No, it’s not new, but I really like the stick-figure treatment. Très Kingdom of Loathing. And no, I have no idea where I got it. It’s been sitting on my desktop for ages.

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Alert reader Nick sent this in. CNNMoney (”the Internet home of Money Magazine” et al.) reports on the top 5 new new careers. Coming in at number 5: Second Life Lawyer.

Check it out. As they say at Kingdom of Loathing: A Second Life Lawyer Could Be You!

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Joystiq has a post up about a lengthy article in Rolling Stone on Second Life creator Philip Rosedale.

Definitely some interesting reading, and may even answer of the questions or complaints you have about SL.

Best way to download quality mp3. Use these letters to navigate our new site:movie

If you’re running Second Life on your own computer, log in and when it tells you to update the client, do so. You shouldn’t have any problems. I just did it and it’s relatively quick and painless.

If you don’t have access to a computer that will allow you to install things onto it (for instance, if you use the University’s computers), you’ll need to go to the WebCT page and download the files I’ve posted. I’ve already uploaded the Mac client to our WebCT page, and will upload the PC client tonight.

Both clients have been archived as “zip” files. Once you’ve downloaded the client for your computer, you’ll need to unzip the archive and then COPY the entire folder to your thumb drive or burn it to a CD-ROM. To do this, right-click on the unzipped folder and select COPY. Then go to your thumb drive or CD-ROM, right-click and select PASTE. Make sure you’re not just creating a shortcut to the folder (as drag-and-drop sometimes does)!

If your computer doesn’t already have a program on it to unzip archives, ExtractNow is a solid (and free) utility for PCs, and StuffIt is a solid (and free) utility for Macs that will do this for you.

Also, connecting to our recent discussion of the integration of toys and the online world, Mattel has just announced that Barbie is getting a whole new web site! Be sure to check Barbie Girls out. The site appears to be down temporarily, but I’m sure that as soon as they get Barbie changed into her Dream Web Designer outfit, the site will be back up in no time. And you never know, Barbie Girls or the BarbieGirls MP3 players shown below (could Barbie be the iPod killer?) may be on the final.

Here’s a list of VWs to explore:

Chat-type VWs:

• Dubit
• Kaneva
• There
• Virtual Zones
• Furcadia

Game-type VWs:

• Achaea
• Entropia
• Kingdom of Loathing
• Meridian 59
• Neopets/Neotopia
• Ryzom

Most require a downloaded client to run, but Kingdom of Loathing and Neopets/Neotopia are browser-based, which means that you can run either from any computer anywhere.

Before you come to class, please explore all of these sites. Pick one from each group (one chat-type and one game-type) and answer the following questions for each:

Based on the materials on each of your chosen VWs’ web site:
1) What is the setting (the virtual world)?
2) How long has this VW been online?
3) What is your role in the world?
4) How would you describe the character/avatar customization options?
5) What is the main (at most give 3) selling feature of this VW?

If you can’t answer any of these questions, write that down. It’s probably noteworthy that the site doesn’t mention it.

• Yo! William Wordsworth lays down a hot rap. Respect!
• Choose Your Own Adventures, those fab “turn-to-page-87″ adventure stories from the 1980s are back with slightly updated stories, and a massive update in technology. Now each of the reissued books has “secret” endings built into the book — endings that are unreachable if you only follow the links in the book itself. To find the secret endings, you have to go to the CYOA web site and solve puzzles and trivia games to find out which endings are secret. Web-tastic!
• We’ve been talking about social networking and social news sites this week, but what about the cognitive and emotional aspects of messing with our social networks? David Wong’s classic (and now updated) essay “Inside the Monkeysphere” explains why you literally can’t have 483,775 friends, no matter how hot your MySpace page. (Wong builds on Robin Dunbar’s research into what is now known as the “Dunbar Number.” Check it out. It’s cool stuff.)
• More Star Wars fan films! Here are two that do similar things, but the first (”Legacy of the Jedi”) is, arguably, better than the second (”The Essence of the Force”).

• You may have noticed that I like video games. But I also like boardgames, party games, trivia games, Dungeons-&-Dragons-esque role-playing-games, you name it. Grand Theft Auto links to a review of an old RPG called Puppetland. The description of the game is really interesting, and it’s unfortunate that the game book is out of print. You can still find it through Amazon and Barnes & Noble’s used-book networks, but that’s about it. One of the things that intrigues me about this RPG is the grammatical structure of the game play. (I know, I know. It intrigued you, too. How could grammar not intrigue?) Seriously, though. What does it do to your experience of a game when the DM speaks in the novelistic past tense (”And the Nutcrackers swarmed forward, rolling their eyes and chomping their dreadful jaws.”) and the players must speak in the present (”Eek! I bop you, Nutcracker!”)? Hmm… much to think about here.
• So, you’re surfing around (as you do) and you end up at a blog that’s sort of about zombies, looking at an awesome photoblog post collecting pictures of treehouses. And you think to yourself, how cool is that? And then, your curiosity piqued, you check out the blogger’s Blogspot profile — because who wouldn’t want to know more about Undead Molly the treehouse collector? — and you see that her favorite books are the U.S. Army Survival Manual and Jonathan Livingston Seagull. How cool is that? And what does your blog/MySpace/Facebook page and/or profile say about you?
• What’s the Internet going to be like in the future? Why not check out Imagining the Internet to find out. They’ve got links, interviews, and video all about what your life will be like.
• I was reading LifeHacker (yes, I’m addicted to “productivity pr0n,” and yes, I know I have a problem), and they sent me over to this blog to read about the ways that room wall colors can affect your mood. But what really caught my attention was the way that commenters on the blog got really mean. On the color post “Josh” notes that “What the hell this doesn’t even make sense. Yellow is supposed to convey happiness yet it has been known to invoke anger and rage in people? Lol”. In a post about a trashcan that looks like it was made from crumpled paper, “Sugarcoted” informs us that “Seriously, who would want to look at that ugly basket all day? It makes me mad just looking at it. [...] This basket would make a perfect gift for someone you hate.” And on a post about a silly CD holder, “r” shares that “this is the lamest cd holder i have ever seen”. What do you think? Does the home decor theme for the blog bring out this level of hostility and derision naturally, or is something else going on?
• I don’t really want to live in Los Angeles (though I could be persuaded otherwise — hint, hint UCLA and USC), but man do I want to be able to head down to a uWink for some food, folks, and fun the new media way! Check out G4’s review of the pilot location, as well as Joystiq’s write-up. Drool.

The video was made by Paul Marino using Half-Life 2, and features a lot of footage from the game. (In fact, if you haven’t finished the game yet, there may be a few spoilers in here for you!) I think it’s a fascinating mix of the game’s narrative with the tone and lyrics of the song.

But wait, there’s more! Here’s a special bonus sorta-machinima clip for your edification and enjoyment!

GayGamer’s FruitBrute clues us in to the latest sorta-machinima video by Monty Oum: Haloid:

It’s “sorta-machinima” because Oum takes two iconic video game characters, Master Chief from the Halo series and Samus Aran from the Metroid series, and has them duke it out in the grand tradition of “Who Would Win: Batman or Superman” contests. In this match-up, fortunately, the fight takes an unexpected turn. However, because he’s combining franchises, he can’t use the games’ engines to create the video. He animates it himself. Thus, it’s like machinima, but this isn’t machinima.

The video is pretty darn good. The animation in the opening sequence isn’t great, but Oum’s sense of timing and his skills as an editor are on full display. And the fight itself is fun. I have a major quibble with his choice of music, though: when you’re going to rely that heavily on Matrix-style bullet-time and superhuman fighting skills, using the music from The Matrix just feels redundant.

Also, you should read Oum’s notes (scroll down to the FAQ) on making the video. They did a lot to make me feel better about Master Chief’s electro-tingle, but I really wish the gender play in this video were more about the fact that girl gamers roxxor hard, and less about the straight-guy fantasy that “hot lesbians are awesome.”

(X-posted on Digital Digressions)

Prepaid Phone Cards China phone cards Canada phone cards USA phone cards UK phone cards India phone cards Prepaid phone cards

When MSNBC reported on Goodling’s resignation, they used this photo:

But they might have chosen to use this photo instead:

The second photo comes from Goodling’s law school web page. Come with me (and Wonkette) now to that long-ago age of 1999.

As TBogg notes: “I used to have a much higher opinion of people who went to law school before I started reading the internets.”

Thanks to the Internet Archive’s WayBack Machine initiative, web pages that went up and then came down can live forever.

And ever. And ever. And ever.

And you thought it was creepy that the nerdy manager at The Gap had seen your Facebook page when you interviewed for a summer position. Imagine what that page will mean to prospective employers in another 8 years.

Personally, while I do hope that Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy can use the Sneate Judiciary Committee to find out what really happened with these firings, I’m much more interested in getting to the bottom of the mysterious “Ron” (if that is his real name) and the “several kidnapping experiences that are best forgotten.”

(X-posted to Digital Digressions)

If you’re flourishing in the freedom afforded by the current format of the meditations, read no further. Go forth and frolic in your liberation.

If, on the other hand, you’re having a tough time of it, here’s a different model to follow. I hope that this one will provide you with concrete goals to meet, and a set format, and that these strictures will allow you to rise to the occasion admirably.

OPTION B: MEDITATIONS AS CASE STUDIES

As before, each meditation is to be about the cultural (on- and off-line) implications of a single cybercultural focus. However, the Option B format will make your meditations appear more like “case studies,” which may be more familiar.

Begin each meditation/case study with a brief (1 paragraph) prose description of a single, well-defined moment or instance of your chosen cybercultural focus. (If you want to write about eBay, for instance, focus on the time you got ripped off by a scammer “selling” a bogus AlienWare laptop, rather than trying to summarize all of eBay.)

List 3 significant, non-obvious observations about your focus. These observations should arise from your analysis and examination of your focus. (These may be bullet-points.)

The next (and last) two sections are brief explanations of at least 2 points you see as being significant, non-obvious implications of your focus for on-line and off-line culture and social practice. One section should explore, briefly (1-2 paragraphs), the significant, non-obvious implications of your focus for on-line culture and social practice. The last sections should do the same for off-line culture and social practice.

So, your meditations/case studies should look like this:

• SUMMARY: 1 paragraph description of your specific instance/example of your cybercultural focus
• ANALYSIS: 3 significant, non-obvious observations about your focus (can be bulleted)
• IMPLICATIONS - ON-LINE: 1-2 paragraph discussion of at least 2 significant, non-obvious implications of your focus for on-line culture and social practice
• IMPLICATIONS - OFF-LINE: 1-2 paragraph discussion of at least 2 significant, non-obvious implications of your focus for off-line culture and social practice

For Monday April 9th, make sure you’ve read Louis Althusser’s “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses,” in the orange (second) edition of the Media and Cultural Studies. If you’ve got the first (blue) edition of the MCS, I’ve scanned the article and posted it to the WebCT page, so get it from there.

And read it. Hint. Hint.

And it’s what we’re going to be talking about in class on Friday. So, to prep for class, check out two of the largest sites for Photoshop Phreakishness: Something Awful and Worth1000.

Here are the links:

• Something Awful
• Worth1000’s current and most recent contests
• Worth1000’s archive of all galleries

Here are a few galleries from both sites that I’d like you to look at and think about:

• Attack of the Clones 11
• Dude, Where’s Your Ride?
• Visual Puns 5
• Hungry Man Phriday
• Fasting Time 3
• Band Name Movies
• Alternate Reflections and Shadows 3

That should be enough to get you started.

Click the link to read all about it.

First, Arizona Senator John McCain launched his new campaign website: Stormtroopers for McCain ‘08. Okay, so it’s not actually targeted to Imperial Stormtroopers, but you have to admit the color scheme is highly… evocative…

Next, we’ve got the McCain MySpace page, which got a whole heap of sapphic supportiveness. MySpace is no longer just the domain of America’s youth, it’s also a favorite hangout of our elected members of Congress. We know what happens when Congressmembers find out about Instant Messenger, but what happens when Senators decide to set up their own pages? Hilarity! It seems that the Senator’s staff pirated a MySpace template from Mike Davidson, and didn’t give Mike credit for the site design. Oops! And not only that, but they were stealing Mike’s bandwidth by including sample images hosted by Mike on their page. This allowed Davidson to create, in his own words, an “immaculate hack” — he was able to hack McCain’s page without touching anything of McCain’s. And this is what he did:

Awesome makeover, Mike!

But wait, there’s more! Josh Marshall (he of the Talking Points Memo) is redesigning his popular liberal blog, and wants feedback on design ideas. I like this a great deal. Marshall isn’t just slapping a new look on the old site, he’s researching emerging trends in information presentation to find the best practices for the web. I’m looking forward to test-driving the new look and layout.

And as if that weren’t enough, Daily Kos is not just redesigning its site, it’s switching formats altogether! As I was reading the post announcing the change, I was struck by a few things:

Lots of folks may freak out over the changes, but I think the community at large will enjoy this new version of DailyKos with its many comments, avatars, and sig lines with pictures. I know I will.

When I read this, I immediately thought of forums, as these are all features of forums. But forums aren’t really like blogs, which confused me. (For a comparison of forums and blogs, check out the official forum for the TV show Survivor, and compare that with a blog like Boing Boing. The setup, layout, and overall feel of the sites are very, very different.) But, I decided that I must be imagining things. Until I read:

Forums on the new DailyKos will include: Elections, Politics, Open Forum, Humor and Jokes, and any others that occur to us.

Oh. But notice the rhetoric here — CT isn’t exactly saying that Daily Kos will become a forums-only site, just that the new site will have forums. Whew. That’s a relief. Except that…

One feature that will excite many of you is that there will no longer be front page stories, diaries, or mojo, thus simplifying the DailyKos experience for everyone. It might take some getting used to, but we’ll all be happier for it afterward.

A blog without front page stories isn’t a blog at all. It’s a forum. And they’re ditching the diaries, too. This does not “excite” me. It saddens me. I found the diaries to be one of the biggest and coolest community-building ideas in the blogosphere. They’re going to be using phpBB, an open source forum platform, which is nice, ideologically. But I’m still filled with foreboding.

I have an ongoing discussion with The Spouse about my refusal to read newspapers online. Okay, it’s not really a discussion, it’s more of an argument. And it’s not really about my refusal to read newspapers online, it’s really more about my refusal (so far) to write about my refusal to read newspapers online and then send that off to academic journals. But still.

Anyway, in a nutshell, I have much the same problem that Josh Marshall discusses in his post: online newspapers do not have the same “topical serendipity” as print papers. That is, I scan, glance around, and flip through the pages of a print newspaper. I don’t do this with online papers. And I don’t do this with forums. When I’m on a World of Warcraft forum, for instance, I’m there to find answers to particular questions, not to enjoy a sense of community. I read World of Warcraft blogs for that. And I really do feel more connection to WoW Insider than I do to the official WoW Druid Forum. (Druids ftw!)

So, there you have it. A whole lot of sites are getting a whole lot of spring cleaning. When did you last redesign your site?

(X-posted on Digital Digressions)