Seeing the sun shine on Melbourne in the last few days reminds me of my times in Queensland, sorry Victoria but they do the whole sunshine thing better up there!
Month: September 2014
Wk 9 Reading
Bell Curve vs Power Law
And here I was thinking that i’d never have to use Math in such a way once I left school . . . well I suppose I’m still at school so my point is still valid.
The main point that I get out of this reading is that Bell Curves relate to networks that are concrete, the example used in the reading is the roads and highways connecting the major cities of the USA. I’m assuming you all know what a bell curve is . . .
On the contrary to this, any network that isn’t concrete shows the Power Law, the example being the aeroplanes’ flight paths between any the cities. Each city is a node in the network and the major cities obviously have more paths in the air going straight to other cities then roads do.
So because the internet is regarded as lucid and not concrete in terms of its networking capabilities then there is a relation to that and the Power Law. Is this helpful? Well it helpful for those wanting to target mass audiences because then they know which nodes in the network they need to be on, advertisement would obviously benefit in this way. Heres a thought though, the internet is expanding and expanding all the time, each time a new node comes in those previous to it have the potential to get into the peaking 20% of nodes in the structure, but human knowledge can only go so far surely, does the placings of the nodes change if the growths stops or are the nodes still fluid? Especially in a network that isn’t concrete . . . who knows? not me . . .
Wk 9 Lecture
The main idea that I picked up from this lecture was the importance of audience in a network and a key defining point of what a network is. There was a big connection to ecology at the beginning of the talk; which makes sense because if you think about it an ecosystem is a network. All that grade 4 science is finally paying off!
I love that definition because I now have something that I know about and understand to juxtapose with something like the internet. It is interesting because now I see things from a different angle and I now have a deeper understanding about what it is I should be understanding in this course . . . I think.
This point is specifically about humans, and it is to do with the defining point I mentioned earlier. There is no important point in a network. This is made easier to understand in the example of our ecosystem, it is all a balancing act and if one thing is gone then it changes the whole system completely, even to the stage that it might collapse if we’re not too careful. This is contrary to many human beliefs though because, as humans we believe we are the centre of our own universe, which in fact we’re not. Therefor as humans it is hard to understand and therefor create something that is in fact a network because we are so wrapped up about the centre of things that generally we can’t comprehend the thought that there doesn’t have to be a centre. This is where the difficulty lies. . . I think.
This time Last year
Tis been a year since my travels had found me trekking across Australia in my kombi van . . . I came across many spectacular sights and I will share some with you as I reminisce, one each week to be precise so I may tick that little box marked ‘photo’ at the beginning of each tutorial.
You may not recognise it but this was taken when I was in Sydney.
Wk 8 Reading Reflection
This weeks reading was all about networks, and not just that which you could find on the internet or in media.
‘How is it that assembling a large collection of components results in something altogether different from just a disassociated collection of components?’
This reading got me thinking about what is a network specifically. An assembly of a large collections of components, does this mean that we as human beings are a network? We have several components that make us up, organs, bones, muscles etc. We are also apart of a bigger network know as a society. We know our power grid is a network, is our world a network? Are the planets that orbit our son apart of a network? Is our Galaxy apart of a network of Galaxies !!!
Is a network apart of everything we do and simply just how we function ? . . . some food for thought.
Wk 8 Lecture
Can something ever be neutral?
This discussion in this weeks lecture came up with examples of how nothing is neutral. Anything that people came up with always had a connection to one thing in way way or another. Well I guess it depends on what your definition of neutral is and what it is that is neutral from it. This discussion got me thinking . . .
I think that it is pointless for someone to find something neutral because if that someone can reference it in some way, it is not neutral. Does this mean that nothing is neutral though? No, as Socrates states – man knows nothing, a smart man knows he knows nothing. If something is completely neutral then we will never know of it because it is completely neutral, but just because we can’t or will never know at it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist . . .
once again though it depends on what context you are putting onto the word neutral. . . if it is in the context of existence then it can’t be neutral because it exists, but in other contexts it might be neutral. Lets take Switzerland in the war for example, they were neutral. Words mean what humans make them mean and by saying that Switzerland is neutral in terms of war efforts that is what neutral means in terms of war efforts. A party that doesn’t take either side and stays to themselves.
So, can specifically technologies be neutral? Can technology be an independent party that doesn’t take to anyone else’s side? Well no, not yet anyway, we could go into the whole artificial intelligence and everything but I digress. . . Technology is created by someone for someone, technology is a tool, to make a tool that doesn’t help anyone/anything is pointless and therefor not a tool.
Fairly philosophical post this week ^
Reading wk 7
Technological determinism.
This theory seems pretty self explanatory as the name states, technology determines the ways that humans exist within the world. It has some very good points and examples about how it is the case, for instance the creation of writing transformed the oral culture of humans into a literacy based one and that because of the creation of writing it has transformed the human consciousness. A fairly big statement but seeing as I wasn’t there when our race was predominantly oral based i can’t comment. Does technology determine everything though? I would be inclined to disagree, after all there must be someone who creates the technology. Thats why I would move to create another party in the theory. Technology is in the middle, below is the consumers of the technology who are very well determined by the technology, but then above the technology there are the creators of the technology who create it for one reason or the other. This is just another theory and i would be more then happy to agree that it is rather a big subject and the simplicity of all the theories in comparison don’t quite sum it up.
TMNT Reviewed
Ummm . . . yeah . . .
So went to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and well, lets just say the reviews didn’t disappoint. There were a fair few story plot holes which seemed a bit far fetched even in a universe where teenage mutant ninja turtles exist. The jokes seemed like they were forced; Michelangelo, who is meant to be the funny one, sounded more like and 50 yr old creepy old man rather then a teenager with his occasional comments. The turtles didn’t get enough screen time either for the move to be named after them because it was mostly about Megan Fox who, although she is quite attractive doesn’t resemble a turtle in anyway.
As a fan of the the original series I’m not a fan of the new movie.
Oh, and I still can’t do the whole 3D thing, it just hurts.
(this is me in the cinema . . . you’ll have to take my word for it)
Week 7 Lecture
We started off the lecture with the talk of semiotics and the connotations of context; and by ‘started off” I mean we spent half of the lecture talking about it. It all seems pretty straight forward – whenever we say something it has a context. This is pretty simple to understand in speech terms because we can sense a tone quite easily in a conversation, tones such as sarcasm when saying “I’m fine” – which changes the dictionary definition of the word. I suppose that it only makes sense then that there are contexts on other forms of communication. The author was a hot topic. The mainstream author normally has a specific story that he wants to tell and will put specific connotations that he understands, this however might be changed once the reader reads it with a different set of values and history etc., therefore the original context can’t survive, which is a very valid point.
Art has a personality of its own distant from the artist.
TMNT
This Thursday Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came out!
The child in me is super excited for this movie to come out because at the sprightly age of 7 I remember waking up at 6 in the morning to watch it on CheeseTV, wow thats going back.
Although I’m excited the reviews haven’t been that great and the main consensus is that Shredder (the main villain) doesn’t work and the characters need some developing.
Am I still going to see it ? Hell Yeah! . . . Will I enjoy it ? I will keep you posted . . . *Blog Pun*
Over and out.