Phonebloks

Finally an idea worth keeping!!

I have very recently come across this bit of information on the internet. Now I did not have a lot of time to read about it but what I have read so far really makes me like this vision already. The video below really says it all but if I had to sum it up here is the idea:

You get a phone which is built on changeable, hence upgradable blocks. You can build it according to your needs and upgrade it when you feel it is getting old. The idea behind it all is to prevent fast-growing technological waste. I so far like it very much indeed. I hear they have already signed up with a specific phone company in order to bring this project into production and I would like to follow their progress quite closely.

You can find more info on their official site .

www.coursera.org

Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative

Mission accomplished!

I recently have come across this incredibly entertaining and instructive outlet of self-development: Coursera. It offers a wide-range of Universities from all around the world as well as some classes in multiple languages; But if you would like to give it a try English is a must since the best and the most courses are offered in English.

 

It works pretty easily, you go visit the page, sign up for the site and then choose the class you would like to roll and you are good to go. There is a wide range of courses, some of them requiring a specific previous knowledge, some of them, just for beginners. In any case if you wish to acquire a plain Coursera certificate it is completely free but if you would like to receive a completion certificate from the University of the class itself then you are supposed to pay for it.

Either way it is a great way for self development with or without a certificate. I have rolled for several classes, some of which I follow closely by doing the quizzes and the assignments and some of which I simply put on the watch list because although I do not care about the certificate I would like to follow them still in order to gain knowledge.

In all the courses you take you can either download the class videos in order to watch them on your tv later on or you can follow them on your computer.

I myself have just completed my first course in distinction track. As the sub-heading suggests it was of course about gaming but it beautifully and thoroughly evaluated games' narratives in various forms and how books and poems are remediated. I have to say; I enjoyed every minute of this course and learned so much on a topic which I already knew well. But this course helped me go to the roots of the specific genre of fantasy fiction. We have evaluated and discussed various works including a part of Spencer's Faerie Queene. 

But the class's main focus was on The Lord of the Rings. We have discussed and prepared assignments on how Tolkien's work was remediated into films and games. Since I had a fine grasp on the subject already, as many on the course also did, we were able to appreciate it on another level. 

If you have got time, please spare 15 minutes to watch the video I have created for an assignment. We were supposed to make our way to Weathertop and compare and contrast how the three medias (the book, the film, the online game) handled it in their own ways. We had to primarily focus on only one aspect and I had chosen to compare and contrast  the setting / mise en scène / gamespace. We were instructed not to include any videos from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings so I had to find other ways to illustrate the points I was making concerning the movie. I hope you will enjoy it.

In concluding this post I would like to say thanks to the main instructor of this course along with his TAs who made the class discussion videos so completely enjoyable. 

I will be coming back to coursera , that is, if I ever leave it at all...    

  

Google Glass

Use the tool or become a/the "Tool"?

 So I never thought that cyborgs would be people themselves and not the products of human creativity . Whats next? Matrix? New eye balls with internet/photo-camera-video/navigation integrated in them? Are we going to go ahead and know everything about any stranger on the street soon? 

I have been reading and watching a lot lately about this new technological product and I already dislike it to the point of yikes. 

Anthropologically speaking, tools have always been what set humans aside in this world. Our ability to use them and improve them led to our superiority. But I am not sure this included turning ourselves into gadgets and Google Glass my @$$ is the first step into this new world.

Human has always been dependent on tools. If it were not for the tools he could not have survived in the wild to begin with. But human until recently has not been dependent on technology. Technology has always been the means to entertainment and comfort; not survival. With the smart phones came the era of not memorizing any phone numbers. How many of us really remembers how many phone numbers? With the navigation came the loss of direction senses. Soon we will have no need to meet our friends face to face and will start living in contained white boxes because we will need no windows to look outside. Some might see this as a positive thing but I dont. And if you want to know why please read the short story "The Machine Stops" by E.M. Forster since we seem to be going headfirst there.

No asteroids, no orbit fails, no ice-age, no global warming, no sun exploding into a bigillion bits and leaving us without light. We will destroy ourselves pretty well by losing our self-reliance to survive. Oh yes that will do it alright.

Human has been using his brains less and less for quite some time now but soon he will use it least when he is spoon-fed every information, even the most worthless ones. He will be a nice little shell of a body, drooling as he makes rounds and sees the world behind the layers of letter covered glasses. 

 

How different he will be than a robot is still up for grabs. 

Seriously, read "The Machine Stops".   

And one more thing: Google Glass looks stupid! Anyone who wears it looks idiotic! As idiotic as Inspector Gadget.

But that is its best feature when compared to the repercussions of a drooling humanity.
A humanity which is already drooling all over smartphones, computers and tablets. Sure why not hand him a pair of glasses too?

Stop the machine now!

 

LOTRO 6th Anniversary

fan-edited video

 

Here is a video I have been working on to wish the game I and so many of my friends love. This was my first attempt to edit a video apart from a few slide-shows I made long time ago. So I apologize for its flaws. It consists of so many a footage that can be found on the internet (apart from those I recorded myself in the game) and if you like you can check the main video on You Tube for a detailed list of links. For best quality set the video to HD.  Without further ado I would just like to say: Happy Birthday LOTRO :)

 

The video below is for those who could not watch it through Youtube because of country regulations. The quality of this video is nowhere close to the original (actually the quality is despicable so dont watch it full screen) but I did not wish to leave anyone without options and so I am adding it here. However if you can view it in YouTube I strongly recommend that you watch that one and even make use of other means such as IP shield in order to watch the original and not the one below.

Vanity; thy name is smart phone!

It doesn’t matter if you are a girl or a boy, it doesn’t matter where you are from, it doesn’t matter if you are clever or not. The new craze that has been going on for like the last 5 years now, is to self-take pictures of you posing in front of the most mundane places imaginable. Most of the profile pictures in places such as Facebook, google plus, tweeter and even avatars in various sites are those ridiculous images one tends to take of him/herself. On Facebook, if it is not the profile picture, you are sure to find at least an album of a smart phone originated faces and an arm extending to the invisible phone its invisible hand holds.

I suppose having a camera in your pocket has become such a trusted habit that it is meaningless to ask 500 strangers a day to take a picture of you for you to use as a profile picture or an avatar. Besides how ridiculous would you look if you asked someone in the public restroom to take a picture of you right there? I can hear the conversation.

You:  Hello, hi. Could you take a picture of me please?

Stranger: Here?

Y: Yes, yes here

S: Why?

Y: I look kind of pretty/handsome today.

You wouldn’t do that would you? Well the next time you have got a smart phone camera in your hand try playing out this scenario to yourself and abstain from doing it! The conversation with an actual stranger may not have taken place but from the photographs it is obvious that you had the conversation in your head with your inner stranger. Next time try saying it out loud. You will find that you sound absolutely ridiculous. 

If you do not wish to hear the voice of reason please then at least learn how to crop images so that you don’t look silly with that phone holding arm. Seriously…

Funny& Impressive Videos

I wanted to share some videos I have found, some old some new. They cheer me up and make me giggle so I hope you will enjoy them too.

Some pranks in this video are pure mean but hell sometimes its so funny to watch people getting scared :)))

I want to find out what happened to this lady because at her age she is sure to have broken something.

This one is not a funny video. But it is so impressive and so lucky (in every aspect) that I watched it for a dozen times and every time I can not believe their luck.

And last but not least is a short movie style video which I have watched years ago and yet I still find it worth adding here.

I hope you enjoyed the videos. Stay tuned for reviews on games, cinema and literature.

For Fun: Lotro style Bohemian Rhapsody

This is a video I watched a long time ago and since then every time I listen to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody my mind wanders there and it makes me smile. Even if you are not a LOTRO player you might be able to enjoy it. Well have a laugh :)