Unsorted Assortments | Michael Wharton

20Jul/100

I Has A Video!

I purchased a new video camera which I have been playing around with recently, it shoots in 720p HD so I think I'm going to be using Youtube to actually host all of my videos! For starters I'm going to be recording myself reading my poetry aloud to camera using various techniques.

I now am an internet. I am hopefully going to be creating videos for both One Day On Earth and it's Hollywood (RIP-OFF) counterpart Life In A Day. What bugs me is that the YouTube channel for Life In A Day says it was created 18 June 2006, which means that either the account was created for this express purpose and the concept is that old, or the account was bought from someone who created it for another purpose. Bizarre.

I'd take the side of the None Profit Organisation any day!

Tagged as: life in a day, one day on earth, video, youtube No Comments

2Jul/100

Your Freedom: New Government Service Down?

There's a new service out there for interactivism in Internetland causing a stir on all ends of the political spectrum. Your Freedom is Nick Clegg's new initiative to get the public, the people, the voters, the interasctivists, more involved in the political process.

On the run up to the election I could already tell there was going to be an internet arms race for an advantage in the charm offensive. I think I even coined the hashtag #Twittocracy on @Twitter.

Anyway, I eagerly scoured the new service adding myself to various causes and concerns. It''s simpler to use and more intuitive to a social media user than the old http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/ site although both have their own unique merits.

Unfortunately, before I could do more rigourous testing of the functionality: The site went down.

...more on that story later...

13May/100

Internet Censorship: Cause

Internet Censorship: The Internet Is Under Attack?

According to many key sources of internet trends, the recent governmental seizure of control over the internet has been perceived as a threat to global freedom. The internet culture has flourished from what once was the domain of the knowledgeable few, to what is often called "Web 2.0"; user generated and driven content, shared and open to all interactively and easily. Nowadays, most people between their childhood and retirement age will spend time online regularly. They do so to catch up on the latest news, kill time watching funny videos of cats, keep in touch with long lost friends and relatives, etc... The list of activities people perform regularly online is pretty endless, as new applications of the internet are coming along every day. Some of the things people do online are currently illegal, in quite a few countries, and for years now the governments of those (often developed) countries have been trying to figure out how to enforce laws on the internet. From copyright infringement to "Indecent Pornography", it has been a game of cat and mouse, as technology on both sides is developed to outsmart the other.

We were all made aware of this arms race when sites like Napster and The Pirate Bay were legally challenged, when news of sting operations on paedophile and terrorist networks hit the papers. We were glad of our Government's action against those who would harm or way of life. Now however, it is our governments themselves who are threatening our way of life; in a new development in this arms race, we the people are being targeted with internet censorship.

The ACTA has been implemented in several "Freedom Loving" countries such as Australia, America, and now the United Kingdom has followed suit with the Digital Economy Bill (The DEBill is now The Digital Economy Act since it was pushed through parliament... shouldn't have dragged my feet writing this blog...). Now we have internet censorship, blacklisted websites and filtered content.

Internet Censorship: Spreading The Word!

Internet Censorship Youtube Video Playlist:

So as far as I can tell, the internet is going to become more strictly controlled, surveilled, filtered and censored worldwide. Copyright piracy, inappropriate porn and terrorist communication are simply convenient distractions, so that dissent can be monitored and controlled. If any of the videos in the internet censorship playlist are removed, or if you can no longer gain access to this page then you will know that I was right.

Since the development of the internet, it has been used to express opinions and information freely with the rest of the world. Don't allow this tool to be used to gag and control you, speak out against this right infringement. Several organisations have interactivist campaigns you can join to let your voice be heard; The EFF, The ORG, 38 Degrees and of course Project Freeweb.

If we do nothing, we are in very real danger of losing access to the "real" internet like other less than free countries with more extreme levels of internet censorship ( an obvious example is the People's Republic of China (oh no, I guess that my site's blocked there now...)). Internet superstars such as Tim Berners Lee and John Perry Barlow have declared their opposition to internet censorship. Internet deity Google have spoken out against the global trend towards internet censorship measures and the state controlling the web. Google even released this handy tool to see how much your internet content is being filtered. We have to all stand together and say "No, we DO NOT WANT internet censorship, filtered content or our internet to be arbitrarily cut off!". Of course as with anything online, you have an overwhelming choice of mediums for interactivism to convey such a message!

30Jan/100

Name The Decade! Teenties? Tweens? Eleventies!

What is in a Name? 1910 -2000 Back In The Decade!

Over the past hundred years, it has become more and more popular a cultural phenomenon to name the decade. There was the Roaring Twenties, the Thirties and Forties, Fifties and Swinging Sixties. The Seventies, Eighties and Naughty Nineties were relatively straightforward. Right up until the new millennium it took little imagination to perpetuate this new-found tradition.

Some kind of social genius, with a degree in semantics, came up with a name for the decade following the Millennium; The Noughties. It's not like it was entirely on the money (not many people say nought-one, nought-two etc...) but it was quirky and kitsch and it rolled of the tongue. That's what we need for this decade, something that sounds cool. It doesn't have to be massively accurate, just passably sensible. Oh, and it has to end in "ties", you know, to fit in with all of the other decades rhyming scheme.

What Shall We Call This Decade 2010-2019 ?

There are a few suggestions out there on the internet, and let's face it, that is where this will be decided. We have the "Teens", now obviously this doesn't come up to the standard of ending in "ties". We could add "ties" to "Teens" and get "Teenties", but that is a really unwieldy word, also it doesn't cover the period of 2010 to 2012 with the numbers ten through twelve not actually being classified as teens. We could take what we know so far to make a new word "Tenties", but that sounds really awkward and like a vague reference to camping. The list of examples in this ball park is fairly short so I might as well include all of them, here is the last runner up, "Tweenties" (shudder).

My favourite concept word for this occasion is definitely the "Eleventies", it may surprise you, as it seems to defy any definition itself, let alone as a defining term for this decade. My favour is spawned from the repeated utterances in the literary classic series Lord Of The Rings, and lead furthermore by the repeated references of the word such as "111EleventyOne!111!1!!" etc on internet messaging boards due to it's overuse in on-line gaming. The word eleven (11) refers to the number between ten (10) and twelve (12), the word Eleventy refers to the number range of a hundred and ten (110) to a hundred and nineteen (119).

Why Will Eleventies Work?

I believe these factors; previous knowledge of the word amongst a large sub-culture (Examples of it's use in context already found here , here and here) and the numerical logistical applications of the word itself, will contribute to the word Eleventies becoming the defining term used for this decade.

Tagged as: 1337, blog, contemporary theory, cultural phenomenon, decade, eleventies, eleventy, eleventyone, evolution, michael wharton, millennium, nostalgia, opinion, philosophy, science, social consciousness No Comments

23Aug/090

Monkey Island – Roger & I Hunt for Treasure!

I remember as a boy sitting for hours in front of the cathode ray tube attached to my Amiga 500 games console, clicking every part of the screen in a vain attempt to figure out the solution to a puzzle on The Secret of Monkey Island TM. The original game was enthralling to the point where my parents had to take the floppy disks out of my room every night to stop me staying up and playing it after they were asleep!

I only ever played the first two games as a child and never even knew there were more games released, until a couple of months ago. It was late Spring of this year when my house mate used the infamous line "How appropriate, you fight like a cow!" in conversation. This sparked a lively conversation about the franchise, and lead to him telling me there were in fact more games. We decided that as I hadn't played the more recent games, we should start playing all of them together. We were excited and enthralled as we clicked our way through Mêlée Island and Monkey Island TM as Mighty Pirate; Guybrush Threepwood.

I was ecstatic at the idea of playing more Monkey Island games, that I never had the chance to as a kid. The third game didn't disappoint, it had cartoon style graphics that blew my mind and the musical score was given a new lease of life after being released from the confines of the Amiga's sound chip! The storyline was creative and remained true to the original mythology, the puzzles didn't disappoint either.

To both of our surprise we found a fourth Monkey Island game to play, this time the game had been given a 3D retrofit to bring it fully into the modern gaming age. It was the same old characters in a good old pirate romp, but with a very Final Fantasy VII feel to it. We both enjoyed it immensely, especially the idea of time travelling paradoxes!

Shortly after completing the fourth game in the series, we were already getting withdrawal symptoms. We were missing the Monkey Island TM characters and longed for a new adventure. Lo and behold mere days later we found out that a BRAND NEW Monkey Island game was in the pipeline! Lucas Arts were to team up with Telltale games to create a new vehicle for Guybrush and pals! This wasn't to be the fifth game, but an episodic storyline set after the theoretical fifth game (confusing isn't it?). We immediately signed up to download a copy as soon as it was released!

The day of release for the first episode: Tales of Monkey Island; Launch of The Screaming Narwhal was announced and we waited impatiently for it's arrival. The day came and we sat hitting refresh all afternoon but had yet more of a wait as the Telltalle games server had some issues, probably due to unforeseen massive demand! Finally we downloaded and played the game, we were pleased to see a blending of the styles seen in the last two games, cartoonish yet 3D. The original voice actors and composer had also been re-hired to lend authenticity to sound of the game too. The storyline and the puzzles were exactly what we had come to expect from the Monkey Island franchise, with the humour of the original games still intact.

After completing the first episode , we decided to write a walkthrough, we have to admit that we did get stuck ourselves on the original games! The walkthroughs available online really helped us out! We thought we should make sure other people had that option to complete this new game, as we couldn't find one online ourselves! Tales of Monkey Island Walkthrough - Launch of the Screaming Narwhal.

Now the second episode has been released and received the same walkthrough treatment Tales of Monkey Island Walkthrough - The Siege of Spinner Cay. We have also been treasure hunting on the Screaming Narwhal map, which is a great new feature! Now we are simply awaiting the release of the third episode, and again, writing a walkthrough for it! The withdrawal symptoms are starting to reappear, from idly clicking around the screen on web pages, to trying to use random items together for no reason!