im taking....Its quite a formulaic language when you get the hang of it. I'm even beginning to think in its code, opening brackets, closing brackets, quotations, slashes, and shift+numercal keys. Its enouf to try a boi to eat!!!

DOES ANYBODY KNO HOW TO USE THE SPELL CHEKR IN THIS THING, I THINK MINEZ BROKN...


Perplexually urz
Chase

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Tick-tock, goes the clock!

time.....TIME!


this is probably the most important factor of Online Communication. This factor, coupled with the technological facilities, has shaped, in many ways our interaction actions. For everytime we communication online, I atleast, feel a sense of a time limit, to best express my meaning within the limitations of the given format in this aloted space of time, before my message becomes redundant.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

WUSINWIG -Wat U See Is NOT Wat I Got!

Do you see that orphan in my last post. U see, I didnt get that in my 'posting>create' format window. My paragraph ends perfectly with conjunction with the image

THIS IS A DESIGN SPECIFICATION WORTH CONSIDERING:
(I would also like the option for underlining headings without having to cut'n'paste from Word....which is still frozen by the way)
  • I want an option screen to see wat you see. The preview option found in the 'posting>create' format doesn't consider the type of template I have used for my blog.
  • So does that mean my text will change everytime I change my layout??? I will only kno if I can b botherd in changing my template again, and do I, or any1 else really hav anytime for that!?
  • Im considering designing a browser that can enable an option, where the preview takes in account of the screen limitations of the medium it will b displayed in. Whether in this case, errors are caused by the template of the blog, to mayb errors and inclarity of info display caused by the screen limitations of a mobile, even considering screen formats (eg PSP - widescreen)

"tHE hOMER"

Have you watched the Simpsons episode,"Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?", Where Homer finds out he has a half-brother, (Herb Powell) and owns a car company. In this episode Herb asks Homer 'to build a car for the average man'.

This car he designs is dubbed 'The Homer' and is completely rediculous, (it includes three horns that play "La Cucaracha", shag carpeting, bubble domes, extremely large cupholders, and a separate compartment with restraints and muzzles for the childrenand) And it gets worse, it costs a whopping $82,000!

Homer's spectacular failure results in Herb selling his company, declaring bankruptcy and living on the street.

This episode to me, flashes as my analogy of the impending dread I feel about my Honours' outcome. U see, I am planning to design a browser, for the 'average' user of digital media. A browser that can work in tandem with hand-held devices, and allow:
  • An integration of image/film+text+sound,
  • An ability to incorporate informal, and formal usage.
  • And to meld alot of programs like msn, blogger, flickr, youtube, all in one!?
I am starting to feel a little like 'to many cooks are spoiling the broth'. And with so littl time, its mondo confusing!!!

Am I, just like Homer did in this episode, asking for too much, and focusing on design specifications which are irrelevant?

Is this assignment just gunna go down in a blaze of glory!? Time well tell

PS.
Dirrty-Man-Eyes is bak in the Computr Lab, and has now been juggling his time between 2 buxom blonde design students for the past 40 mins, (hey! just bout as long as Ive been writing LOL) I wonder if wen I finish this post he'll go again, and if I begin a nue one hell come bak!? I wondr y he has nevr helpd me wif so much vigour wif my comp. problems. OH YEH! DATS RIGHT! I dun have boosies! Duh!!!

X
Chase



For a run down of the episode I am talking about visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh_Brother,_Where_Art_Thou%3F

DAY ONE: And so it has begun...

Can you believe it! this is my first ever experiment with Blogger and I call myself a Net Junkie. Hopefully by the end of this study I will be a fully verifed Net Geek.

My aim of this blog its to track down my thoughts about my thesis is a sort of diary-esque format. I have never kept a diary in my life! With most things that I do, I get sick of it in bout 2 weeks! So this will be a challenge. All in the name of ACADEMIA is say!!!

Any hows, I am in the midst of setting up a wiki, a myspace, a youtube and a flickr account. And Im trying to see if the design specifications of each type will enable me to communicate and interact in a personal and visual way, or any other modes for that matter.

Furthermore, I aim to see, if I can link all this identities together to create a unified identity, from all the distinctive features that each format may have to offer. Mayb even giving suggestions on how I can make the facilities or the design specifications a little more better. Once again, this is a huge challenge for me, cos I always considered me-self a more a pen and paper sort of dude, but oh wellz, nuffin ventured nuffin gained...

As it has already wasted 30 minutes in just refinding my username and password of this blog to make today's entry. It has been made obvious to me that time is of the essence here. I notice my sentence structure has been truncated to appear more susscint (yeah, I kno wat ur thinkin, Wat he actually has more to rattl on about) and I also notice that I try where I can, to save on typing speed, like using phonetic spelling and missing letters. (Sorry of any future spelling errors in advance)

Hopefully time will be on my side, As my passion as always been my guide ;-p






P.S.
  • Although its took my ages to resend my username and password to my email, I did find the process and navigation logical and easy to follow.
  • I am so loving this format of creating posts. It is so much like Word, and I use word alot to write in. I must admit, alot of times I cut'n'paste text from other software into Word, so I can use the spell checker. It is so handy! Im sure most other software I use has this function but I have still yet to be desparate enough to figure out where it is.
  • I get a strange familiarity with this layout, since I use word, I feel like I have used it (blogger) b4, the justifying of paragraphs, the bulleting, the spell checker, its customising of colours, and so working in this designed format, I seem to be taking to it like a duck to water. - But where's the option to create tables, or to make drawings with a sytlus , or mayb speech activated commands. Just a suggestion.
  • Spark! So wen designers redesigning, keeping in mind already established and tested formats seems imperitive in revising a design style.
  • Ooh! I love the feature of the keyboard shortcuts at the bottom - very logical.
  • I just wish that their was an easy option to attach gifs, or emoticons, or pix (Oops! u can add pix) in with this text. Like mayb how msn allows, and email.
  • I was just trying to navigat back from my preview of my posting, and I almost clik on going 'back' in the browser. This would have really screwd me up! So what did I learn: Too many options offered to the users is immensly confusing, esp. wen time is so important and descisions are made quick fast!
  • Hey! the spell checker doesnt work! Back to cuttin-n-pastin in Word! Oh fudge, the Word program just crashd, I better save this entry B4 more unaccountd computer errors befall me!
[This posting took me bout an hour to finalize. Im very new to online 'publishing' and being an obessive compulsive that always seems to screw things up doesnt help. So re-reading and editing this post at least 3 times seems, TO ME!, the logical thing to do to make a post I am happy with - Also, this dirty old geezr of a computer tech, helpin out a buxom blonde design student talkin at the top of his shrill voice isnt helping me wif my concentration either. -OK! WE GET IT! PHOTOSHOP ALLOWS U 2 DO LAYERS!
Have u ever had that problem....anyone?]







Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Caution

Due to the transience of the technology, I wish to caution the readers that everything this blog contains is going to soon be out of date: and any attempts to characterize any aspects of user interaction (language, design specifications) of the Internet as a whole or even in reference to one of its constituent situations, is no exception p.224