Media: August 2007 Archive Page

David Lazarus describes the Time Lady's end in California.

"It was always there," said Orlo Brown, 70, who for many years kept Pacific Bell's (and subsequently SBC's) time machines running in a downtown Los Angeles office building. "Everybody knew the number." Richard Frenkiel was assigned to work on the time machines when he joined Bell Labs in the early 1960s. He described the devices as large drums about 2 feet in diameter, with as many as 100 album-like audio tracks on the exterior. Whenever someone called time, the drums would start turning and a message would begin, with different tracks mixed together on the fly. (LA Times)

Rachel Buchanan:

It has all happened so fast. In the 20th century, media evolved through a series of technological landmarks that seem stately in comparison: first radio waves across the Atlantic in 1901; television invented, 1926; television transmission begins in Australia, 1956; CNN begins, 1980. From there, change is compressed. In 1992 the Mosaic browser made the internet easier to use. By 1998, Matt Drudge's online news and gossip website, the Drudge Report, had broken the story of Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky, an event that is widely cited by journalism academics as the birth of online news. Google, MySpace, YouTube, wikis and blogs all belong to this century.

Stuart Allan, author of Online News (2006), begins his history of the form with the Drudge Report. Other key events are the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York, in which "amateur news reporters" used weblogs to create their own "decentralised media" and the war in Iraq, which resulted in the rise of first-person, raw accounts of life inside Iraq in the warblogs of Salam Pax and Riverbend. Participatory or citizen journalism began, in this account, with the launch of Indymedia (motto "be the media") in 2000 in Seattle during anti-globalisation protests. South Korea's OhmyNews, in which citizens write the stories (and readers tip writers they like best) and citizen "reporting" on the London bombings, Hurricane Katrina and the Asian tsunami are other examples of what Allan says are "the ways in which the very users of online news are rewriting the rules which have traditionally governed journalism as a profession".

Ordinary people, Allan argues, are now pursuing their own news agendas, sidestepping "corresponding notions of 'authority', 'credibility' and 'prestige'." (The Age)

Couldn't sleep. Thought I'd do some more work on the Wikipedia entry for Colossal Cave Adventure.

The Wilhelm Scream is a sound effect that appears in many action films, as an in-joke among sound designers.

It's funny, because it's true.... David Galef satirizes the humiliation humanities professors have to go through when requesting research funds:

To Professor Michael Wall, Chair, English Department: This has to do with the travel budget for the coming academic year. As we discussed last spring, I need something on the order of $700 for the annual Joyce conference, held this year in Miami, December 3-5. I saved the department money last year by using Blackboard exclusively rather than hand out Xeroxes, and in any event, this shouldn’t break the bank, right? Let me know soon, please, because I have to book the flight. (Inside Higher Ed)

Seton Hill has actually been very good to me, though it was a struggle last year finding funds to bring students who were presenting at the 4Cs. (We managed.)

One in four adults say they read no books at all in the past year, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Tuesday. Of those who did read, women and seniors were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices.

The survey reveals a nation whose book readers, on the whole, can hardly be called ravenous. The typical person claimed to have read four books in the last year — half read more and half read fewer. Excluding those who hadn't read any, the usual number read was seven. --AP

Some acted selflessly, rushing to the aid of other characters even though that meant they risked infection themselves. Others fled infected cities in an attempt to save themselves. And some who were sick made it their mission to deliberately infect others. --BBC

Wikipedia has a good collection of background resources on "corrupted blood," the virtual disease which afflicted avatars in World of Warcraft in 2005.

1. What Berlin wall?
35. Stadiums, rock tours and sporting events have always had corporate names.
43. Being a latchkey kid has never been a big deal.
53. Tiananmen Square is a 2008 Olympics venue, not the scene of a massacre.
55. MTV has never featured music videos.
66. The World Wide Web has been an online tool since they were born. --Beloit College

Which ones struck you the most? #66 really blew me away -- though CERN didn't actually open up the WWW to the general public as a free service until 1993. (I was taking a non-credit humanities computing class that summer, and one week the guest lecturer gave a demo of this new piece of software -- a "web browser" called Mosaic.)

A large majority of video games sold in the UK receive a rating under the voluntary Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) system, but some games, about 6-7% of the total, are referred to the BBFC. In determining what classification to give, the BBFC employs much the same approach as it does to films and DVDs. However, as a medium, video games of course differ from films in a number of ways, and especially in being interactive.

There has been little recent or credible research into the ways video games are distinctive as a medium or into how games may generate different reactions in players than films and DVDs do in viewers.

Many video games involve violent action and some people fear they may desensitise players to violence. Media interest in this subject has been growing. Some research in the US appears to support the hypothesis that playing video games can make people more aggressive. There is some pressure on both sides of the Atlantic for games to be more tightly regulated.

Meanwhile, the technology continues to advance, enhancing interactivity and delivering ever more realistic graphics. The newest developments may complicate the task of classifying games and increase anxiety amongst those who worry about the medium. --BBFC

In order to study people's concerns about video games, the study breaks parents up into current gamers, former gamers, and never-been-gamers.  The study emphasizes marketing, rather than topics that interest me more (such as rhetoric, design, or psychology), but there is some good discussion about playing habits among the different age groups.

SOMETIMES there is a huge disconnect between the people who make a product and the people who use it. The creator of a Web site may assume too much knowledge on the part of users, leading to confusion. Software designers may not anticipate user behavior that can unintentionally destroy an entire database. Manufacturers can make equipment that inadvertently increases the likelihood of repetitive stress injuries. | Enter the usability professional, whose work has recently developed into a solid career track, driven mostly by advancements in technology. --Barbara Whitaker --Technology's Untanglers: They Make It Really Work (New York Times)

The techno bloggers sort of scoffed at this article when it first came out, since usability is a basic concept to people who work on the internet. Still, it's a good thing that a reporter took the time to educate the general public.

Because so little primary historical work has been done on the classic text computer game "Colossal Cave Adventure", academic and popular references to it frequently perpetuate inaccuracies. "Adventure" was the first in a series of text-based games ("interactive fiction") that emphasize exploring, puzzles, and story, typically in a fantasy setting; these games had a significant cultural impact in the late 1970s and a significant commercial presence in the early 1980s. Will Crowther based his program on a real cave in Kentucky; Don Woods expanded this version significantly. The expanded work has been examined as an occasion for narrative encounters (Buckles 1985) and as an aesthetic masterpiece of logic and utility (Knuth 1998); however, previous attempts to assess the significance of "Adventure" remain incomplete without access to Crowther's original source code and Crowther's original source cave. Accordingly, this paper analyzes previously unpublished files recovered from a backup of Woods's student account at Stanford, and documents an excursion to the real Colossal Cave in Kentucky in 2005. In addition, new interviews with Crowther, Woods, and their associates (particularly members of Crowther's family) provide new insights on the precise nature of Woods's significant contributions. Real locations in the cave and several artifacts (such as an iron rod and an axe head) correspond to their representation in Crowther's version; however, by May of 1977, Woods had expanded the game to include numerous locations that he invented, along with significant technical innovations (such as scorekeeping and a player inventory). Sources that incorrectly date Crowther's original to 1972 or 1974, or that identify it as a cartographic data file with no game or fantasy elements, are sourced thinly if at all. The new evidence establishes that Crowther wrote the game during the 1975-76 academic year and probably abandoned it in early 1976. The original game employed magic, humor, simple combat, and basic puzzles, all of which Woods greatly expanded. While Crowther remained largely faithful to the geography of the real cave, his original did introduce subtle changes to the environment in order to improve the gameplay. --Dennis G. Jerz --Somewhere Nearby is Colossal Cave: Examining Will Crowther's Original ''Adventure'' in Code and in Kentucky (Digital Humanities Quarterly)

One of the journal's editors, Matt Kirschenbaum, writes:

Just a post to draw attention to a major new piece in the current issue of Digital Humanities Quarterly (a venue which you all should be keeping tabs on anyway) on Will Crowther's original ADVENTURE (aka Colossal Cave).

In his "Somewhere Nearby is Colossal Cave: Examining Will Crowther's Original 'Adventure' in Code and in Kentucky," Dennis Jerz offers an archeology of the work's source code alongside of an exploration (photo-documented!) of the actual Mammoth Cave in Kentucky.

Scholars routinely mis-cite information as fundamental as ADVENTURE's date of composition, the kind of carelessness that reinforces the view that electronic objects exist outside of material histories and are impossible to take seriously as cultural artifacts. Jerz sets the record straight with rigorous textual scholarship based (in part) on the work's original magnetic back-up tapes, which is personally responsible for recovering.

Absolutely essential reading.

Update, Aug 11: Some reactions have started to appear on rec.arts.int-fiction.
Update, Aug 12: Matthew Russoto has posted compilable versions of Crowther's original source code. That was fast!
Update, Aug 13: David Kinder has posted a Windows executable based on Crowther's original source code. (The URL points to a temporary holding spot... I'll update the final URL when I find out what it is.)

MetaFilter and BoingBoing have also posted about the article.
Update, August 14: Slashdot compares the discovery of the code to the finding of the Holy Grail. Also, del.icio.us, reddit, Digg.

The internet news audience -- roughly a quarter of all Americans -- tends to be younger and better educated than the public as a whole. People who rely on the internet as their main news source express relatively unfavorable opinions of mainstream news sources and are among the most critical of press performance. --Internet News Audience Highly Critical of News Organizations (Pew Research Center)

The statistic I found most interesting is that those who prefer to watch TV news were twice as likely as internet news consumers to say news organizations care about the people they report on. Of course, that statistic might also mean that people who prefer empathy end up watching TV news, or that the TV news includes more emotional content.

We're a long way from the time when popular culture was full of heroic reporters who righted wrongs and stood up for truth.

There is ultimately no way to "justify" SCMRPG in the minds of those who find it deplorable but I believe even the game's detractors will find that the film fleshes out the controversy to better understand the future of games as a medium. The film is essentially a challenge to game developers to rethink the limits of their medium and a challenge to the general public to expect (demand!) more from games than mere entertainment. --Danny Ledone (interviewed by Keith Stuart) --Danny Ledonne on Super Columbine Massacre RPG (Guardian GamesBlog)

Filing for future reference.

Masahiro Mori's Uncanny Valley hypothesis states that, as artificial beings get closer to resembling real humans, the slightest errors or inaccuracies can shift our responses from empathy to disbelief and even disgust. It's why, in Toy Story, we love Woody and Buzz Lightyear, but are totally unmoved by Andy, their human owner.

This is something both videogame and movie special effects artists are having to grapple with now that processing power is allowing ever more naturalistic representations of human characters. And grappling with it they are. --Artists climb the uncanny valley (Guardian)

A good introduction to the subject.

James Hays and Alexei Efros from Carnegie Mellon University have developed an algorithm to help people who want to remove bits of photographs.

The parts being removed could be unsightly lorries in the snaps of the rural idyll where they took a holiday or even an old boyfriend or girlfriend they want to rub out from a photograph.

To find suitable matching elements, the research duo's algorithm looks through a database of 2.3 million images culled from Flickr.

"We search for other scenes that share as closely as possible the same semantic scene data," said Mr Hays, who has been showing off the project at the computer graphics conference Siggraph, in San Diego. --Mark Ward --Photo tool could fix bad images (BBC)

I wonder whether such a database could also be used to detect doctored images? Thanks for the suggestion, Rosemary.

Vicary and Fraley modeled their study on a 1979 Random House interactive fiction series, "Choose Your Own Adventure," which allowed the reader to select from multiple options at critical points in the story. Each choice directed the reader to a new scenario.

This approach appealed to the researchers because earlier studies of individual behavior in relationships asked participants to make choices based solely on descriptions of isolated events. The sequential nature of the new study was more like an actual relationship, Vicary said, in that it involved ongoing interactions with the same partner. --Simulated Relationships Offer Insight Into Real Ones (Science Daily)

Measuring test subjects' responses to tree fiction, with a branching plotline that reflects how positively or negatively the subjects responded to a simulated partner. Sounds cool.

Lately I've had the urge to play text adventure games, but I'm not sure what to play. I've been googling, but I'm overwhelmed by the variety of games available and can't seem to find a useful review site.

So... what should I play? --Recommend a few good text adventure games! (MetaFilter)

I missed this thread when it appeared... Thanks, Matt, for pointing it out to me.

Many of the games I'd recommend were on this list. I'd add 9:05, Christminster, and Jigsaw, too.

The New York Times Co. (NYT.N) plans to stop charging Internet users for access to its columnists and Op-Ed pieces on a section of its Web site known as TimesSelect, The New York Post reported on Tuesday. --New York Times to end paid Web service: report (Yahoo! | Reuters)

Certain upscale and targeted audiences will pay for some premium content, but this decision suggests the amount of money the Times made off of its premium content is not worth the hassle (and is not worth the income the company stands to make if this previously walled-off content is opened up to search engines and bloggers).

Interactive media are highly complex and at high risk for loss as technologies rapidly become obsolete. The Preserving Virtual Worlds project will explore methods for preserving digital games and interactive fiction. Major activities will include developing basic standards for metadata and content representation and conducting a series of archiving case studies for early video games, electronic literature and Second Life, an interactive multiplayer game. Second Life content participants include Life to the Second Power, Democracy Island and the International Spaceflight Museum. Partners: University of Maryland, Stanford University, Rochester Institute of Technology and Linden Lab. --Digital Preservation Program Makes Awards to Preserve American Creative Works (Library of Congress)

I've been hoping for this announcement for some time.

A while ago Matt Kirschenbaum approached me to ask whether I'd be interested in applying my research in "Colossal Cave Adventure" towards a big digital preservation project. This is it.

The interactive fiction virtual machine is an excellent model for digital preservation. As each new computer system has come out, all one has to do is code up a new interpreter to run the virtual machine. So it's possible to play "Adventure" on numerous platforms, from PDAs to cell phones. However, the recent editions of "Adventure" weren't created with an eye towards historical accuracy, but rather to expose the games to a wider audience. There's nothing wrong with popularizing an important text, but scholars do need access to accurate versions, so that they can accurately trace developments in the genre.

I'm not exactly sure what I'll be asked to do for the project, but at the least I can write up a textual analysis of the various editions of "Adventure" (including an important version that has been considered lost for decades... but I need to wait a little longer before I say any more about that).

One of the components of the proposal was a virtual arcade within Second Life, where visitors could play emulations of classic games.

Like locked cell phones and copy-protected music, Facebook is on the wrong side of the open-network debate. Facebook is a sealed bubble. Facebook users are locked into Facebook, just as iTunes locks music fans to Apple's iPod.

This serves companies' business interests, but not the wider interests of consumers.

[...]

At this point, "friend" relationships remain unique to the social networks. The web still lacks a generalized way to convey relationships between people's identities on the internet. The absence of this secret sauce -- an underlying framework that connects "friends" and establishes trust relationships between peers -- is what gave rise to social networks in the first place. --Scott Gilbertson --Slap in the Facebook: It's Time for Social Networks to Open Up (Wired)

I couldn't have said it better. This is why I have no particular desire to use a fenced-in system. Yes, I have my students blog with MovableType, but the software is free for private users.

Having said that, I realize that the appeal for some people is precisely that they can share their information with a small group of friends, but all it takes is for one friend to squeal.

I also confess to feeling a bit uncomfortable at the prospect of contacting a researcher whose work I find useful, and telling them I want to be his or her "friend". In the clinically hierarchical world of academia, even "colleague" might be presumptuous.

Rather, Salen and other planners are looking at how games naturally engage players and teach them new skills, and hope to apply those principles to create kids who not only ace their SATs, but are also well suited for the 21st century.

Games offer a context for problem-solving with immediate feedback, and often involve social interaction that can reinforce lessons learned, Salen wrote in a proposal. Combine that process with the skills that modern games encourage -- like computer literacy and navigating through complex information networks -- and you have the basis for a brand new pedagogy, Salen believes.

The planners will devote this year plotting a curriculum, and will test pieces of it in high school classrooms the following school year. Right now, the ideas are vague but intriguing: Alternate reality games could be used to study science, as those players typically seek out and analyze data, and then propose and test their hypotheses. Salen also envisions harnessing the creative urges that kids already express through fan fiction, blogging and the creation of avatars and online identities. --Eliza Strickland --A Win-Win Scenario: 'Game School' Aims to Engage and Educate (Wired)

The smell of a flower - The memory of a walk in the park - The pain of stepping on a nail. These experiences are made possible by the 3 pounds of tissue in our heads...the BRAIN!! --Eric H. Chudler --Neuroscience for Kids (University of Washinton)

My son was asking me a lot of questions about how alcohol affects the brain, and an internet search lead me to this great site. I hope they have another neuroscience poetry competition.

A pity effort to hack into the hacker-only conference DEFCON was attempted by the NBC reporter Michelle Madigan. Apparently the Associate Producer for Dateline NBC entered the DEFCON with a hidden camera and tried to film attendees confessing to illegal activities. According to some sources, Madigan was working on an investigative piece called "Hackers for Hire" which would have shown the underground world of the hackers community.

The DEFCON folks quickly picked up the scent (some claim they were tipped off) and told the audience that there is a reporter among them with a hidden camera. Michelle Madigan quickly left the conference room, chased down by over 100 of the participants. The tables turned on Madigan on exit, when she was chased down by a dozen of reporters trying to interview her. --Michelle Madigan attempts to hack DEFCON (OG Paper)

Mob justice.

I don't think the "chased down by a dozen of reporters" is accurate -- it sounded to me like it was a small gang of hackers who half-heartedly pretended to be reporters. One said "Thanks for playing!" and others chorused "Bye!" when she left the parking lot.

While the video is credited to "Elizabeth Safran," there is something very discomfiting about a gang of men mocking and poking fun at a woman as she makes a beeline for her car. Having said that, Madigan had attended under false pretenses, and while the small crowd escorting her to her car was annoyed, they simply counted on their presence in numbers to give them authority, and -- like any hackers would hack any system -- used the tools of the existing system in order to upset the status quo. The TV news "perp walk" is a media event designed to shame a suspect and celebrate the power of the authorities, and here we see a reporter making that walk of shame.

--3D Hectopus Animation (Rainbow Hector Weblog)

Just a 3D, six-legged character animation. Not the best walk cycle I've ever seen, but it was fun making it.

Besides not beaming down, another factor that showed to increase the survival rate of the red-shirts was the nature of the relationship between the alien life and captain Kirk. When Captain Kirk meets an alien woman and "makes contact" the survival rate of the red-shirted crewmen increases by 84%. In fact, out of Captain Kirks' 24 "relationships" there were only three instances of red-shirt vaporization.

The caveat to this is when Captain Kirk not only meets the local alien women, but also starts a fight among alien locals. The combination of these events has led to the elimination of 4 crewmembers (3 red-shirts).

Here are the statistics:
Red Shirt Death episodes = 18
Episodes with fights = 55
Probability of a fight breaking out = 70%
Kirk "conquest" episodes = 24
Kirk "conquest" + fights = 16
Kirk "conquest" + red shirt casualty= 4
Red shirt death + fight + Kirk "conquest" = 3

--Matt Bailey --Analytics According to Captain Kirk (The Inside Track)

There's an amusing chart that shows crewmember deaths (by shirt-color-coded tombstones) in relation to Kirk's romantic conquests and the number of fights.