Ethnography course
I just finished teaching a course in which the students did a research on representation and identity on family home pages; the final presentations are due this afternoon. Some of the home page authors reacted surprised that their website would be of interest to anyone, especially a researcher. Of course I know there are some people out there (occasionally) reading this weblog and it has been referenced as a "resource" in some course books, but I guess I feel the same kind of surprise as the home page authors in my students' research to find my site referenced on a page that appears to be part of a student assignment. (Hey Jill, you're in there too!) Curious too, to know what someone looking at the site with an analytic gaze, rather than someone here 'just' for the content, will read into my writings. So, feel free to drop me a line if you have a question about the site; I'd love to hear how the course is going :-)
Assignment or not, the page is part of a truly mouth watering course description: Ethnography of On-Line Role-Playing Games. The reading list looks solid and there are some articles I didn't know, so I guess those need to be added to my to-read-stack, which is actually two stacks, precariously balancing on the edge of my desk... I wish there had been a course like this one before I embarked on my own research.
Apr 4, 2003 @ 11:08 » no comments » Research
Late Y2k buglet
Oops... if you visit the Gamasutra website with Opera 6 or 7, you're assumed to be living in the second century AD. I don't mind really. My donkey powered generator provides enough power for my computer. I mind though, that Mozilla and IE users are treated preferentially, not just by a decade or two, but by almost two millennia!
Apr 7, 2003 @ 16:09 » no comments » General
More 103
Humbug. The lovely Unlimited Lives uses a browser sniffing javascript to display the current date on its website, but the script doesn't sniff anything other than Internet Explorer or Netscape, so if you use another browser, you're supposed to be living in the year 103. It's really just a minor thing, but it annoys me. So here are two ways to sidestep two-digit only year reporting and Y2k bugs:
Javascript
This is a little, non-browser sniffing script that works well for me:
function y2k(number) { return (number < 1000) ? number + 1900 : number; }
function getCorrectedYear(year) {
year = year - 0;
if (year < 70) return (2000 + year);
if (year < 1900) return (1900 + year);
return year;
}
var dateError = new Date(document.lastModified);
var date = new Date(getCorrectedYear(dateError.getYear()),dateError.getMonth(),dateError.getDate());
document.write(y2k(date.getYear()));
PHP
However, I find it much easier to use the PHP capabilities of my webserver, by using this little statement:
<-?-php putenv("TZ=Europe/Amsterdam"); echo date("Y"); -?->
(Note the extra inserted hyphens for keeping the server from executing)
Hope that helps :-)
Apr 9, 2003 @ 13:07 » no comments » General
Further Xbox price reduction
I thought the status quo in the console price (and market share) war would last a little longer, but Microsoft decided to stir things up a little. Tomorrow the European price for the Xbox will be 199 euro, down from 249 euro (Webwereld). Most deals you saw were for 299 euro, including either two or three games, or the Live pack and one or two games. I got my Xbox just after christmas last year for 299 euro, with three games and the DVD remote, still a good deal I think. PS2 was generally about 25 euro cheaper, but all deals included one less game than the Xbox deals. The GameCube could be had for less, obviously, and I saw a deal for 199 euro for a special edition black GameCube with Metroid Prime. So now MS drops the Xbox price, possibly too in preparation for the rumored slimmer Xbox with a translucent green case (with some extra features perhaps? An Xbox 1.5 on the road to the next iteration?). So it's going to be interesting to see what the Sony and Nintendo will do.
Apr 10, 2003 @ 14:05 » no comments » Games
Borges
This picture of Jorge Luis Borges appeared in the print version of de Volkskrant this morning and it sums up everything I love about photography but can't put in words. Click for larger image.
Apr 11, 2003 @ 09:28 » no comments » General
Wired interstitial advertising
I just tried to visit the Wired website and was presented with a HUGE "interstitial" Intel advertisement. Interstitial means that the advertisement takes up the whole screen, just like a commercial on TV, and you need to click to pass through to the real content of the website.
Only... I use Opera 7 and I have cookies, including session cookies, turned off for all websites. Result: I cannot, repeat CANNOT, access the main content on the Wired website.
Yeah, I know, some people think I'm sometimes too stubborn and too principled, but this has had the following two consequences so far: 1) I will do my utmost best to never ever again buy something that has anything manufactured by Intel in it and 2) I wrote an e-mail to Wired, using Mozilla to get past their obnoxious advertising:
Dear Wired,
The interstitial advertising I encountered on your website today, prevents Opera 6 and 7 from accessing the main content on your website.
I think this is counterproductive, very intrusive and should be fixed. Don't tell me to turn on cookies, because I won't. I don't mind advertising on your website, just as I don't mind it in the print version of the magazine, but I do mind that the advertising makes it impossible for me to access the content.
I trust you will fix this problem soon, otherwise I will have to have to stop visiting your website, ritually burn my complete-since-Issue-1.0 collection of Wired Magazine and refrain from ever buying another issue of your otherwise very enjoyable magazine.
Thank you very much and kind regards,
Frank Schaap.
Moral of this story: if you want to sell stuff, do make sure your mode of communication is appropriate AND technically sound, or you run the risk of creating the adverse effects. *grumble*mutter*
Apr 11, 2003 @ 14:55 » no comments » General
Splinter Cell
The most amazing thing... I just bought Splinter Cell and I'm blogging about it even before I've popped it into my Xbox. I really should get my priorities right, no?
Apr 12, 2003 @ 17:31 » no comments » Games
Hmm
Too many whiney posts about rather inconsequential details the past month or so. Probably hiding, expressing frustration about slow progress and writer's block by proxy. Time to practice more, find my textual voice(s).
Apr 14, 2003 @ 10:21 » 1 comment » General
Good music
Owen discovers Solex. Really, more people should discover the yummy quirkiness of Solex's music.
I don't have an iPod, but I do have a near-perfect album compilation CD in my MP3 cd-player; shuffle-play recommended for:
Fatal Flowers - Younger Days
Krezip - Nothing Less (another great Dutch band more people should discover!)
Madrugada - The Nightly Disease
Massive Attack - Blue Lines
Moby - Play
Morphine - Yes
Ryan Adams - Demolition
Solex - Low Kick & Hard Bop
US3 - An Ordinary Day in an Unusual Place
Apr 15, 2003 @ 18:55 » no comments » General
Interesting transportation
One of the first sunny and warm days of the year and I encountered two interesting vehicles on my way to and from work.
I don't know how it is where you live, but here we don't have custom number plates. Truck drivers however, often put custom number plates with the names of their wifes/girlfriends behind the windscreen of their truck. Today I saw a truck with such a number plate behind the windscreen and it read "Bachelor." The truck had two big tanks mounted on the back and the company lettering proclaimed in bold day-glo that they offered "The best chemical toilet cleaning service" in town.
Then, when I came out of the supermarket, I was almost run over by a pretty huge guy on an electric scooter (you know, the kind with a swiveling seat and a shopping basket on the front). This guy had outfitted his electric scooter with a soundsystem and he was playing Elvis songs. Very loud.
Apr 15, 2003 @ 19:14 » no comments » General
Speeding at 60 FPS
I was wondering whether my tv would support the Xbox's PAL60 video mode, which promises smoother gameplay for games that support it. Splinter Cell was literally giving me a headache last night, because lights and the OPSAT screens are so bright with respect to the otherwise rather dark surroundings of the first two levels.
As an aside and simplifying a bit, there basically are two tv video modes: PAL and NTSC. Europe and Japan use PAL and the USA uses NTSC (these are, according to arcane video-engineer lore, acronyms for Never The Same Color and Pay for Additional Luxury). PAL has a somewhat higher resolution than NTSC, but NTSC runs at 60 frames per second, while PAL only manages 50 FPS. The PAL60 mode is a sort of hybrid, in that it runs 60 FPS at PAL resolutions. If the video-card wars have taught us anything, it's that higher resolutions and higher refresh rates are an unmitigated good. When your tv supports PAL60 and the game does too, gameplay will be smoother.
The good news is that my tv supports PAL60, the bad news is that I see no real improvements in Splinter Cell, so the game probably doesn't support it. Interestingly though, Jet Set Radio Future suddenly speeds up a LOT when you enable PAL60. You whizz around like there is no tomorrow and if I'm not mistaken, you jump a lot further as well. Could be a nice trick to get past some particularly difficult part of the game. I don't think though, that the developers intended this behavior. In certain places the audio and the video are out of sync and sometimes the gameplay actually slows down, because so much has to happen so fast now, that apparently the processor can't keep up. It's a real adrenaline rush to suddenly grind up railings and power lines at a blistering 60 FPS :-)
Apr 16, 2003 @ 17:58 » no comments » Games
Floppy disk RAID
This is for geeks only: a guy managed to chain together five floppy disk drives into a striped RAID. He used a bondi-blue iMac, running OS X and five USB floppy drives. The floppy RAID provides him with a cool 3.9 MB of diskspace and allows him to copy a 3.6 MB MP3 file in only 32 seconds... 17 seconds when using double-speed floppy drives. (via Tweakers.net)
Apr 18, 2003 @ 10:53 » 1 comment » Tech
Not postmodern
Business card drawings by Hugh Macleod.
Apr 18, 2003 @ 11:50 » no comments » General
We need words
We do. Because people write the Net.
Apr 18, 2003 @ 15:18 » no comments » General
Bugger
So, finally I find someone who still has IE5/win on their computer and it turns out that IE5 messes up the navigation (both top and sidebar navigation) of the site. Bugger. It's not too bad though, still usable, but it ain't looking pretty. I'll get around to fixing that when I have some spare time (and by that time, probably everybody is using IE7, heh...)
Apr 20, 2003 @ 11:32 » no comments » Sitestuff
Opera downgrade
I have actually downgraded from Opera 7.10 back to Opera 7.03. It seems that the Opera 7.10 upgrade is mostly cosmetic changes to the interface and some work done on the integrated mail application (which I don't use anyway). According to the Change Log no life threatening security issues were addressed in this upgrade.
However, the upgrade contains a very annoying new bug. If I open a new window by shift-clicking a link and then scroll in the new window using the scroll button of my mouse, Opera will jump back to displaying the previous window.
Also, but this is a more personal issue, the interface somehow doesn't feel as intuitive anymore. The progress bar, for example, in the standard flashy-blue skin has been changed and it is way harder to quickly read it now. Actually, there are so many little things that have gone wrong with the standard skin, that I switched to the "standard windows" skin. This skin is better, but ultimately, the annoying scroll bug made me re-install Opera 7.03. I left an entry about it in the Opera bug report system.
Apr 21, 2003 @ 16:41 » no comments » Software
Otaku
In Japan, this is a negative label of one so obsessed with something that it interferes with normal life. This definition differs in America in that otaku often label themselves... and it is almost completely associated with obsessing about anime. Those who are otaku usually take pride in being otaku, much like geeks aknowledge [sic] their status and find it very entertaining (but of course _never_ like being called nerd, as nerd is a negaive [sic] term, even for geeks).
From this entry in the wonderful UrbanDictionary.
A very early Wired (1.1) ran a story about otaku, helping inject the term into the West's feverish image of a techploding 1980s Japan.
Apr 21, 2003 @ 19:49 » no comments » General
PR-otaku
PR-otaku, logging and annotating William Gibson's Pattern Recognition.
Worryingly, this sounds like a wonderful undertaking to me.
Apr 22, 2003 @ 10:30 » no comments » General
MovableType on the move
Whoa... that's great news. Ben and Mena, also known as Six Apart, the company that makes MovableType, are launching a hosted version of MovableType, called TypePad. No only that, they brought Anil Dash on board as VP of Business Developments. So Blogger gets bought by Google and now TypePad steps up as the new independent blogging service. Congrats Ben, Mena and Anil... and may you do many more great things for the blogosphere.
Apr 23, 2003 @ 22:03 » no comments » MovableType
Blogmatcher
Intriguing: Blogmatcher, read the FAQ if you're puzzled by that bare one line form (hint... it wants an URL!).
Apr 23, 2003 @ 23:16 » no comments » Blogosphere
Zersplittert: Aufrichtiges weblog selbstverständlich
With a big grin on my face I'm looking at Google's German translation of this website. There are some real gems in there, like the top navigation bar. Google thinks it's one sentence and translates it with:
Zersplittert die weblog - Cyberculturebetriebsmittel, die ungefähr geschrieben werden
The little description under "What?" in the sidebar gets mangled pretty good as well:
Aufrichtiges weblog selbstverständlich. Nicht ein ethnography aber ein Konto von Art irgendwie. Ich bin ein Kursteilnehmer von PhD an der Universität von Amsterdam und erforsche den Aufbau Identität und Geschlecht in den verschiedenen on-line-Klimas.
Apr 24, 2003 @ 11:39 » no comments » General
Password security
I was thinking about the sloppy network security at the university (shh!) and how, for a start, passwords might be made more secure. Of course you'd start with not allowing words in any dictionary, names and birth dates, and you'd require 8 or more characters, including lower case, capitals, numbers and keyboard symbols. You could for instance implement a password generator and some of those generate random passwords that are easy to pronounce, making them easier to remember. Then you'd force users to change their passwords every one to three months.
Now, your passwords would be difficult to crack, but also difficult to remember, so users start to write them down and tape them to the underside of their keyboards. So, I guess, unless you make (password) authentication easier to use (biometrics?), sysadmins for large organizations are going to be stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Apr 28, 2003 @ 11:45 » 1 comment » General
Gibson's blog
The last couple of months, the first thing I read online every day was William Gibson's weblog. Now Wired reports, after interviewing Gibson, that he's going to stop blogging in a few weeks. He thinks that the slow, fermentive process of writing a novel and the quick, slapshot writing of a blog don't go together. I'm going to miss reading his posts... but maybe blogging will prove to be addictive for Gibson too, and maybe he'll stick around for a while... maybe.
Apr 29, 2003 @ 11:02 » no comments » Blogosphere
Gaming coverage
Yesterday Slashdot announced the arrival of a special games and gaming focused section: games.slashdot.org. So far, the coverage has been pretty good, referring to quite a broad selection of sources. Today for instance, they refer to the G-Spy website, which provides a "Daypop Top News Stories" type of service; G-Spy scans some 40-odd games websites for news and presents it in a relevance ordered list.
Apr 30, 2003 @ 12:25 » no comments » Games
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