The Final Piece of Art!

After Annette found a new song for our video we were finally ready to release this beauty to the general public!

Enjoy!


BTW: When I win an Academy Award for 'outstanding supporting actor' I will mention you in my speech, Lauren :)

Week 9 - Response to content

What opportunities can you find for political participation via the internet. How many of the following can you achieve while sticking to your political beliefs?

    * Sign an e-petition.
    *  Respond to a professional blogger at a major news site.
    *  What is Barak Obama up to today? Can you send him a message about the importance of freedom on the internet?
    * What are the Australian Government's plans to censor the internet (the so-called "Clean Feed")?
    * What place does censorship have in a democracy?
    * When will the NBN get to your place? What are the benefits?
    *  Find out who your local, state and federal representatives are. Send one a message.
    *  Look up the Queensland or Australian hansard to find the last time your local member spoke in parliament.
    * Let your local member know what you think about their last speech.


1. Sign an e-petition:

This could either be sent by printing out a copy  and scanning
it in with a signature or by just clicking on a e-petition. 

Whenever I'm back home in Norway I snowboard! So I tried to find a Snowboard petition that I could sign on to which included a topic that I believed in. I found the WAS petition against the IOC for how they are handling the qualifications for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Instead of letting the official TTR pro-tour decide who gets to qualify they are letting FIS controll and create their own qualification for halfpipe and other events. Wich basically means that the riders have to endure an even tighter schedule and would also have to sacrifice future TTR events (where you win the big $) for an extra FIS event.  
( http://www.tacky.no/skateboard/article/?id=113968)


2. Respond to a professional blogger at major news site.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/30/airstrike-killed-al-awlaki-yemeni-official-says/comment-page-1/#comment-870573 signed: AndreLindegaard


3.  What is Barak Obama up to today? Can you send him a message about the importance of freedom on the internet? 
Today he just delivered his annual "back to school" address. I found that out on his official twitter page and I could send him a message if I wanted to create a (free) twitter account, but I did not want to do that. (http://twitter.com/#!/BARACKOBAMA)


4. What are the Australian Government's plans to censor the internet (the so-called "Clean Feed")?
The Australian Federal Labor Government has a ‘plan’ (since late 2007) to mandate that ISPs block adults' access to Internet content on a secret blacklist, compiled by a government agency, that the Government deems unsuitable for adults.”
http://libertus.net/censor/isp-blocking/au-govplan.html


5. When will the NBN get to your place? What are the benefits?
It's not expected on the Gold Coast any time soon. Though, it should be ready in 8 years at the maximum.
Benefits are: Have everyone connected to the same broadline like schools, workplaces and as well as families. Plus much faster speed, 100 times faster then normal households.
http://www.nbnco.com.au/


Find out who your local, state and federal representatives are. Send one a message.
    *  Look up the Queensland or Australian hansard to find the last time your local member spoke in parliament.
    * Let your local member know what you think about their last speech.
Had NO idea how to do this! 

Week 9 - Tutorial Task: My Essay

I chose to do my essay on this question "Does the extensive use of computer/video games have an adverse impact on the health of young people. What are the most recent papers? Clarify what both sides of the argument claim and only then offer your reasoned opinion based on facts.


Since this is only a 1000 word essay I will to narrow down the amount of elements that I want to include:


1. Define modern society's youth as of the last couple of years


2. Define gaming and it's share/value it has to the general public


3. Then I will research facts that states in favor of that gaming do NOT have an impact on the health of young people.


4. Then I will research facts that states in favor of that gaming DO have an impact on the health of young people


5. To finish my essay I will search through my finds and then offer my reasoned opinion based on the facts I have discovered.

Gaming stereotype

Since I'm already doing a campaign on Australia and obesity in my PR class I figured it would be perfect to find out if online gaming does have a big impact on that exact problem. I also want to find out if online gaming has an impact on mental health as well. Several news sites have stated that 'the mass-murderer in the Norway massacre stated that he got an interest for shooting after playing Call of Duty' (one of the highest selling video game-franchises in the world). 


I love playing video games myself so I can't wait to start this essay! 

Week 8 - Response to content: Free Software

Free software, which to many is also known as open source software emerged in tandem with the Internet both in a technical and social form. The best way to understand free software in detail is to think about everything you use while on the computer. Like for example e-mail, MSN, Skype or Facebook. You could also look at it with a different perspective like identity thieves and privacy issues towards those free softwares. (Kelty, 2008) 

To much information...

What is free software? Free software is a software that can be used, studied, and edited without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that other people who receives can also do these things and that manufacturers of consumer-facing hardware allow user modifications to their hardware. Free software is generally available without charge, but can have a fee, such as in the form of charging for CDs or other distribution medium among other ways.


What is the difference between free software and open source software? The main difference is that by choosing one term over the other ("open source" or "free software") one lets others know about what one's goals are. "Open source is a development methodology; free software is a social movement." (Stallmann, 2002)










References: 
Christopher M. Kelty, "Two Bits: The Significance of Free Software", 2008
Richard M. Stallmann, "Free Software Free Society", 2nd edition, 2002.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software

Week 8 - Tutorial Task: Shooting with a Bad-Ass and some complications!

He looks Crazy!

After a hectic week of assignments and other s%@# I finally found a man worthy enough for the job as the "Bad-Ass" in our film. His name is Steve and he lives at my student facilities in Labrador. Steve is the nicest guy you can meet but he looks terrifying! The combination of complete baldness and tattoos everywhere can make the nicest guy look mad. We walked up to uni and shot our scenes and I bought him a beer for his efforts. It was a good deal for both of us. 

I met up with Annette and gave her the final scenes so she could include them in our final draft. She showed me what she had done so far and it looked great. She had really done an excellent job considering this was her first time ever editing a movie. 

What to do?

Our whole group met up in the tutorial to get some feedback on our current material and the news was not as good as we had hoped. It turned out that we could not use a song that Annette had used for the film and we could not use the official logos for Facebook, Twitter, Myspace etc. So what were we to do? Lauren said that we could e-mail the different companies and ask for their permission to use their logos. But since we are on a tight schedule we went for the easier route by removing the official logos and make our own, which turned out to be just as good. The last complication was the song; the song we had used was perfect for this movie but we couldn't use it. We tried to check out creative commons but couldn't find anything special so we all got homework to find a song that we could use without breaching any copyrights! 

Week 7 - Tutorial Task: More Movie Time!

It was a beautiful day for filming. I met up with Shae and Astrid outside the library, with my HD-camera in hand. We walked over to the bus stops and started to pick out the exact locations of where the filming would take place. We found a stairway where Shae and I were to have our extremely academic discussion about "how the game went last night". We shot that conversation from 100 different angles before we started focusing on the rest of the film which included Astrid's sexy entrance. Since our film is about communication gone wrong we needed a "bad guy" to include in the movie. Since none of us looks particularly scary I took on the task to find a person perfect for the part and have his scenes filmed until next week.

I had the perfect guy in mind!

We met up in the tutorial and showed Annette what we had so far, she liked it and had already figured out how to use iVideo so she was extremely enthusiastic about starting the editing process. Now I just have to find that bad-ass!

Week 7 - Response to content: Wikipedia is great!

Is Wikipedia useful? As a 100% reliable source the answer is no. But as a guiding tool and to get you basic information about certain things the answer is 100% yes!

Wiki will be the real deal in the future

Wikipedia is the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.(link1) During the start of Wikipedia in the early 2000s a lot of false information was posted. But as Wikipedia grew bigger and stronger, as a part of the system, so did the security. Providing false information on well known people, famous occasions or happenings is much more difficult to do now than it used to be. This factors in that the bigger a company or an idea gets the more difficult it is to destroy or manipulate.
If you want to edit something on Wikipedia you have to go through their staff and almost 90% of the time they will reject your edit, (link2) unless it's helpful for the subject that you want to change. Because of the new restrictions it helps to build up more credibility for Wikipedia. Also on Wikipedia is a grade system for how reliable the information, about a certain incident or character, really is. There are also a grade system for the amount of indept information that is provided.

Wikipedia will always get you started but the bigger and stronger it gets it won't be long until Wikipedia will be all you need when looking for journal articles and reliable resources.


References listed first-last:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia (of COURSE)
http://www.melvinblog.com/2008/11/thought-hard-edit-wikipedia/

Week 6 - Tutorial Task: Movie time!

As a part of our assessment, or 8% of our total marks (according to Lauren), we were to form groups of four for an audio-visual project. The key of this assessment is that some of us, who don't have any experience with making short films, gets an opportunity to discover how easy it actually is to make a movie using computer software.

Ehhhhh... NO! 

I joined forces with two other Norwegians (Astrid & Annette) and the Australian king, known as Shae. The first thing we did was to pitch different ideas. I first wanted to make a trailer for a horror movie which involved facebook-hacking and murder... After calming down a bit Astrid came up with a great idea about a guy who saw a hot girl at school and wanted to contact her "the old fashioned way". We all pitched in different incidents that were to occur in the film and made a quick basic script, which included how and where we wanted to shoot the scenes and who was doing what.

Annette is editing the film since she has a Macbook Pro with iVideo (iVideo is one of the easiest editing software's to use according to our tutor). She had never used iVideo before but seemed very optimistic and enthusiastic about the assigned task. Astrid, Shay and yours truly were to meet up at uni the following week two hours before our New Com Tec tutorial to start shooting.

Week 6 - Response to Content: Cinema vs Torrents

Agree

After indirectly causing the death of CD-sales (Easley, 2005), piracy and peer-to-peer file sharing have started to seriously get on Hollywood and the film industry's nerves as well. Movies are no longer only available at the cinemas, on the TV-screens or on VHS/DVD/Blu-Ray. The Internet communities have created a way for us at home to download almost every movie within a week of its release at the theatres for no cost at all. The only price we have to pay is that the quality of the video and audio usually is abysmal. (But it's free so who cares, right??)

So is Hollywood affected by this the same way as the music industry was? The answer is yes and no.

Great attitude, Bart.

For the big Hollywood blockbusters (The Dark Knight, Harry Potter, Avatar, etc...) the Internet have more of a positive effect because since they are already highly anticipated movies the additional leaked information such as set pictures/videos and heavy discussion about the plot and so on, the hype for these movies gets even bigger than they were beforehand. Therefore people still want to see those movies on the premiere or during the first week of its release on the big screen. The yearly increase in ticket sales up until 2009 proves that there is still a lot of money to be made (link1) but the recent figures have shown that there is a slight decrease in 2011 which could possibly cause even more drama in the piracy debate. But so far the cinema operators and studio chiefs agreed on at least one cause: The movies haven't been very good this year. (Verrier & Fritz, 2011)

The negative aspect of movie piracy deflects on the smaller and less hyped/critically acclaimed movies. Movies with a smaller budget, less hype and negative reviews are easy victims for movie pirates. Instead of paying money to go see a movie people will rather wait until the movie is available online so it can be downloaded for free. Since there are no hype for that particular movie and the reviews have been average at best there are no reason for people to go see it when they can get it for free and in good quality a couple of months later.
This is a very negative effect that piracy has on the movie industry but it also forces the companies to throw away crappy movie ideas and focus more on the quality of the movie. If the quality is good people will pay to see it.

Look at "The King's Speech" for example. With a budget of 12 million dollar it made over 414 million dollars in theatres worldwide. It also won an academy award for best direction and best picture. (link2)

An opposite example of this is Walt Disney's "Mars Needs Moms" which made 39 million dollars worldwide on a budget of 150 million. A movie which yours truly (who is a huge Disney fan) haven't even heard of before this day. (link3)

                                                              It could use some hype...

Now maybe I should start looking for it online...




Reference list:


Robert F. Easley, Journal of Business Ethics, 2005, pg. 163-168, Springer.
Richard Verrier & Ben Fritz, Los Angeles Times, March 30th, 2011 (link) 


Websites in order of first-last:
http://www.the-numbers.com/market/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King's_Speech
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/gallery/movie-report-card-10-biggest-205951#1

Week 5- Tutorial Task

1. Where was the first University established and in which year?
Al-Azhar in Kairo, Egypt is the worlds first university. It was established in year 970.
How to find: I used a Norwegian search engine called kvasir.no and searched "The first university in the world" (in Norwegian: Verdens eldste universitet). After a while I found this link http://www.reiseverdenrundt.com/alt-om-egypt-pyramidene-i-egypt-historie-demografi/ (on the third to last line of the article it says “Al-Azhar i Kairo, verdens eldste universitet, grunnlagt i 970" which directly translated means; 'Al-Azha in Kairo, the oldest university in the world, founded in 970').

Stockwell is a rockstar

2. What is Stephen Stockwell's band called and what does he play?  Can you name a couple of their songs?

The Black Asssassins is the name of Stephen Stockwell's band and he plays keyboard and sings vocals. Some of their songs are named; Drugs, Azaria and Fuck Me Fuck My Dog.
How to find: I used facebook.com to find Stephen Stockwell and since there were no information about a band on his page I checked his friends and one of his friends were named ''Black'' and it was a band page for the band The Black Assassins. I used bing.com (Search inside Australia only) to write down The Black Assassins Stephen Stockwell and find this url that provided me with all the information about the band. http://members.optusnet.com.au/~toxicoh/blackas.htm


3. What is the weight of the world’s biggest machine? How much did it cost to build?

The Bagger 288 (Digging machine) is the world's biggest machine. Weight is 45,500 tons (that's equivalent to a bumper to bumper line of jeeps 80 miles long). It took 5 years to design and manufacture at a cost of $100 million.
How to find: I wrote down the question on ask.com and found this link: http://www.michaelgriswold.com/Pictures/ALL/bagger/bagger.html.


4. Who is Justin Bieber's lawyer, and what is the best way (quickest, most reliable) to contact the lawyer?
Justin Bieber's lawyer is Kenneth Feinswog and the quickest way to contact him is by phone: (0011 + 1(310) 277-8211).
How to find: I went to ask.com and typed in "Justin Bieber lawyer" and found and article were Justin and Lady Gaga were sueing comic book creators. Their lawyer for that case was Kenneth Feinswog. http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/w0006112.html To find his contact information I wrote down "Kenneth Feinswog lawyer" in yahoo.com and found a link that included all his contact information: http://www.manta.com/c/mms3lh1/kenneth-a-feinswog-attorney


5. What is the cheapest way of traveling from Gold Coast to Melbourne?
I chose to think of this as a trick question so my answer for this question would be WALKING! Even though hitchhiking or riding a bicycle are more timesaving options.
How to find: I used my common sense as a resource. 


6. Who is Hatsune Miko? What company does she belong to? When is her birthday?
"HATSUNE MIKU" is a computer music software that enables users to create synthesized singing of unprecedented quality and remarkable realism by
just typing in lyrics and melody. Powered by YAMAHA's VOCALOID(= Vocal + Android) technology, HATSUNE MIKU was developed by Crypton Future
Media in Sapporo, and released on August 31st, 2007('Her birthday'). And since then, there have been more than 30,000 songs and movies about HATSUNE MIKU were
posted in a popular Video sharing web site such as YouTube and Nico-Nico-Douga(Japan). (Facebook) She currently belongs to Crypton Future Media, inc. 

How to find: I searched Hatsune Miko on Facebook and found their Fan-page which provided me with all the information. 

7. Find a live webcam in Belarus. Find a place to stay in Antarctica.
How to find:I used searched 'Belarus live webcam' on yahoo.com and found this page: http://www.webcamgalore.com/EN/webcam/Belarus/Minsk/498.html  


How to find:There are no hotels on Antarctica. The only way to stay over is by camping (there are some cabins) or onboard an moving vessel. Many researchers stay at one of the 30 research stations located on Antarctica. I used ask.com and searched 'where to stay on Antarctica' and I found this site: www.coolantarctica.com 


8. What song was top of the Australian pop charts this week in 1991?

Bryan Adams; (Everything I do) I do it for you. On top for 11 weeks from 27th of July 1991

How to find: Yahoo.com, search 'Australian Pop Charts 1991' and then you will find this link: http://www.aria.com.au/pages/aria-charts-end-of-year-charts-top-50-singles-1991.htm


9. What type of car is used to make 'Google Street View'?
The type of car used for Google Street View are different in many countries. In Australia Holden Astra is used as the 'Spy'. 

How to find: Search 'google street view car Australia' on yahoo.com and you will find this link: http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/googles-candid-camera-snaps-australia/2007/11/23/1195753275851.html


10. Translate these questions into Spanish and then translate them back into English. 
How to find: Search 'spanish to english translation' on ask.com and find this translation site http://www.spanishdict.com/translation


Questions translated into Spanish:

1. ¿Dónde estaba la primera universidad establecida y en qué año?
2. ¿Lo que se denomina banda de Stephen Stockwell y lo que él jugar? ¿Puede nombrar un par de sus canciones?
3. ¿Cuál es el peso de la máquina más grande del mundo? ¿Cuánto cuesta para construir?
4. ¿Quién es el abogado de Justin Bieber, y lo que es la mejor manera (más rápida, más fiable) ponerse en contacto con el abogado?
5. ¿Cuál es la forma más barata de viajar desde la costa de oro a Melbourne? 
6. ¿Quién es Hatsune Miku? ¿Qué empresa ella pertenece a? ¿Cuál es su cumpleaños?
7. Encontrar una webcam vivo en Belarús. Encontrar un lugar para alojarse en la Antártida. 
8. ¿Qué canción era tope de las listas de pop australianas esta semana en 1991? 
9. ¿Qué tipo de coche se utiliza para hacer 'Google Street View'?
10. Traducir estas preguntas en español y, a continuación, se traducen en ingles.

Translated back to English:

1. Where was the first university established and in what year? 
2. What is called band of Stephen Stockwell and what the play? Can you name a couple of their songs? 
3. What is the weight of the larger machine of the world? What does it cost to build? 
4. Who is the lawyer for Justin Bieber, and what is the best way (faster, more reliable) to contact the lawyer? 
5. What is the cheapest way to travel from the gold coast to Melbourne? 
6. Who is Hatsune Miku? What company she belongs to? What is your birthday? 
7. Find a webcam live in Belarus. Find a place to stay in Antarctica. 
8. What song was top of the lists of Australian pop this week in 1991? 
9. What kind of car is used to make 'Google Street View'? 
10. Translate these questions in spanish and then translated into English.

Week 5- Response to content

No reason! 

Movies are power! They are used to generate money (sometime A LOT of money) and to transform ideas and imaginations on to the screen.

A regular Hollywood movie is divided into three acts (the syd field) with the first act being the most important one. In the first act, you (the audience) will gain information about:

The syd field

1. What the film is about.
2. Who the lead character/s is/are.
3. The time and place of the movie

After that an incident will occur before the Plot Point 1, which is a hook in the action that spins the movie in a different direction.

A normal plot for a Hollywood movie consists of five elements:

1. The lead character has to be believable and sympathetic. Consistent in his/her action. The goal is to get the audience to wish for the character to succeed.
2. The character will experience an urgent/difficult problem that has to be solved
3. The character attempts to overcome the problem
4. The last stand/Climax. The character succeeds/fails.
5. Resolution = Happy or Tragic ending

In the movie ''Rubber'', directed by Dupieux, there are no sympathy for the main character. Why? Because the main Character is a car tire who, after discovering his destructive telepathic power, goes on a killing rampage. The plot point 1 in this movie is when the tire tries to kill a woman driving a car, but fails. He then gets obsessed with the woman since she got away from him and starts his hunt to track her down.

Week 4- Response to content: VIDEO GAMES!

Task 1:
What sort of video games do I find engaging? Why? Why does computer violence, mostly, not affect the gamers? Is there a level at which it does effect changes in people?

source: www.ign.com

First of all, I'm a huge gamer. I love everything about video games, but mostly the social and entertainment aspects of gaming gets my attention. When it comes to gaming, it's all about the scenario that decides what game I wish to play. If I have three friends over at my house, of course I won't sit by myself and play a single-player game. I will naturally consider that they are present and put on a sports- or a multi-player game so everybody could join in. On different occasions, when I'm by myself, I prefer playing either a online or a single-player action/adventure-game. I like those types of games because I find them entertaining and they let me play the hero which is not very realistic in real life... Or is it? ;)


The most important factor in gaming is that it lets you into this fantasy-world where you can do things that you normally (hopefully) can't and won't do in real life. Some people, sadly, gets to affected by games and may even use their inspiration to use perform criminal actions recognisable in their favorite games (the massacre in Norway, 80 people killed, was performed by a man who said he got his training form playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2). Luckily some also us it perform very entertaining, yet dangerous, stunts. See youtube clip!
Most people realise that gaming is a way to get away from real life for a couple of hours and just have fun.
Do games have an effect on people? Of course they do, but mostly for the good. People get inspired, people are entertained, people socialise with friends and they meet new people playing online. In some instances people get addicted (especially to online games like; World of Warcraft, Starcraft and Call of Duty) and do not know how to stop playing. The spend most of their time in front of the screen and 'live their lives' through the game. People they meet online are considered their friends and the higher amount of 'levels' you reach the more respect you gain from your online comrades.  

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/norway/8663329/Norway-Anders-Behring-Breivik-used-online-war-games-as-training.html


Here are some links to further readings and fun facts about gaming. Most about the role online gaming has on many peoples life.


http://www.springerlink.com/content/f32k5gk52371110u/


http://inderscience.metapress.com/index/q2t516x817484831.pdf

Week 4- Tutorial Task

Privacy in social media.

The worst part is that I can actually see some resemblance
to that guy...

I have to be completely honest, when I agreed to the terms and conditions on Facebook I had not read them beforehand. I just assumed that I would agree with their terms and that it wasn't worth reading thousands of word just to confirm that. Later on, mostly by newspapers, I have been notified with the important information about the terms and conditions. Like for example that Facebook now owns all of my posted photos and can use them for whatever they want in the future. The first time I read that, the only thing that crossed my mind was: I don't care! I really don't! If Facebook want to use a picture of me with my Shirt off to promote their new ''Sexy Topless Guys Tour 2012'' it will seriously not bother me. I do not post anything that I do not want my friends and family to see and if someone else posts something I do not approve of, all I have to do is to 'report' it to Facebook and they will remove it. Or is that what they want me to think? I'm confused. Facebook has literally taken over control of my life! 

Week 3- Tutorial Task

TASK 1

• What was Stephen Stockwell's first article in an academic journal? What year? Provide a full citation. What database did you use?

Title: Kuranda police shooting
Author: Stockwell, Stephen
SO: Legal Service Bulletin, v.6, Feb 1981: 48-49
After searching at the Griffith Library Databases I used the database on the griffith library which helped me find Informit where I retrieved the information about Stephen Stockwells first article in an academic journal. http://search.informit.com.au.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/search;sort=DSORTA;action=changeSort

•  In which comic did Governor Slugwell appear? Which Issues? Give their full citation for the earliest. Where did you find this information? What database did you use? (Check the trial databases) 

Governor Slugwell first appeared in Flaming Carrots Comics, no 7, by Bob Burdon (Burbank, CA: Renegade Press, 1985, 36 page(s), with the strip entitled When the Shoes Aren't Worth the Shine. He then appeared two times later in Flaming Carrots Comics,    no 10 (To Take Arms Against a Sea of Troubles)  & 11 (Epilogue). 

After using the Griffith Library Database to search up the word "comics" I found this link: http://comx.alexanderstreet.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/ which I used to retrieve all information about Govenour Slugwells comic-book appearances. 

• What is the latest medical thinking on the dangers of mobile phones? Provide a full citation.
  

  

  That looks warm!

  ''an inter-ministerial committee stated that radiation can cause thermal effects by holding the mobile phone close to the body. The thermal effect has the ability to heat human tissue, much like how a microwave heats food. As a counter act to this heat the brains blood circulation increases local blood flow to dispose of excess heat. However, unlike the brain, the cornea of the eye is not capable of regulating its temperature and exposure to two or more hours of radiation has been reported to cause cataracts in rabbits' eyes '' (Dash, 2011)

http://global.factiva.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/ha/default.aspx using Factivia. 
Dash, M & Mehta, A 2011, 'Understanding Mobile Phone Radiation and Its Effects' Economic and political weekly, ISSN 0012-9976, using Factiva.

• In Bladerunner, what is Leon's reaction when Holden asks him about his mother? Quote the 1982 draft script and provide a full reference. (Check the trial databases)

The draft script (which is does not seem to resemble this youtube-clip) the following: "Leon looks shocked, surprised. But the needles in the computer barely move. Holden goes for the inside of his coat. But big Leon is faster. His laser burns a hole the size of a nickel through Holden's stomach. Unlike a bullet, a laser causes no impact. It goes through Holden's shoulder and comes out of his back, clean as a whistle. Like a rag doll he falls back into the seat. Big slow Leon is already walking away, but he stops, turns, and with a little smile of satisfaction fires through the back of the seat."

Peoples, D. W., Fancher, H., & Kibbee, R 2007, Blade runner 1982 draft script, Alexander Street Press, Alexandria, VA.

•  What does Paul Soukup say Walter Ong saw as the main paradox in 20th century communication? Cite your source.

 “that society given so much to the use of diagrams and to the maneuvering of objects in space...should at the same time develop means of communication which specialise not in sight but in sound”

Soukup, P 2004, ‘Communication Research Trends’, Centre for the study of Communication and Culture, vol. 23, no. 2, p. 23, via Proquest database

Task 2

Napster

Napster was one of the worlds biggest (and the first) peer-to-peer file internet sharing programs that initiated encoding digitally audio files into MP3 format files. By doing this people all around the world could share their music with each other. It was launched in 1999 and peaked with 26,4 million users in 2001. After lawsuits from many artists (Metallica and Dr. Dre in particular) Napster was ruled to provide record companies and artist money to keep sharing their music for free. In relation to this Napster introduced money subscriptions causing them to lose a huge percentage of users, which later caused them to apply for bankruptcy in 2002. (Honigsberg, 2002) 

In later years many other programs have tried to copy Napster with some success. The main problem is the safety of the programs and thats why there has been invented other, more secure ways to listen to music online. Youtube (a video sharing site) and Spotify (free, ad-supported music streaming program) are the most frequently used. The two main reasons for this is that it's free and it's safe. You can't get a virus from either Spotify nor Youtube. Spotify have millions of songs in their library and they are mostly approved by record companies, with the exception of some big artists like for example Metallica (who are probably still bitter about Napster). (Dinsdale, 2009)  They make their money by putting in ads in between the songs. After every fourth or fifth song you'll get a short ad. You can avoid this by paying $9,99 per month which is a very low price to listen to unlimited music from all around the world. This is the future for the remainder of the music industry and record companies are starting to realize this as well.


Napster did however start the revolution of online file-sharing and they will be forever acknowledged for that. 

Peter J. Honigsberg. "The Evolution and Revolution of Napster" University of San Francisco Law Review 36 (2002): 473. 

Charles Dinsdale. "Master of Science Thesis in the Programme Software Engineering and 
Technology" University of Gothenburg, (2009): 2.

Week 3- Response to content

Are neural implants they way of the future?


"Neural implants are technical systems that are mainly used to stimulate parts and structures of the nervous system with the aid of implanted electrical circuitry or record the electrical activity 
of nerve cells." (Hassler, 2011) In other words, neural implants will make your brain work even when it struggle to work on its own. Like for example paraplegics can start walking normally thank to the neural implants. Neural prostheses aim to restore lost functions of the body. Either sensory, motor or vegetative. So how come this thing isn't used by every person in the world? 


Researchers CYNTHIA S. KUBU and PAUL J. FORD at the Section of Neuropsychology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation states that: "Once a neural implant has shown some efficacy during initial research trials, it begins to enter the world of clinical application... However, the ethical challenges continue as the technology is adopted as a standard of practice. Patient eligibility criteria, as documented by inclusion and exclusion criteria with any new treatment, are not always clearly quantified and defined. These vagaries can result in considerable debate regarding who should or should not proceed with surgery." 


So the risk is to who needs the implant and who doesn't need it and until that is sorted out a 100% the neural implants will not be eligible for the general population just yet.

Hassler.C: Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics,

Volume 49, Issue 1, pages 18–33, (1 January 2011)

Cynthia S, & Ford P: Cambridge Quarterly Healthcare Ethics, Table on content,

Vol. 16 issue 3, (2007).