Categories
Digital Culture

As some of you may have not

As some of you may have noticed, I'm slowly transitioning off of this blog, and onto a new, cleaner, WordPress styled blog. I'll be updating my .htaccess to forward (which should keep everything happy, without anyone needing to change bookmarks). So stay tuned.

 

Categories
Digital Culture

Amazon.com is in the process of digitizing 120,000 books, and making the FULL TEXT searchable online. The kicker? You can't access the entire book digitally…just the pages that are returned for your search. This is in an attempt to increase the utility of their commercial venture. So….it could be better, but the utility will still be incredible.

Full story from Wired….here's an excerpt:

“Amazon's Alexandrian scheme hinges on the insight that physical books can be turned into electronic databases and then – in the retail process – turned back into physical books. This is one of the boldest maneuvers yet in an intense commercial competition, but for all its cunning, this is a civilized, even civilizing war, one that builds libraries rather than burns them. “

Categories
Digital Culture

Attention Jean (and other interested bloggers)

Jean…you must use this image somewhere in your master’s paper. It’s a necessity.

Bloggers Manga?

from Amazon.com Japan

Categories
Digital Culture

Incredibly cool project from Amazon…

Amazon.com is in the process of digitizing 120,000 books, and making the FULL TEXT searchable online. The kicker? You can’t access the entire book digitally…just the pages that are returned for your search. This is in an attempt to increase the utility of their commercial venture. So….it could be better, but the utility will still be incredible.

Full story from Wired….here’s an excerpt:

“Amazon’s Alexandrian scheme hinges on the insight that physical books can be turned into electronic databases and then – in the retail process – turned back into physical books. This is one of the boldest maneuvers yet in an intense commercial competition, but for all its cunning, this is a civilized, even civilizing war, one that builds libraries rather than burns them. “

Categories
Digital Culture

Fall Break

And finally….Fall Break. All I can say is: About fucking time.

Not that there's a break there. We're gonna do a little travelling, probably to Busch Gardens in VA.

Also, a list of things to do over break:

  • Get recommendations for jobs lined up and sent to Career Services
  • Start outline of Master's Paper
  • Watch a lot of movies with Betsy
  • See friends
  • Work on projects for classes
  • Finish Quicksilver
  • Read articles for INLS 180
Categories
Digital Culture

Fall Break

And finally….Fall Break. All I can say is: About fucking time.

Not that there’s a break there. We’re gonna do a little travelling, probably to Busch Gardens in VA.

Also, a list of things to do over break:

  • Get recommendations for jobs lined up and sent to Career Services
  • Start outline of Master’s Paper
  • Watch a lot of movies with Betsy
  • See friends
  • Work on projects for classes
  • Finish Quicksilver
  • Read articles for INLS 180
Categories
Digital Culture
uma

I just saw my favorite movie of the year thus far: Kill Bill. I'm not sure that it's the best movie of the year, but it may be the most well crafted. Tarantino once again shows that he can not only make violence look like the most beautiful thing in the world, but he can do so with pinache and verve. His choices for music, as always, are just perfect for any given scene. Uma Thurman gives an outstanding performance as The Bride, and unfortunately I think the subtlety of her work in this film will be vastly overshadowed by people commenting on the bloodshed. Plus, it has David Carradine in it.

For anyone who enjoys the aesthetic of violence at all, or likes the Tarantino aesthetic, this film is his return to greatness.

Categories
Digital Culture

Kill Bill

uma

I just saw my favorite movie of the year thus far: Kill Bill. I’m not sure that it’s the best movie of the year, but it may be the most well crafted. Tarantino once again shows that he can not only make violence look like the most beautiful thing in the world, but he can do so with pinache and verve. His choices for music, as always, are just perfect for any given scene. Uma Thurman gives an outstanding performance as The Bride, and unfortunately I think the subtlety of her work in this film will be vastly overshadowed by people commenting on the bloodshed. Plus, it has David Carradine in it.

For anyone who enjoys the aesthetic of violence at all, or likes the Tarantino aesthetic, this film is his return to greatness.

Categories
Digital Culture

Can I move to the UK?

Cause it seems like they might just get it there. Here’s a link to the speech given by Ashley Highfield, Director of BBC New Media & Technology, and here are 5 things you will NEVER hear an American Media leader say:

1. “At the simplest level — audiences will want to organize and re-order content the way they want it”
2. “We should create more programmes that come with the meta-data, the tags in the programme that allow it to be chopped up and consumed piece meal by the viewer. ”
3. “Traditionally we have always thought that TV was about lying back relaxing and at best, half hearted interaction. In fact, recent trials again in Hull proved otherwise — audiences want a lot more than this. They want to create their own content either from scratch, or perhaps using tools and support that a broadcaster can provide”
4. “Downloading and sharing this video is the final piece of the jigsaw and will create a killer combination that I believe could undermine the existing models of pay-TV. ”
5. “We are exploring legitimate peer-to-peer models to get our users to share our content, on our behalf, amongst themselves, transparently.”

Categories
Digital Culture

New Blog Software?

I’m just testing some new blog software…WordPress, an offshoot of B2. We’ll see how this goes for a bit, with some tweaking. I like Userland, but this has some advantages, esp the fact that I can access it from anywhere, rather than just from my laptop.

So, unless I get Tiki working, and it just blows me out of the water, I will switch over to WordPress.