DAI week 15 questions

Week 15 DAI 227 Questions

1) In the article "Between a Blob + a Hard Place" Steven Skov Holt & Mara Holt Skov argue in the File InCA_Spring05.pdf (on page 20) that the 'blobject' phenomenon really took off in the ID (industrial design) profession in the 1990s. Why?

-Blobjects took off in the 90’s because of its ‘curvaceous’ forms designers realizes that this was not limited to products, it can expand to architecture, furniture and graphic design.

2) Which year in the 1990s was a watershed?

-1998

3) what three other products were introduced this year that were good examples of blobjects?

-The new concept for VW’s Beetle

-The 5 Flavors of the new Apple Imac’s

-The Triax watch from Nike

4) On page 29 of "Shaping Things" Bruce Sterling describes when a 'gizmo' becomes a 'spime'. Copy the sentence here.

5) On page 45 of "Shaping Things" Bruce Sterling describes a defining characteristic of a Synchronic Society. Quote him here.

Week 14 Google Maps Assignment.

Week 14: Google Maps Assignment:

Links to Jacky’s 227 Map:

Email or IM-

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=210462033583111528544.0004a30aed198a4770f48&ll=37.802672,-122.411776&spn=0.002636,0.005187&z=18

HTML-

<iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;msa=0&amp;msid=210462033583111528544.0004a30aed198a4770f48&amp;ll=37.758646,-122.434156&amp;spn=0.08567,0.086657&amp;output=embed"></iframe><br /><small>View <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;msa=0&amp;msid=210462033583111528544.0004a30aed198a4770f48&amp;ll=37.758646,-122.434156&amp;spn=0.08567,0.086657&amp;source=embed" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">Jacky M's 227 Map</a> in a larger map</small>

Week 13 questions: Animation Principles

Week 13 assignment: Animation

1. Squash and Stretch.

 

As the ball is stepped on by Luxor Junior, it squashes and stretches according to the amount of force applied to it by him.

2. Timing and Motion

During 1:19 to 1:21, timing and motion both show in these frames as Luxor Jr bounces up and down on the ball which eventually lead to another element squash and stretch.

3. Anticipation

Frame: 43, father Luxor stares at the ball then off-screen for a second before knocking it out of frame in which showing a hint of anticipation.

4. Staging

In this animation, the setting includes the overhead lighting showing the entire scene, the light from the father Luxor and, the rolling direction of the ball.

5. Follow Though and overlapping action

This would be when Luxor Jr chases the ball off the screen and the cable movements after it.

6. Straight ahead and pose-to-pose action.

Straight ahead is when the ball enters and exits the frame consecutively, and pose-to-pose is Luxor Jr chases after it.

7. Slow in and Out

This is show in Frame: 30-: 32, when the ball enters frame slight fast and hits the Father Luxor, as momentum would have it bounces and rolls back slowly.

8. Arcs.

The entire body of the lamps is mostly arcs. A good example is from: 45 -: 47 as the Father Luxor arcs back and pushes the ball out of the frame.

9. Exaggeration

A good exaggeration example would be the difference in tone and feel between the 2 lamps, the older reacts more slowly while the smaller one’s is exaggerated more to show youth and activeness.

10. Secondary Action

Again, a good secondary action would be Luxor Jr chasing the ball off screen and its cord following it in a fluid motion.

11. Appeal.

Appeal would be the playfulness of the little lamp and its interaction with the ball and its father, and followed by the ending of the larger ball into the scene.

Week 12 Questions: CGI

Week 12 Questions: CGI

1) What was the name of the film made by Edwin S Porter that made use of a double-exposure to show a train window view of passing landscape?

- The Great Train Robbery (1903)

2) Who invented the traveling matte shot in 1916?

- Frank Williams, later refined as blue screen.

3) How many weeks did it take to animate the main character in 1933’s KING KONG?

- 55 weeks total for the stop and go animation which was probably a pain in the ass.

4) Which film made use of the ‘slit scan’ process in the 1960s?

- Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, a space odyssey.

5) In his essay “Industrial Memory” theorist Mark Dery argues that the silver fluid T1000 cyborg character represents a ‘masculine recoil’ – but from what?

- The t800 can be seen as masculine recoil while Claudia Springer coins it as ”Feminization of electronic technology.”

6) Tim Recuber in his essay “Immersion Cinema” describes the key idea – that of immersion cinema itself – what is it? What makes it unique?

-  Recuber notes that Immersion Cinema "emphasizes tech achievement to detriment of social or artistic relevance and embeds a passive, consumerist ideology within the spaces of contemporary movie going." It is also a technique to apply to imax screens.

7) In the special effects history links, in the Time magazine history of special effects, there is a description of ‘motion control’ cameras developed for “Star Wars” in the 1970s. What is motion control?(1 paragraph)

- While winning an academy award that year for best technical achievement, Dykstraflex motion-control system is where the camera is hooked up to a computer, which allowed filmmakers to maneuver the camera in complicated directions.

8) Out of the 14 minutes of Jurassic Park’s dinosaur footage, how many minutes were computer generated imagery or CGI?

- Only 4 minutes were cgi. The rest was men in rubber raptor suits.

9) In the ‘denofgeek’ website, what is the name of the film that features an army of sword fighting skeletons, made in 1963?

- “Jason and the Argonauts.”

10) In the ‘denofgeek’ site, which 2005 film used a special effects shot to sell the idea of a remake of a famous science fiction story to Steven Spielberg?

- Bridge destruction scene from ‘War of the worlds’ remake. Terrible ending by the way, that annoying rebel son should have been dead.

Week 11 questions: Disneyland and Malls.

Week 11 DAI227 Questions - Topic - THEME PARKS & SHOPPING MALLS


1) In Margaret Crawford's Essay "The World in a Shopping Mall she outlines that 'the size and scale of a mall reflects "threshold demand"' - what is meant by this term?

- Her definition of ‘Threshold demand’ in the essay ‘is the minimum number of potential customers living within the geographical range of a retail item to enable it to be sold at a profit’. In simple words, threshold demand is what allows the mall to make money because of the potential customers in the given location.

2) In the same article Margaret Crawford describes something called "spontaneous malling" - what does this mean?

- There are two meanings when it comes to spontaneous malling. One being that any space can be turned into malls, examples include by putting together places that already exists. It also can be referred to the simple joy/experience of shopping, instead of only the actual act of doing so.

3) According to Michael Sorkin in his essay 'See you in Disneyland', how did Disneyland have its origins?

-When young Walt Disney visited an amusement park in his earlier years, he deemed the place unsanitary basically and decided he could create a better one, and boy did he ever.

4) Michael Sorkin writes in his essay that Disney's EPCOT Center was motivated largely by frustrations Disney felt at his Anaheim CA Park. What were those frustrations?

- Disney was mostly frustrated by the surroundings of his park. He believed the other businesses and establishments were not up to par. simply put, he felt like the other places were cramping his style.

5)In his essay "Travels in Hyperreality" Umberto Eco describes Disneyland as 'a place of total passivity' - what does he mean by this?

- How Eco describes Disneyland a place of passivity, he explains that the customers there are basically ‘robots’. Which is true in someway, people who go there buy, and spend money excessive believing they are in a place of happiness when the whole entire place is controlled and everything is regulated by workers dressed in different outfits at each tour site. By visiting Disneyland, people are experiencing ‘reconstructed truth’.

Week 10: Second life paragraph write up.

             Interestingly enough, I spend about 30 minutes – maybe an hour navigating around Funfair in Second life. Just like the name implies it was a virtual fair with rides based off of real life carnival rides such as haunted houses, bumper cars, a Ferris wheel, drop zone, and etc. One thing that stood out and I was pretty impressed by was that someone actually designed a fully accessible haunted house in SL. It actually took work to navigate thru this small and cramped area, with monsters jumping out at you and ghosts painted on the wall as you turn a corner. I thought that was really detailed, the rides itself were all fully functional as well.

            As for teaching DAI 227 in SL, I can see it happening maybe just for a specific week’s material. But I do not see it happening at all. The environment is totally different and lacks serious-ness; the teacher could be lecturing about a topic while a student(s) would be jumping off the Ferris wheel repeatedly as I have done so in my visit during the hour. It would however be fun to meet up in, except that idea lacks an incentive. Not too many students would just log in and hang out since student life is very busy, if it was required as homework or maybe even extra credit, then maybe. In terms of virtual lecture, it would be close to impossible, because I think people would just turn on SL and be AFK the whole entire time.

            One thing that could become a downer is the lagging, I think its probably because of the my computer since I am running it on a laptop but if a student has an older computer, I am sure that the meeting up of 25+ students on screen would cause even more lag.

Week 9 Freemind map: 12 theses on WIkiLeaks

Week 8 Second Life questions.

Week 8: Second Life Questions.

1) What is the nature of social life in Second Life?

- A little bit of everything, it ranges from beaches to hip hop/techno clubs to villages with volcanoes, and they also have events.

2) How do people converge and what is the main purpose of this form of online community?

- It’s just like any other chat room, except in SL you get to create your own avatar and its more visual.

3) What types of behaviors do you notice about your own relationship to the world and that of others toward you?

- I feel a little bit more hesitant to chat up people in SL, feel like I had to wait for the right time to jump into a convo.

4) What type of people do you imagine are mostly attracted to life within SL?

- That’s hard to answer. I am observing a conversation between XmissX and Averageoctave, apparently your avatars can have sex on SL. XmissX said she hasn’t done it in SL because that would be disrespectful to her real life boyfriend. So I am assuming these are people with somewhat of real lives but for some reason they feel the need to spend time in a virtual realm as well.

5) List five types of virtual goods for sale this week:

- Posters, ad spaces, hair, shoes, shirts, skin.

a) How much they were?

- A lot of free items, I think people are trying to promote something.

b) Who would use them?

- Your avatar.

8) List five people you met online per week and a) who they were and b) what they hope to get out of SL and c) how did they view you?

You will not have a customized avatar (unless you pay for one).

XmissX – stripper, 18 yrs old in real life, in a relationship.

The average octave – starter avatar, same as my guy.

missElemental – red haired, dark skin, stripper.

jury Bluestar – quiet soulless stripper.

Chucknorris5 – big naked guy walking around an erection asking for sex.

9) Is how you are treated as a 'newbie' different from how those are treated who have custom avatars etc?

- Nothing, they told me to spend more time on it and I’ll get the hang of it, most of them are pretty nice. Some people are pretty hmm, vulgar but whatever.

10) How do virtual goods get bought and sold in SL?

- To get money in SL, as I was told that you could strip, do lap dances and get tips. Or design clothes or something. You can also use credit or debit card to buy money aka L$.

11) What types of virtual goods are on sale and how does the economy of virtual goods sales work in relationship to the broader online economy?

- I was told you can design clothing, I am not sure how one to start to do that.

12) How do the 3D spaces used by different people online in SL reflect their interests & personalities?

- You can tell by the clothing on their avatar for personality. Also listening to their conversations works too. Most of them seem like regular people, others I think are just drunk and horny.

13) What type of informal and formal behavior are visible in SL?

- The only formal behavior was avatars dancing to music and pole dancing? Informal would be walking around with their virtual genital exposed. Literally.

14) How many compare to rituals etc in everyday life?

- I guess in SL you are allowed to do things that in RL you cannot or allowed. For one, you can fly in some of the destinations in SL.

15) How do people respond if you tell them that you are a student studying SL as part of a university project?

- Well only one person I talked to was serious to answering my questions. She was pretty informative I just told her straight up I was doing a project for school on SL and she just told me to ask if I have any other questions.

16) How closely does behavior in SL correspond to that in RL (real life)

- Conversation wise, just like any chat room. But people are more sexual since they have an avatar running around and for some reason they are always naked.

17) Summarize your experience in SL from the point of view of a researcher, what did you learn?

I would say there is definitely a large online community here. People from all over the world are involved in this virtual site. I believe that there is a lot more actions that a person can make their avatar perform in that world where it would be looked at as bad or illegal in RL. My experience with SL was interesting, it might have been my computer and Internet but it seemed laggy at times and the loading of avatar and the environment stalled a bit. I think SL actually has a lot of depth that I personally have not been tapped into since I am a noobie. But in general I think the virtual world of SL reminds me of the book ‘Snow Crash’ except here we have avatars and in Snow Crash, people goggle into the virtual reality.

Week 7 Questions.

1) Who invented the first computer game on the PDP1?

-Steve Russell

2) What was the name of the game?

- Spacewar!

3) What was the name of Morton Helig's amusement device that let you smell, hear and see in 3D filmed experiences?

- “Sensarama” in 1960, Martians user friendly.

4) What early 1970s movie does an arcade console machine of Spacewar appear?

- ‘Soylent Green’ as the green machine the girl plays.

5) What was the name of the man who developed the first TV tennis game?

- William Higgenbotham in 1958 who worked on the atomic bomb.

6) Who was the man whose company Atari commercialized the idea of the arcade computer tennis game?

- Nolan Bushnell

7) What was the name of this version of the game?

- Atari Pong

8) What are vector graphics?

-  Vector graphics in games are the use of geometrical shapes such as points, lines, and curves.

9) What types of games do vector graphics lend themselves to?

-  The very first games were obviously spacewar, which lead to asteroids and eventually battlefield. Atari seemed to use vector graphics in their games quite a bit.

10) When home computers were first made available, how did owners load games into them?

- They would either program it themselves, or buy disks from programmers and installed them thru floppy disks in stacks.

11) What is the name of the 1985 film in which a young Matthew Broderick starts World War III with his home computer and modem?

- “WarGames”, its actually from 1983.

12) From what sources did the designer of the Space Invaders aliens draw inspiration?

- From H.G. Well’s war of the world octopus looking aliens.

13) What is the name given to the contemporary subculture of 8 bit music made with gameboys and other 80s game technology

- “ChipTunes”.

14) "Escape from Woomera" was a videogame which was used to draw attention to the plight of inmates at a remote detention center in desert town in what country?

- It is a secret desert prison in the Australian outback.

Week 6 questions.

DAI 227 WEEK 6 Lecture Questions

1) Steve Mann describes his wearable computer invention as a form of ________ for one person (fill in the blank)

-  Architecture for one, or a building for a single occupant. He gets this idea because his dad worked for a clothing company when Mann was little.

2) Steve Mann's concept of opposing camera surveillance with "Sousveillance" is described as a form of “reflectionism”. What is meant by this?

- In a way, it is reversed SURveillance. With Souveillance it is like holding a mirror and asking people themselves if they liked what they were doing as described. Basically act as a mirror for people to see themselves.

3) In the section of "Sousveillance" called "Performance Two" Steve Mann describes how wearing his concealed device becomes more complex when used in what type of spaces?

- “These relationships, however, become more complex when wearing the device into spaces such as shopping malls that are semi-public rather than fully public” In a heavy surveillance area Mann was questioned more his souveillance.

4) The final paragraph sums up what Mann consider the benefits of "sousveillance" and "coveillance". What are they?

- With these technologies, this type of surveillance can act as neighborhood watches (for self protection and neighbors) while people are out and about doing activities.

5) In William J Mitchell's 1995 book "City of Bits" in the chapter "Cyborg Citizens", he puts forth the idea that electronic organs as they shrink and become more part of the body will eventually resemble what types of familiar items?

-  Mitchell theorizes that these items will eventually become a part of our clothing attire, things that contour to our bodies as a whole.

6) From the same book/chapter, list two of the things that a vehicle that 'knows where it is' might afford the driver & passengers.

- Other than being just a GPS, it can tell the person operating the car the history or background about the certain spot. (Which reminds me of the sightseeing tour on Alcatraz with the earplugs I was once told about.)

7) Mitchell tells the story of Samuel Morse's first Washington-to-Baltimore telegraph message. What was it?

- “What hath god wrought.”

8) Donna Harroway in "A Cyborg Manifesto" argues that women should take the "battle to the border". What does she say are the stakes in this border war?

- The things that are at stake in this ‘border war’ were the territories of production, reproduction, and imagination for women.

9) Harroway posits the notion that:
"We require regeneration, not rebirth, and the possibilities for our reconstitution include the utopian dream"What is this dream?

- “…Of the hope for a monstrous world without gender.”

10) Many have argued that 'we are already cyborgs' as we use devices such as glasses to improve our vision, bikes to extend the mobility function of our legs/bodies etc, computers and networks to extend the nervous system etc. What do you think? Are we cyborgs?
 

- Well, the difference in meaning between a robot and cyborg is that a robot is fully mechanized and a cyborg was once human now with partly or whole artificial limbs and parts (for example Robocop.) So the question is are we cyborgs? Partly yes/no and with partly yes, physically most of us still have our biological limbs so to speak. For people that are unfortunate to have to have artificial operations, they can be considered as partly mechanical (another example, that guy who lost his arm in a mountain climbing accident, movie: 127 hours, in an interview he is still does mountain climbing, and he said that with his new mechanical hand, he is stronger and better because of it). The no of this part of the answer is people cannot be as strong as the terminator per says even with mechanical enhancement. The yes, spiritually or the lack of actually. In this day and age, everyone and I mean almost everyone is depending on either a cell phone or laptop or at least some sort of a mechanical device, so in that sense I believe we are all somewhat of a half-assed cyborg, so to speak anyways and I do not think many people could disagree with that, or at least we are mechanically dependent on machine and technology.

Wk 5 Atari Questions

Week 5 Atari questions

Student Name: Tek Kei Jacky Mao


Today’s Date: 2/25/2011


Game Title Examined: Asteroid Deluxe


Year of Publication: 1980

Game Publisher: Self-published

Game Developer: AtariAge

1 - What is the game genre (e.g. shoot-em-up, racing, sports, puzzle, MMORPG, ‘sandbox’, music sequence following game (e.g. DDR, guitar hero)

-Basically a first generation top down view of a shooter game.

2 -What is the type of game ‘world’ or environment (e.g. flat environment, puzzle/maze space, 3D world?)

-It is outer space shoot them up. Because this is a re-amped version of the original Asteroids, the developer tried to give it more 3D look by putting up a background pictures. But of course it still remains 2D, which equals a failed attempt.

3 - What is the perspective taken by player (e.g first person, third person perspective, top down, isometric) in relation to main player controlled character?

-Top down, player get a view of the entire battlefield, not too many games these days are like this. Only ones I’ve really seen are from independent developers.

4 - What is the actual gameplay – what does the player have to do?

-As the game implies, the objective of the game is to repeatedly shoot asteroids that flow across the screen and to avoid getting hit. Each asteroid destroyed will give player points. In this version, new enemies appear and will try to kill the player by crashing into them, much like the asteroids.

5 - Is the gameplay intuitive? (i.e. is it easy to understand what to do without instructions?) Describe.

-I would say yes, because the major difference between games of the past and present is the easy gameplay. Back then people would not need to learn how to play the game. Only how to make the gameplay duration last longer with one quarter and to beat the high score. Games these days require the player to learn an amount of instructions before being able to play properly.

6 - Is the gameplay patterned (game does the same thing over & over) or is it random (happens differently every time?)

- This is a pretty straightforward game; point is to shoot the asteroids and flying spaceships to avoid getting hit. When you move the spaceship, the physics is no different than moving a hockey puck on an ice skating rink.

7 - What does the type of graphic approach used as well as the audio tell you about the limits of the technology at the time the game was published?

- Simple, because this is not the original asteroids, but an improved version from the original. The idea remains the same, obviously the idea was there to create a fun outerspace game but due to the unfamiliarity of technology people are limited to that. As far as the sound goes, even with just a few samples, this was considered amazing back then. This game then is probably, little big planet 2 for us now, which is why I believe that someday in my lifetime anyways we will be playing with unperfected 3d holograms as I mentioned in a different post.

8 - Describe your views about the game from the point of view of


1. Ease of play – easy, very easy. Reason being is that these used to be arcade games, the ease of play need to be easy to pick up but challenging enough to eat up all your quarters.

2. Enjoy ability – Overall, I enjoy it but it is not a game that has high replayablity because I have already been exposed to games of the current generation, which doesn’t even compare since they are two very different things.

c) Level of engagement/immersion – I would not say it is super engaging for me, yes I played it, and I like it. But again it is not something I am addicted to, because it’s a little repetitive, and it does not feel like you get anything for winning except the high score. The sense of accomplishment is a lot lower for games of the past. Especially arcade games. Which is also why fighting games have lasted so long, they are fun and easy to pick up for the average button masher, but at the same time there is a high level of complexity behind it all.

9 - Had you played this game prior to this time? If so, when?

I have played this game prior before this, I cannot exactly remember when but its just one those games that everyone either knows of or have played.

10 - what does playing the game remind you of in terms of other games/media?

- It reminds me of the same formula that a lot of the indie developers these days are trying to slightly imitate, which is not a bad thing because it works. But again it does get repetitive and the gameplay is out of fashion, and only serves as a mini game within a bigger and more developed game.

Wk 4 part 2 SketchUp Level

 Top Down

 Side view

 Front View

Perspective

This would be a sample multiplayer level that can be used in a videogame. In this Case, it would be a first person shooter. Why does it work? Because that was the idea in mind when I designed it, and besides it would not make any sense if there were a killer whale in the middle of a desert, not to mention a warzone at that if it was a film. The whale and tree is only there solely for the purpose of the assignment requirement otherwise I would deem it inappropriate to have those objects in a desert area.

Most people are familiar with Call of Duty Multiplayer, but this map is more designed for Battlefield. Where people actually had to strategize with teammates a little before randomly running into a gunfight. The theme of this level is open space, lots of open space, and everything is based on vantage point and depth of field and perception. So any rookie running out to point A to point B would be easily taken out. There are different points on the map where players will respawn, and each respawn point will have different advantages such as vehicles (helicopter), and coverage. Because the theme of this map is open space, players are able to scale the small mountains to try and flank their enemies from behind. Which also is why there is a sunken bridge right in the middle to give off a higher vantage point if players can make it out there successfully. Due to the time constraint and the lack of experience with Sketch Up, I’d like to mention that there are multiple bunkers, hot zones, and vehicles not included in this map. Last note is that this level will also have a nighttime time version.

Wk 4 questions.

DAI 227 Week 4 Questions

1) According to the text "Remediation" the author uses the phrase (in relation to Hollywood's use of computer graphics)
"remediation operates in both directions" - what is meant by this?

- The author uses ‘Toy Story’ as an example for film is trying to refashion digital technology as digital graphic artists can refashion film. Basically he just means that both technologies in this department can benefit from each other.

2) What does Michael Benedikt, author of "Cyberspace the First Steps" introduction argue had happened to modern city by the late 60s, having become more than 'a collection of buildings and streets'?

- He argues that by the late 60’s, no matter how green its parks or lofty its structures. The city itself had became a immerse node of communication, a messy nexus of messages. Even the building themselves are advertised on, and all this was influential.

3) In his short story "Skinner's Room" William Gibson describes how Skinner watches a tiny portable 'pop-up' TV set. What can skinner no longer remember? (Remediation in relation to television as an idea is neatly summed up in this sentence!)

- Skinner could not distinguish commercials from programming.

4) Author of the famous pamphlet "Culture Jamming" Mark Dery paraphrases Umberto Eco and his phrase "semiological guerrilla warfare". What does this mean?

-  Semiological Guerrilla warfare means as Eco implies that messages should be controlled along with its different ways of interpretation.  “One medium can be employed to communicate a series of opinions on another medium.”  And communication guerrillas who would then restore a dimension to passive reception would patrol this.

5) From Mark Dery's pamphlet, briefly describe "Subtervising"

-  Subtervising is the production and dissemination of anti-ads that deflect Madison Avenue's attempts to turn the consumer's attention in a given direction.

week 3 questions.

DAI 227 Week 3 questions.

1) In Paulina Boorsooks Book "Cyberselfish" she contrasts the development of technologies that were group efforts and thus stand in stark contrast to the myth of the lone 'hero' entrepreneur. Name two such more group-based technologies. (Under the heading "Closer to the Machine")

a) Cern: Where the web was developed

b) Microsoft windows

2) In the section labeled "Human, Too Human" Boosook describes one type of techno libertarian - the "Extropians". What do extropians want or yearn for?

-A group who strives for the better of human beings through technology.

3) In her film BIT PLANE, Natalie Jeremijenko describes Doug Englebart as being a pioneer - of what? (View film via VIMEO link in separate post)

-Personal Computing “to extend and improve human condition”

4) In "Silicon Valley Mystery House" writer Langdon Winner compares the Silicon Valley to the Winchester Mystery House. In what way does he consider them similar?

- Langdon believes that the Silicon Valley is a reincarnation of the Winchester, due to its large number of multi billion dollar companies, and employee. It is as if Mrs. Winchester herself is trying to extend the structures into every part of the land like she did her house.

5) In Langdon Winner's essay "Silicon Valley Mystery House" he describes East Palo Alto as a very different kind of place from areas such as upscale Stanford and downtown Palo Alto. What type of area is East Palo Alto, "just across highway 101"?

- A Ghetto, A forgotten land ‘in which poverty and unemployment among its black residents seem beyond remedy.’

6) In her Processed World article "The Disappeared of Silicon Valley" Paulina Boorsook's "Deep Throat" (inside information source) describes some unpleasant realities of most Silicon Valley startups and how they end up. List two.

- Most Start-ups are not high-tech and are not ventured funded.

- One can lose, their savings, salaries and insanity. And techies and managers who get work done usually get screwed off by folding companies.

7) What is the Long Now foundation and why was it formed?

-  Basically a group that is out to build a 10,000 year old clock, because they believe that is the only time when humans will have a stable climate and living condition.

8) In the documentary DOCUMENTARY - SILICON VALLEY - A HUNDRED YEAR RENAISSANCE (1997) Steve Jobs describes the joy of successfully making "blue boxes" which let he and his friends make free phone calls. What aspect of this experience does he say was so important to the creation of Apple computer?

- Without the blue box, their group would have had no confidence behind Apple because it was such a long process and it was costly. ‘Also there was a case of ‘magic’ used to control the world with apple.’

9) List three aspects of the work of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) - (see the "Our Work" section of their website)

- Defends free speech

- Innovator protection

- Fights for intellectual properties

10) According to Richard Stallman's website, what is his status in relation to the social media site Facebook?

- Much distrust, he believes that Face book shows how lonely people really are, it threatens user privacy and potentially records everything a person then sells them to the CIA. 

DAI 227 Lecture 2 Questions.

Questions for week 2

1) Why was the period at the turn of the 20th century so important?

- There was an explosion of technological development at which gave rise to new a wide range of ideas and technologies. The biggest contributions were from the two sides of the war.

2) What aspects of the Dada art movement are important from the point of view of the rise of the computers and digital visual media? (for example Marcel Duchamp's "readymades"?)

- These were loose political artists that contributed to art by using things that were normal objects in everyday life, and putting a spin on it. It seem to be used to create only shock value and a response really.

3) Name one aspect that links "The Man with a Movie Camera" with digital media according to Lev Manovich (ReadingsB)

- One aspect on the link of between, ‘The Man with a Movie Camera.” And digital media is when he tested the limits of human vision with his Kino eye research, by tying the camera on top of cars and building, and superimposing these images together while slowing and speeding up the frame rates. This resulted in a “database of new interface operations which together aim to go beyond a simple human navigation through a physical space.” mark in cinema.

4) What was 'constructivism'?

- An art revolution that theorized as ‘constructing’ the world around yourself.

5) What does Lev Manovich suggest are the 'three levels' of "The Man with a Movie Camera"?

He believed that new media concluded a hierarchy of levels as do Vertov’s film.

-One level is the story of a cameraman filming material for the film.

-The second level is the shots of an audience watching the finished film in a movie theater.  

-The third level of this film, which consists from footage recorded in Moscow, Kiev and Riga and is arranged according to a progression of one day:  waking up — work — leisure activities.”

6) Who first developed the idea of "Cybernetics"?

-Norbert Weiner

7) In "Computer Lib" Ted Nelson describes Hypertext as "Non ___________" writing

-Non-Sequential Writing

8) (Lecture) why were transistors, even though 100 times smaller than vacuum tubes considered impractical for building computers in the 1960s?

-At the time, it was impossible to wire all the transistors and components, aka the tyranny of numbers.

9) What was the name of the first commercial available computer (kit)?

-The Altair 8800, in which it did absolutely nothing.

10.) In your own words: What are things going to look like in 20 years from now in the average living room in terms of digital visual media? What types of digital media will your kids be using around 2030?

-Answer emailed to David as specified.

DAI 227 1ST hw questions.

DAI 227 Hw

1) How was unique about Charles Babbage Analytical Engine, compared to his original Difference Engine?

-Calculate by method of differences, and prints numbers, uses different sequence of punch cards,

2) What role did Ada Lovelace play in the development of the Analytical Engine?

-She became fascinated and enrolled herself as an interpreter for the machine. She was also known as the first computer programmer.

3) How was the ENIAC computer reprogrammed?

- It was individually rewiring 6000 switches manually.

4) Name an innovation that helped make programming faster post ENIAC (see ep. 2)

-Vacuum tubes.

5) What is it about binary counting that makes it so well suited to computers?

- Because Binary coding only consisted 1s and 0s which made it easier for engineering because they can be added and subtracted, instead of using the ten digits we use, its simple as turning a light bulb as on as 1 and off as 0.

6) In what ways did UNIVAC influence the portrayal of computers in popular culture in the 1950s? Give an example. (see ep. 2)

-Because the computers solved equations faster than humans can, scientist were ask to predict 45 years later of this super computer.

7) Codebreaking required the automatic manipulation of symbols to unscramble messages during WWII. What was the name of the rudimentary computer at Bletchley Park in England that unscrambled Nazi codes.

-Colossus machine, which later help won the war.

8) Alan Turing who understood the implications of such machines later went on to describe them as __________ machines.

-Intelligent.

GENERAL QUESTIONS

Write two paragraphs for each:

9) Describe when you first used computers and what types of tasks you performed on them.

There are actually two parts to this answer for me, my first computer that my parents friend gave me looked like a tower with a handle on top. After a long time of tinkering, I eventually figured out that you were suppose to lay in on the side and a keyboard detaches from the bottom, where the keyboard came apart lies a small screen which served as a monitor. I did not ever figure out how to use that one, which probably explains why it was given away in the first place.

Shortly after the second computer in my life, the first functional, first taught, first everything was your typical mid 90’s desktop that ran Windows 95 but with no dial up internet. There were many things I remember associated with this computer, this ranged from learning to actually type, Microsoft office apps (office, powerpoint, and excel), and of course games. A few I remembered, was demos of Doom, Heretic, and wing commander.

10) How restricted do you think computers are in terms of what they can do compared to how they are most often used?

I would not say that they are actually restricted on any terms; people use computers for a variety of reasons. A business power broker probably run a computer to its limits, and where a grandma would probably use only 25% of a computer’s capability. If the machine already satisfies their needs then I really do not see how it is restricted.

 I mean by hacker standards it would be restricted but not by regular consumers. But really if a person understands how to use a computer, I think the possibilities are close to unlimited.