indefatigablog

i think it’s cool when geeks post and trade screenshots of workspaces to show off *rad* customizations made to desktop configs, themes, et al.

i took this on a mac today and thought i’d post it for posterity :

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Below is a fan-made video for a Modest Mouse song that is better than most videos the band has paid money to have made [this is just my opinion, of course]:

Bands, companies, et al have more to look forward to as User Generated Content [UGC] continues to propagate for better or worse.

They have more to look forward to and also things to watch out for - namely losing control of their hard work building brands and identities that are so cherished by them and so easily smashed by a couple kids with laptops. OR, if they’re lucky, some kid may come along and make something better than all their ad spending combined over a decade could’ve come up with.

This is good and bad for reasons different than what you might think : first, by-and-large, ad agencies are too calcified, too hobbled by clients’ demands to make much use of this culture as the ideas are not traditional enough for old, executive camels who make decisions. These geezers of intellect and taste know how to balance the books but have no vision whatsoever and can’t see or be convinced of it, even when it’s there plainly for all others to see.

As for the kids, the only downside of these creative outlets is they’re giving their great ideas and efforts away for free to the sites that feature them.

Let’s face it, though : who cares?

There’s plenty more where that came from! : )

These videos are only exercises that allow them to sharpen their skills while increasing their stake and stock in this whole cultural movement.

Meanwhile, the big, bad, self-proclaimed “creative” people get left behind. Best they can do is rip-off the ideas they get from these kids and make more derivative crap that still hasn’t changed much. You can fake creativity but you can’t imitate SPIRIT and if it ain’t got SPIRIT then it just doesn’t move. And everyone knows it.

Tally-ho, kids!

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Researchers promote starting children young when it comes to exercise and healthy eating
Pamela Cowan, Leader-Post
Published: Saturday, March 29, 2008

Over indulgence in computer games, TV, processed food and fast food. You just shortened the life of your child.

Dr. June LeDrew couldn’t sit still and watch kids morph into “extreme screenies” — those who stare at a TV screen for more than five hours a day and rarely move off the couch.

So the professor of Kinesiology and Health Studies at the University of Regina created some public service announcements that focus on the connection between sedentary activities such as television watching and increasing obesity levels.

“We have the soft commercials or public service announcements where someone is walking around with a cushion attached to their butt and they’re encouraging them not to be a couch potato,” LeDrew said. “But if you’re looking at the health side of this and the detriment to our children’s health in particular, we need a harder hitting approach than that to send a message to the adults that this is not working.”

Her concern is shared.

A study conducted in 2003 by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation titled Zero to Six: Electronic Media in the Lives of Infants, Toddlers and Preschoolers found that one in four children under the age of two years has a TV in his or her bedroom and children six years and younger spend an average of two hours a day with screen media, mostly TV and videos.

Fast forward to 2006.

That’s when LeDrew and two University of Regina co-researchers decided to measure how much time family members spent watching television so they challenged families to unplug their TV and “Live Outside the Box” for a week.

They sent information about the project home with children from two Regina elementary schools. Only 13 families participated and some angry parents called the researchers because they were upset by the suggestion that the entire family go screen free.

[read more]

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Some of you may remember this rather unorthodox, though, significant event in online history :

Machinima (pronounced /məˈʃiːnəmə/ or /məˈʃɪnəmə/), a portmanteau of machine cinema, is a collection of associated production techniques whereby computer-generated imagery (CGI) is rendered using real-time, interactive 3-D engines, such as those of games, instead of professional 3D animation software. Engines from first-person shooter and role-playing simulation video games are typically used. Consequently, the rendering can be done in real-time using PCs (either using the computer of the creator or the viewer), rather than with complex 3D engines using huge render farms. Usually, machinima productions are produced using the tools (demo recording, camera angle, level editor, script editor, etc.) and resources (backgrounds, levels, characters, skins, etc.) available in a game.

Machinima is an example of emergent gameplay, a process of putting game tools to unexpected ends, and of artistic computer game modification. The real-time nature of machinima means that established techniques from traditional film-making can be reapplied in a virtual environment. As a result, production tends to be cheaper and more rapid than in keyframed CGI animation. It can also produce more professional appearing production than is possible with traditional at-home techniques of live video tape, or stop action using live actors, hand drawn animation or toy props.

As machinima begins to break out of the underground community of gamers and becomes more widely recognized by mainstream audiences, tools are being developed to allow for faster and easier creation of machinima productions. A number of upcoming machinima products are expected to provide machinimators with original assets, as well as advanced features such as a timeline, gesture and sound creation, and precise camera tools.

Although most often used to produce recordings that are later edited as in conventional film, machinima techniques have also occasionally been used for theatre. A New York improvisational comedy group called the ILL Clan voice and puppet their characters before a virtual camera to produce machinima displayed on a screen to a live audience.

[definition compliments of wikipedia]

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The University might hamper the second round of BG Undead’s game play after the announcement was made last week to place an immediate ban on the use of Nerf guns on campus.

The game, a version of Humans versus Zombies, is still going to be played but it’s going to be more difficult for the humans to survive, said senior Atonn Smeltzer, the web administrator for the group.

Humans versus Zombies is a game played between two teams, the humans and the zombies.

The goal of the humans is to survive the zombie attack by not being “bitten” and turned into a zombie. The human’s main form of defense used to come in the form of Nerf guns, but is now being downgraded to balled up socks and marshmallows.

The zombies win the game by turning all of the humans after placing both hands on a human’s shoulders.

“All of the game play will still be the same, just no Nerf guns,” Smeltzer said.

Smeltzer said he and group president Peter Geldes were called into a meeting with Associate Dean of Students Jeff Coats to discuss one of the University’s new policies. While in the meeting, the group was told the game was in danger of being canceled due to the number of calls the University received last semester from concerned parents.

After Smeltzer and Geldes pleaded their case, the University notified them a few days later and told the group they were allowed to play their game, just without the Nerf guns, Smeltzer said.

“We were caught by surprise [by the ban],” Smeltzer said. “This was last Tuesday and we received a call on Thursday banning guns.”

Not all members of BG Undead are taking this as the final word from the University. Several members have started a petition to get the University to allow the game to use Nerf guns, Smeltzer said.

He said groups from other universities have shown support for the petition, including Ohio University’s group, which has sent electronic signatures to add to what BG Undead has collected.

[more]

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