Just 1 Word.
Monday, March 10, 2014
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Internet Nostalgia
Whatever happened to the days when the internet was wild and free--a world where anything was possible as long as you built it yourself? Do you yearn for that long lost world of chaos, link farms, and blinking page backgrounds; a place where anyone's page could be one of the top search results? Don't you miss an internet that was a true maze of unknown worlds to explore and where no one knew you were a dog? It didn't matter if you were a multibillion dollar corporation or a seven year old kid. No one knew how this new world would work and everyone seemed to have an equal chance to grab and hold attention. There was largely a spirit of cooperation as you built. People helped each other and while there were trolls out there, they weren't prolific enough that anyone felt the need to create a name for trolling yet. It was what Asimov called a cusp time--anything was possible.
On the other hand, the old internet was static and along with the chaos came....well chaos. Search engine results? No one had a particularly great algorithm yet for searching through the mounds of stuff. EVERYTHING was there, but where? Link farms existed because we needed them. Because anyone who played with terms and configuration long enough could optimize a site to be a top search result, the results were comparatively meaningless. Also it was SLOW. I mean we were listening to midi files for crying out loud. Not because this was the best we could do as far as digital media went either. We had mp3s, they just took hours to download.....
What have we made of the internet? Is it a better place now or worse? For me the answer is ... both. Of course that may be a cop out, but I think it's true. We have lost some of the wild west and renaissance spirit while gaining order, technical advancement, and maturity. This means I can now watch streaming video, but also that net neutrality is going out the window as isps have inexorably moved from AOL vs a myriad of small local startups to the mega corporations of Comcast and Time Warner vs no one at all. It means that Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr et al have codified a place and language for people to use to communicate but in providing and codifying this, they have defined, shaped, and proscribed the conversation and experience itself--possibilities which were there are now gone or at least less likely for the time being. Power seems to tend towards amalgamation. With that comes order and sometimes expanded technology, but also loss of freedom, higher prices (for access) and, a different kind of danger.
What do you think of the progression of the internet since the early days?
While you're thinking.... do you remember any of this?
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Twitchy
My
roommate Wil introduced me to a new phenomena. On the surface, it seems to be a
basic emulator of a classic game, Pokémon Red. But delve inside, and you find a story of civilizations of
order and anarchy, betrayal, torture, and triumph. A hundred thousand souls
fighting gladiatorial battle under the cruel gaze of the goddess called Chance.
Twitch.tv is a
channel where, if you're tired of playing video games yourself, you can watch other people play video games in real time.
They play and sometimes talk while they play, and you watch them play and
sometimes write a comment in the side chat bar.
I know. I'd put it
beneath "sorting uno cards by closest prime number" on my to-do list
as well.
But
somebody got innovative, and Python'd up our beloved Pokémon Red so that the chat window is
routed directly to the game's
controls. I type "left" in the chat window,
Red takes a step to the left. Problem is, if any one of the several thousand
people also watching this game type "right" he takes a step to the
right.
So
what was once the story of a spunky up-and-coming Pokemon master becomes the
tale of a child possessed by a hundred thousand souls all desperately clawing
for control over his mind and body. This is Twitch Plays
Pokémon.
Sounds fun!
When I looked up
this stat, TPP had:
120,000 Simultaneous
participants.
19 million unique
views.
Although the
emulator mimics the game perfectly, the opensource control mechanics transform
the game into something wildly different. There are only a few controls (D-Pad,
A, B, Start, Select) but since there are thousands
and thousands of people entering them simultaneously, our little
protagonist Red looks like a seizure ward's annual disco ball and strobe light
festival. He goes up, down, start menu,
tries to use an unusable item, tries to use an unusable item , tries to use an
unusable item, goes left, goes down, goes right, ad infinitum.
Every
command entered is streamed in a queue into the emulator. The number of
commands and a 40 second delay before your typed command hits the screen makes
trying to consciously control Red comparable to trying to type an article by
throwing paper airplanes at a keyboard in
30 mile an hour winds. But if you have
enough paper airplanes… Indeed, perhaps the most common metaphor applied to
Twitch Plays Pokémon is the infinite
Shakespeare monkeys and their literary designs.
It's interesting to
see the difficulty of various tasks be inverted. Finding the time to level up
your Pokemon becomes irrelevant when there are thousands of people playing,
literally 24/7. Conversely, incredibly trivial tasks became insanely difficult obstacles. With the chaos of inputs, just getting Red
to go in the right direction was difficult. If the right direction includes
more than one turn or a path along a ledge, insanely difficult becomes
nigh-impossible. For example, in front
of one gym right above a ledge, TPP spent 24 consecutive hours trying to walk into a building.
They spent so much
time accidentally jumping down ledges that they had just spent 6 hours climbing
up, that some began to wonder if Red had found a new life purpose. As one fan
wrote in a parody letter to Prof Oak:
“Dear Oak, Its been 3 days since i
started this journey. And you know what? Screw becoming a pokemon master. I am
going to be ledge jumping master. I been training 8 hour a day. send my love to
mom. signed Red Ledge jumper.”
To counteract the
randomness, the amassed thousands organized themselves. They made websites with
strawpolls about major decisions, made a google-doc[1] to announce the current goal and record their stats,
outlining plans for navigating the complex challenges of walking, fighting
battles, and catching pokemon[2].
They even made their own subreddit. The
spontaneous order had a surprising effect on the game.
Not only did they
make significant-- and frankly astounding-- progress, the quirks and oddities
of the game took on a life of their own in the memes of the fan pages. Their
starter, a charmeleon named "ABBBBBBK (" they affectionately
nicknamed "Abby" while a rattata named "JLVWNNOOOO" was
dubbed "Jay Leno". The start
menu opened and closed constantly, and one random item, the Helix Fossil, was
checked so much that players decided Red must be consulting the Helix for
guidance. Soon they were convinced that Red was on a quest to resurrect the
fossilized god Helix, and to triumph over the evil dark Dome fossil.
But this being the
internet, not everyone wanted Red to progress. On top of the randomness
element, TPP had to fight against trolls who would willingly sabotage any
current goal. So if Red had to walk along a long edge for 10 or 15 steps, all
it took was for one troll to manage a "down" command, and a hundred
thousand people would scream in agony as they watched Red jump a ledge and
destroy hours of effort. To a troll, enraging an audience of thousands on a
livestream game with a single button input is the scent of sweet lamb's blood
on the morning breeze. Some people just want to watch the world burn.
But as bad as the
trolls were, the pure randomness was worse. At the PC, the players accidentally
released Abby, their starter pokemon, and Jay Leno, never to return (releasing
your starter pokemon is something you should never EVER do). This past Sunday
was named "Bloody Sunday" when they accidentally released 12 pokemon, several of them high-leveled.
At one point, they
had reached a section of the game where they could not progress without
precision movement, and the designer introduced a new mechanic
"Democracy", where the responses would be summed up every 10 seconds
or so, and the most popular would be followed. Many players rebelled at this
mid-game change, interfering with the goal or typing "start9" which
would open the start menu nine times in a row.
So the designer tweaked the game again, allowing players to type in the chat to vote for "anarchy" (the original setup) or "democracy". When there was a 75% majority of one, it switched the control method.
So the designer tweaked the game again, allowing players to type in the chat to vote for "anarchy" (the original setup) or "democracy". When there was a 75% majority of one, it switched the control method.
As time went on, the
mythos and politics became more complicated, and the stakes higher. Anarchists
fought to uphold the purity of their traditional gameplay, and reviled against the new democracy, calling it
"Dome-ocracy" (i.e. pertaining to the evil Dome fossil). Democracists
maintained that slow and steady was necessary for sections requiring delicate
control. But it was so slow and a good deal more boring.
Factions divided by Anarchy/Democracy or different paths and game
choices got pretty riled up at times. Epics of governments
and rebellion, religion and destiny were enacted in the following of the Helix
fossil. Here is one of my favorites: the story false prophet Eevee, as told by a player:
In order to
progress we needed a Pokémon that can learn surf. We had 5 of our 6 Pokémon
slots full, so if we bought, caught, or obtained a Pokémon, it would go into
that sixth slot. Eevee if evolved into Vaporeon works. Or we could be given
Lapras which works. Or they could catch a Pokémon which is super hard to
coordinate with 70k users. If eevee evolved into a non surf learning pokemon,
we'd have to go to the pokemon PC to get a surf pokemon out of storage. We
picked Eevee, evolved it into the flareon, tried to go to the box, and released
two of our pokemon, including a starter, and deposited the helix fossil, which
is being revered as a sort of God. If we didn't go with Eevee, we may still
have our two released pokemon and our God. Instead, the false prophet killed
them.
Pasted from <http://cheezburger.com/196869>
Wow. Just wow.
Saturday morning,
around 5am,
after 16d 7h 45m 30s, the collective hive mind
finally defeated the Final Four, and beat the game.
[2]
Hello everyone!
I want to post about books today (and kids, of course). You see, I went to the library today to pick up some children's books I had on hold. They were all books I had never read before, and I was pretty excited. I had very high hopes of using them for my weekly lesson plan. Some delivered, others did not. This led me to wonder: What makes a good children's book?
A while ago Dad and I had a discussion about some of his ideas for potential children's books. Since then, I've been paying a lot of attention to the reading interactions that take place in my classroom. I must admit that many of the books that I loved myself, my class was less than thrilled over (until I read the book to them so many times that they actually started to enjoy it. Turns out the dynamics of pressuring work differently when it comes to teeny kids...) It is also true that many books I found merely okay, they absolutely loved. I'm sure we're all familiar with some of the reading techniques that work, and I truly believe that a good reading can make a less than stellar book interesting and engaging for children (the opposite being true as well). But what aspects in a book facilitate this process?
Two things I think are important (based solely on anecdotal experience):
Relatability to characters/accessibility of story--The reader (or listener/audience) has to be able to connect with the story on some level. One of the books I checked out from the library failed in this category. The girl in the story was worrying about boys and what to do with her hair, but she was supposed to early elementary school age....? Age and interests are very important. One of the books I didn't expect my kids to like (Harriet You'll Drive Me Wild), they ended up absolutely loving because they could relate to the story of a young girl always getting in trouble with adults.
Some element of interaction-- Not all books have this built in. Often, it's the job of the reader to find ways to engage the listeners in the story. But books do make this easier or harder. Good examples are books that have open questions (Brown Bear, Brown Bear) or follow recognizable patterns (We're Going on a Bear Hunt) that allow kids to chime in. Also, books that have the kids interact physically with the story by copying movements (From Head to Toe) or simply lifting flaps.
There are lots of other factors that are important for the story (matching length and attention span, rhythm and rhyme, etc), not to mention the illustration (I'm not even touching on that). So what do you guys think? What is a picture book you really enjoyed from your childhood (or adulthood)? What did/do you like about it?
I want to post about books today (and kids, of course). You see, I went to the library today to pick up some children's books I had on hold. They were all books I had never read before, and I was pretty excited. I had very high hopes of using them for my weekly lesson plan. Some delivered, others did not. This led me to wonder: What makes a good children's book?
A while ago Dad and I had a discussion about some of his ideas for potential children's books. Since then, I've been paying a lot of attention to the reading interactions that take place in my classroom. I must admit that many of the books that I loved myself, my class was less than thrilled over (until I read the book to them so many times that they actually started to enjoy it. Turns out the dynamics of pressuring work differently when it comes to teeny kids...) It is also true that many books I found merely okay, they absolutely loved. I'm sure we're all familiar with some of the reading techniques that work, and I truly believe that a good reading can make a less than stellar book interesting and engaging for children (the opposite being true as well). But what aspects in a book facilitate this process?
Two things I think are important (based solely on anecdotal experience):
Relatability to characters/accessibility of story--The reader (or listener/audience) has to be able to connect with the story on some level. One of the books I checked out from the library failed in this category. The girl in the story was worrying about boys and what to do with her hair, but she was supposed to early elementary school age....? Age and interests are very important. One of the books I didn't expect my kids to like (Harriet You'll Drive Me Wild), they ended up absolutely loving because they could relate to the story of a young girl always getting in trouble with adults.
Some element of interaction-- Not all books have this built in. Often, it's the job of the reader to find ways to engage the listeners in the story. But books do make this easier or harder. Good examples are books that have open questions (Brown Bear, Brown Bear) or follow recognizable patterns (We're Going on a Bear Hunt) that allow kids to chime in. Also, books that have the kids interact physically with the story by copying movements (From Head to Toe) or simply lifting flaps.
There are lots of other factors that are important for the story (matching length and attention span, rhythm and rhyme, etc), not to mention the illustration (I'm not even touching on that). So what do you guys think? What is a picture book you really enjoyed from your childhood (or adulthood)? What did/do you like about it?
Sunday, February 23, 2014
A Blog Post
We just judged everyone's blog post style today and I learned mine is rambling. I didn't know this before...but okay, I'll own it. This post should excel at rambling!
In case you weren't part of this conversation (or don't remember it) Joseph was adjudged to primarily write about human behavior, Andrew writes about biology--primarily animals, Ruth: two year olds and Chicago weather, Richard--words, and me rambling.
I prefer "writes about wide and varied topics with great passion and clarity" but whatever. :)
Ruth spent the weekend here! Thanks Ruth!
In other news...lots of stuff is happening and I've probably rambled enough.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Halibut
Hello once again people.
So I had a nice surprise yesterday/today. I got a call yesterday about an interview at Whole Foods to be one of their seafood team members. I became excited, because if there is a place I would want to work at with seafood, it would be Whole Foods, because they are very focused on sustainable seafood. This is very important because seafood is tasty, and as such tends to be over-exploited. I had the interview today, and I'm having another interview on Thursday.
The interview went very well today. I talked about how I liked salmon and about how passionate I am about sustainable fishing and harvesting practices, learned that they smoke their fish in house (so I'll probably learn how to do that if I get this job).
But I didn't write this post just to talk about my interview. While walking in I noticed that they had a sale on halibut. This post is going to be about this flatfish.
Halibut is a right-eyed flounder, which means that it's face is on the right side of its head. It consists of several species, some who are officially named halibut (Atlantic halibut, Pacific halibut, spotted halibut) and some named flounder (California flounder, olive flounder, etc.). Their name comes from their popularity as food for Catholic holy days, 'hali' coming from 'holy' and 'but' coming from 'butt', not just the posterior but the meaning as 'a flatfish.' They can get real big, the record (awaiting confirmation) being 515 pounds and 9 feet long. That's a big fish.
As flatfish, you wouldn't expect them to be near the top of the food chain in their habitats, but they are. They eat pretty much anything they can fit in their mouth, and their predators are such beasts as sea lions, killer whales, and salmon sharks.
Halibut are popular for eating because they have a nice but not overpowering flavor, are dense and moist, and you can get four fillets out of one fish. They are so popular that the Atlantic halibut is being considered as a candidate for an endangered species listing, due to overfishing.
 |
| Atlantic Halibut, Hippoglossus hippoglossus |
Monday, February 17, 2014
Communication - Me and You too!
How have I never put this word in here? I feel like it defines what I am trying to do!
Communicate -
- to convey knowledge of or information about : make known
-to get someone to understand your thoughts or feelings
Latin communicatus, past participle of communicare to impart, participate, from communis common
- Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online
First Known Use: 1526
Communicate -
- to convey knowledge of or information about : make known
-to get someone to understand your thoughts or feelings
Latin communicatus, past participle of communicare to impart, participate, from communis common
- Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online
First Known Use: 1526
So, insight of the word:
Does this comic show communication? Why, or why not?
What is communication by your view?
(And if you can be funny about it --> double points and chocolate brownies)
Love you all!
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