I get a real kick out of this artist’s web demos. Enjoy.
Category Archives: Culture
Buying Products of the Future
Would you pre-order a new smartphone, game console, or book from Amazon, B&N, or Apple? If so, such products by large organizations give you some assurance that they will deliver the products. There reputations proceed them.
So what if the product doesn’t currently exist, and your pre-order would pay for its production? What if the company behind the product is just an idea someone has? Well, you could become an investor with your pre-order of their products. That’s what Kickstarter does. It makes it possible for startups to reach the consumers first, and the investors follow.
If the product never reaches the market then you will get a refund. Think about that. The better ideas will get funding, and the poor ideas will be rejected by the consumers. This hasn’t been possible till now. Not like this.
And some craftsmen are given opportunities to produce that would never survive the development processes of larger corporations.
Opinion: Transformers 3
Transformers: Dark of the Moon is one of the few pop-culture driven movies that I wanted to see in theaters. I knew the special effects would be mind-blowing, as the previous two were. I usually enjoy the character of Sam Witwicky and some of the more intelligent Autobots. Still, part of me knew that I would not “like” the film before I saw it to review for Movieology. But why?
Since I had not previously had to think critically about the other two Transformers films, I enjoyed them as, for the most part, mindless joyrides of visual stimuli. Sure, I’m not a fan of the poor taste in objectifying women, crude humor, and outlandish plot contrivances, but there was still something to had in the films. They were amazing displays of imaginative creatures from deep reaches of the universe. Transformers’ transformations are some of the most creative ideas in kids’ action/adventures of the 20th century.
So why did I know that Transformers 3 simply wouldn’t be an objectively good film? I couldn’t say, honestly, till I had finished and was leaving the theater. The answer is simple: Michael Bay (the director) leaves the worldview of the movie inconsistent and wanting fulfillment. The post-modern caricatures don’t do justice for the film’s own worldview, in that by the end the heros rely on each other and their social norms. The chaos and random quality of the Transformers’ movie universe that escuses all forms of “don’t rely on culture” in the end has to appease a culture-driven audience.
If Bay wanted to write and direct a credible and compelling story, he would have, but that was not his goal. He has consistently dished out popcorn action, special effects, and confusing awkward/inappropriate humor in the place of good storytelling.
July Fourth Special Show
Searching for Meaning
Today I came across an abbreviation that I hadn’t seen before in a Facebook comment stream. This one peeked my interest because of the context, so I went over to Google (the search engine, y’know) and started to look up the abbreviation to learn what it stood for.
What I was looking up isn’t important—I’m not going to tell you—but what popped up in the Google drop down I thought was more interesting. Continue reading
Conforming Culture
People want it there way. Businesses try to give it to them. Then, when people change what they want, businesses are left in the lurch, so to speak. This happens in tech all the time, and has happened in big ways recently for some top companies. Apple was popular with the invention of the iPhone. The iPhone, to date, is still a modern marvel. Yet, techies (I am among a minority of techies, it seems) chose to move on from the development of the iPhone to the latest device on the block with all too many assumptions; one big one being what’s newest is best.
This is not to say iPhones are unpopular. They just aren’t popular with many PC loving tech geeks (PCLTGs). PCLTGs want to feel free to use “open” standards and know their apps are “unhinged.” They want liberation from Apple’s standards of a good app and a bad app. They think freedom for great products comes with no boundaries. Continue reading
Does Facebook Rules Live Up to Biblical Privacy Standards?
I have Christian friends that are concerned with the size and scope of Facebook. Facebook is viewed by these and other citizens as a menace waiting to unleash big brother tendencies. It is true that infringement on privacy is a concern, and one that people should uncover when organizations want to know your every move. Why does Facebook need to know where I live, where I hang out, what I do with my pictures, and…?
I’m not fond of my personal matter belonging to or being subject to such a large organization, either. It is counter-intuitive to let a massive organization dabble with my social and personal life. Still, some people are willing to get hot under the collar at Facebook. Why is it that we moralize the issue of privacy, as though privacy is a moral right? Is privacy a right, and if it is our right to do with it what we will, is it unlawful for others to overstep our privacy without our sanction? Continue reading
iPad vs Kindle Review by Tim Challies
Tim Challies is a good Canadian. I genuinely appreciate the consistency of his blog [link to his web site/blog] and frequent his it. I trust that you will check out his link.
Tim recently broke into the multimedia (video) scene with this review of the book reading experience on the Kindle and iPad.
Unlike wordy written reviews of these devices, Tim’s video review is a fresh visual perspective of the devices that shows the viewing audience real pros and cons, and not to mention that since the review is in video it doesn’t leave the functions of the devices to your imagination like written reviews with pictures. You get to see first hand accounts of the devices, and you can make a great judgment of the devices for yourself from just watching Tim’s video.
Speaking of reviews on video, I think Tim’s here was superbly done in taping and editing. My high regards are to those that are responsible for this seemingly simple video review. It is well executed.
Exercising Creativity
I have studied creativity the greater portion of my life. I’ve always wanted to understand what makes man-made things great—what makes something remarkable. Recently, I gathered a little more insight into what creativity is. What I learned was plain as the nose on my face, yet, I’d never truly understood it until now. Creativity is, in many ways, so overlooked in modern culture that guys like myself are not encouraged to develop a creative mind. But I want one! So I’m trying….
So, creativity comes by considering how you do an old task from a “new perspective” (If you didn’t know that, I trust you are not a creative professional). Towards that end, to form the “new perspective,” creativity is taking two great concepts that previously exist and merging them. Creativity is taking an iPod and marrying it to a smartphone; you have creatively designed iPhone as a result. Continue reading
Is Facebook Taking Over the Web?
The interwebs are constantly shifting as new companies, ideas, and technologies come on the scene and old ones fade into obscurity.
Over the last five years social networking websites have gone from a hobby for technophiles to the most visited sites on the internet. As of April ’09 American’s spent a combined 40,000 years of time each month on the top 10 social networks. This was a more than two fold increase from 1 year ago, so you can only imagine where that number stands today. Continue reading
