norayoung.ca | At the Corner of Technology and Culture
The Power of Transparency
I’ve been meaning to post on this for a while now. In December, Chris Anderson, (editor in chief at WIRED magazine and author of The Long Tail, which I first mentioned here back in ’05) posted on what transparency in mass media might look like. One of the pithiest summaries of its application to the [...]
iHysteria
OK, I’d be the first to admit that the just-unveiled iPhone is pretty sexy; I was instantly struck by the smart phone technoporn of it all. Come on, though, the write-ups are a little over the top. what are they serving at MacWorld, Kool-Aid? Interesting analysis of the business model from savvy Jack Schofield’s technology [...]
Convergence Culture
Convergence Culture, by Henry Jenkins, is next on my list of books to read. According to his blog, it’s about the relationship between media convergence, participatory culture, and collective intelligence” (More below) Now, I haven’t read the book yet, but it sounds intuitively intriguing. Still, just today, I was thinking that we are becoming a [...]
fun fun fun
David Pogue’s blog pointed out this site You use the pen by holding down your mouse button and making a curvy line from top left to bottom right. Then click the PLAY icon!
Cold War Fun!
Via boingboing, here’s an interesting bit of social and technological history. Animator Ward Jenkins’ blog has scans of a 1962 Fall Out Shelter handbook. Interesting how there was a whole industry built up around consumer apps of emergency tools. I guess they had to wait until the Y2K scare to sell them again….
A New Look
Here’s a cool tool: Worldmapper creates maps that morph the relative sizes of the world’s countries according to various measures (eg, rates of HIV infection, tourist destination, numbers of passenger cars…) A great visual demonstration of international disparity. Surprising, too, how ugly a lot of the maps are…some parts bloated, others withered and skinny.
S.A.D songs say so much
My picks for seasonal affective music to accompany the long winter nights ahead: The Awkward Stage, I Love You HipsterElliot Smith, Between The BarsCandi Staton, You Don’t Have Very Far To GoK-Os, Sunday MorningThe Streets, Stay PositiveCamera Obscura, Country MileBeck, Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime Any you’d care to share?
Kid Koala
looking forward to the animated video for Kid Koala’s new album, Your Mom’s Favourite DJ. Here’s a trailer
ARGs
My piece on Alternate Reality Games and the new young adult novel/ARG “Cathy’s Book” is up at cbc.ca I did shadow players at Toronto’s TorGame: Waking City for a bit, but really, it just gave me more of an appetite for playing ARGs. I wonder though, who has the time to play some of these [...]
Marky Mark
Quote by Marcus Aurelius for those bad, procrastinating days: Begin – to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.
