Field Of Memes

I like secure websites. I like my data being kept under lock and key. I like having to jump through a few hoops to get to where I want to go, especially when I’m dealing with money, government, or employment. These are parts of my life I need to keep secure - for personal reasons and also out of fear of identity theft. I have no problem with security measures being in place at websites I visit.

BUT.

When I’m using the del.icio.us plugin for Firefox, it’s because I want the one-click add-to-favourites functionality it offers. I want to install it, and then be able to forget about it - it should become an example of invisible, ubiquitous computing, which sits there quietly, does its job, and makes my life easier.

It should NOT, every 2 weeks, log me out of del.icio.us and make me log in again just to add a bloody bookmark! I’m sorry, but the content we store in del.icio.us is designed for social networking - designed for sharing - unlike, say, my bank account balance or Medicare number. It does not provide much personal information - unlike, say, a Facebook account.

What is it about del.icio.us that it thinks it needs to be hyper-vigilant and paranoid about who’s using my computer? Why doesn’t it allow me to choose what level of security I want to use? Why must I be disrupted before I even get to add my new bookmark?

Why does del.icio.us make me jump through such hoops in order to use a service which is supposed to make my life EASIER???

I’m pleased to say that there are instructions on how to follow the Whedonverse on Twitter.  Oz and I only come third on the list of instructions, but that’s the sad fate of the famous person’s best friend, we just aren’t as important as the main character!  It still gives me a giggle and some glee to see that people are really enjoying the Willow role-playing which is giving ME so much enjoyment too.

Especially since in a day or two I get to play Evil Willow.  Bloody BRILLIANT.  Can’t wait to flesh out some backstory to her character.  It’s the detail that we all create in our minds from these standalone episodes, which we now get to play with in a collaborative supportive fashion.  Is this what creative people feel like all the time?  And here I’ve been spending all my time on analysis and documentation.  More fool me!

I am pleased to report though that I have no spreadsheet for managing my Willow account and updates.  There is a limit to what the analyst does.

…sounding like the Twitter fanatics I was so disappointed in over the #Mumbai and Mumbai (yes, they are different things) experience on Twitter.  That’s the problem with bite-sized nuggets of information - they’re too easy to quote!

What I would have LIKED them to quote would have been the entire discussion between myself and gyokusai:

—–

@malbonster agree - #mumbai is not a city under attack as much as it’s a social media experiment in action. strange… 12:05 PM Nov 27th from TweetGrid in reply to malbonster

@naomieve Oh and “#Mumbai is not a city under attack as much as it is a social media experiment in action” is one bold & daring proposition! 12:10 PM yesterday from twhirl in reply to naomieve

@gyokusai that’s the experience on Twitter - for every “oh god my sister is in that hotel”, there’s one “Twitter is beating CNN! Yay us!” 12:14 PM yesterday from web in reply to gyokusai

@gyokusai Twitter’s so self-referential and self-reverential, we’re proud of our response before being horrified by what we’re respondingto. 12:15 PM yesterday from web in reply to gyokusai

@gyokusai End result is #mumbai is a media experiment while mumbai is the city under attack that Twitter half the time forgets is bleeding. 12:16 PM yesterday from web in reply to gyokusai

@naomieve I couldn’t agree less. That’s part of it why it’s so bold & daring! & about as vertiginously postmodern as it’s ever going to get. 12:23 PM yesterday from twhirl in reply to naomieve

@gyokusai it’s all understandable in a way - these r early days on T, and it’s amazing what it’s capableof - but the sensitivity is lacking. 12:17 PM yesterday from web in reply to gyokusai

@gyokusai I agree - bold, daring, and def pomo - but do you find it disconcerting/disappointing that half the tweets are selfcongratulatory? 12:46 PM yesterday from web in reply to gyokusai

@naomieve I don’t know yet, honest. I can’t think straight right now. 12:50 PM yesterday from twhirl in reply to naomieve

*thinking more* i’m prolly being 2 harsh on Twitter.the selfcongrat wouldve been less irritating if itweren’t over such a horrific situation 1:05 PM yesterday from web

—

But it doesn’t read as well as 160chars or less, does it!

Anyway, I posted comments @ CNN and wherever else I found myself quoted to say the following:

—

I am the Twitter user naomieve referred to in the article. I would like to provide some context around the tweet quoted by CNN.com. The tweet Stephanie Busari refers to was NOT supposed to promote the social media aspects over the realities of what was happening to Mumbai.

I actually expanded further on this tweet to argue why I was disappointed that the focus of many tweets regarding Mumbai was to congratulate social media and Twitter for being faster on the uptake than traditional media.

I go on to expand on this in a discussion with Twitter user gyokusai where I say “#mumbai is a media experiment while mumbai is the city under attack that Twitter half the time forgets is bleeding”. That is - the Mumbai experience on Twitter is half genuine citizen journalism in action, and half self-congratulatory social media participants just happy to see a lot of publicity for Twitter regardless of the actual situation on the ground.

It is precisely that mix of content which was disturbing me at the time. Unfortunately that is also the reality of citizen journalism, the Twitter experience, social media - the whole online experience of no quality control or central control over the message to be delivered. I still believe Twitter is a crucial tool for circulating information, from, among and to the people who are in that moment and hoping for a happy ending. But I was and still am upset that users are more interested in what the Mumbai horror meant for Twitter, than what it meant for humanity. Unfortunately, for all the Twitter fanatics may like to argue, the two are NOT identical!

—

It could probably have been better if I had edited and re-edited that letter over a few hours to really streamline my message, but, I am just trying to quickly combat the perception that I’m more enthralled by social media than I’m horrified by wholescale murder and inhumanity.

Of course I may also be writing myself OUT of a job offer from Twitter as a Professional Proselytiser, but I think the chances of that are pretty slim, don’t you?

Twitter joy is when I hop on for 2 seconds while at work, see that a fellow web design twit is bemoaning his accessibility task, and join in the moaning with my own sorrows born from my own accessibility frustration.

A couple of quick bitter exchanges with a veritable stranger can be so satisfying.

And incidentally, I am convinced there is something in the water (did you know it was Flavor Aid and not Kool Aid which was used at Jonestown?) over at the WCAG headquarters.  And I’m not above charging in there with water purification kits to try and save the world.

Nightmare ends for teacher in pop-porn case - web - Technology - theage.com.au.

About time too.  This poor person was a substitute teacher for one period, and porn popped up on her computer after the KIDS did something on it.  She went to get help to get the problem fixed, and ended up being convicted on charges that could have put her away for 40 years.  She had tonnes of support from the tech community for her argument that it wasn’t her actions which led to the pop-ups - in all likelihood it was malware.

But for the last year or two she has been heading around and around the courts, trying to get her name cleared and avoid being locked up for decades.  She was an easy target, an easy conviction for the government/law community to say - see, we’re tough on porn! We’re thinking of the children! We are zero tolerance! - and her conviction was a miscarriage of justice.  Justice was a two-headed furry creature with its belly protruding out its navel.

Glad to see it’s had some restorative surgery, and she’s now just down a $100 fine.  Oh yes - and down a career.  She can no longer teach.

Meanwhile, I hope the school upgrades its security to actually receive updates from Symantec for the anti-pornware component, so that, you know, porn CAN’T just appear on a teacher’s screen and have them banned from their career for life.  Or have them threatened with 40 years jail.  Or cost them 1 red penny.

“We think http://www.fieldofmemes.com is written by a man (82%).”

GenderAnalyzer - Determine if a homepage is written by a man or woman.

Stupidheads, the AI didn’t think to just look at the photo of me.

Interestingly, 47% of respondents to their poll report that GenderAnalyzer got it wrong. So at least I’m not alone.

But let’s have a close look at my blog and try to find out why it thought I was male:

• I write about technology.  Maybe the majority of tech-related blogs are written by men.
• I swear.  I called Cicero a bitch.  Then I said “fucking”.  Maybe blogs written by men are more likely to include swear words than those written by women.
• I use big words, big sentences, complex phrase constructions (when I can be arsed) (oops, there’s another swear word), and seem to understand English.  Maybe men are more likely to write professional or academic blogs, where this kind of language is used.

But in fact, I don’t think it had anything to do with any of that.

No, the only reason it thought I was a boy, was:

I write “World of Warcraft”.  And I contracted it correctly - WoW.

Big fuss brews over LittleBigPlanet - Articles - Games - Digital Life.

Obviously I’ve missed the blogging boat on this topic, but that doesn’t bother me - I don’t play LittleBigPlanet, I haven’t seen the interfaces or the levels, and I don’t need to have a voice on this precise topic.  But I think there’s more to this story, the bigger picture, the concept of gamer-created content.

Being a Will Wright fan, I of course am immediately thinking of custom content in The Sims 2.  What has been the experience here?  There are hundreds of websites where Sims fanatics can download (sometimes for a cost) customised items which can be loaded into the game and played with just like any other piece of in-game merchandise.  The difference here is that the game is not networked, so EA have no way of knowing what people are downloading and installing into their games.  BUT … think on this: in general, EA has been very supportive of GCC.  It solves a lot of their problems - how do you keep players fixated on your game?  Make it even more interactive!  How do you cut costs on game updates?  Make the players create their own updates!  You’d have to be a fool to think that the concept of GCC for The Sims 2 was an accidental byproduct of a totally innocent game design - no, I believe this was very clever strategy on EA’s part.  So they turn a blind eye, and become one of the most popular (or is it THE most popular?) computer games in history.

Nifty.

How about Spore?  Are we going to see players’ cleverly designed characters, buildings and vehicles deleted from the Spore website as they could be thought of as breaching intellectual property laws?  Again, deafening silence from EA since they brought out Spore a few months ago.  And the amount of GCC generated has been IMMENSE - you can’t tell me that there isn’t a single case of IP infringement happening there!  Again, why does EA allow this?  Let’s count them together, children: 1. Increased player buy-in through increased interactivity.  2. Reduction in long-term update requirements as players create the content themselves.

Peachy.

Here’s an interesting one.  How about World of Warcraft?  NO user-generated content.  Except maybe for tabard designs (feel free to correct me there).  But WoW - like The Sims - has the sleekest, cleverest game design.  I have a sneaky suspicion that the gamers who are happiest with WoW fall into one of two camps.  Camp Bubblegum: we want something quick to load, easy to play casually, pretty to look at, and with no hard work to get it running.  Camp Dreadnought: we want something which we can get our teeth into, where we can strategise, where we can compete on all levels, and where we can develop our characters.  Spore is pretty much an arcade game, and part of The Sims’ popularity is precisely because of its design-your-world functionalities.  Both these games benefit from embellishments, and allowing players to create them saves the company money.  WoW is so detailed and complex that it seems to obviate the need for endless incremental design improvements.  Players are much more engrossed in their characters’ powers (nerf me, buff me, baby!) than their eye colours.  Only recently has there been talk about an update to allow characters to change hair styles.

Like, wow.

So when we see IP law being flung around (or has anyone seen any law? Or just silent censorship?) to defend deletion of GCC, we really have to wonder.  Why did they create a world of customisation, if they weren’t ready to turn a blind eye, or to create a horrible but effective review process?  Why encourage players to generate content if too often their buy-in is being rejected by the company?

Or as I too often find myself asking Sony, WHAT THE FUCK?

Random moments of joy from living in my newly purchased home - the “long-term” home:

1. Looking at real estate pages, and finding glee rather than panic in there being nothing good in my price range.
2. The feeling of spending weeks and months in someone’s high-end hotel suite.
3. Not having to plan my finances around “how will I save up my deposit?”
4. Not having to worry about plunging property prices - and finding more glee in knowing I don’t WANT to leave this home.

Of course there are mountains and piles of specific glee from the actual home itself.  But I think everyone out there who has bought a home will agree with the points above!

So, it hath arrived! I went to Myer yesterday after work (no, I couldn’t wait for the day to end) so I could pick up a brand spanking new white EEE 900HA PC.  To translate - it is white, it has a 160GB HDD, and it’s 9.1″ in size.  Everything else is standard netbook territory.  I’m not having a go with that comment - it’s actually quite soothing to know that there isn’t significant competition out there for my dollar, and that if I think I’ve found the best, it’s probably because it IS the best.

Did I mention that in my weighted scoring system, the 900HA came out at about 8.5, while the Dell Mini 9 was -2?  Word.

I charged it for about 4 hours then I cracked and started it up.  About 5 minutes of setting up Windows XP, then I was in and hacking around.  Connected it to the network and accessed my “Program Installation Files” directory on my desktop, and installed VLC, AVG, XMPlay, Freemind, and some other trusted favourites.  I went with XMPlay rather than Winamp because it’s apparently got a teeny tiny footprint.  I also left the default Windows firewall on because it’s easy.  Yes, easy.  This netbook is supposed to be about making my life easy.

I copied across all the music I wanted, some video files, my entire “Study” directory.  Enough to keep me occupied on train rides and in front of the TV downstairs.  The keyboard is small but not impossible, the screen the same.  I am 5 foot tall and under 80 pounds, so it’s like someone took a normal laptop and scaled it to size for me.  I even don’t mind the touchpad (something I normally HATE).  I am surprised by the simplicity of the beastie, really - I’m used to building a desktop from parts, and having that physically hefty set of components to interact with.  This computer that is the size of a paperback is just so damned surprising.

In fact, I need to think some more about how the form factor is influencing my perception, and how I’m adjusting from 17 years of desktop usage.

Okay so I couldn’t just commit to the Dell Mini 9 without re-investigating the EEE PC again.  And again.  And again.  I had decided to buy it 4 months ago, but the 9xx models (I wanted a semi-decent screen) were just too dear.  And then I decided to go with the Dell XPS M1530.  As is totally understandable!  Way more expensive, but at least there’s more bang for your buck.  But now that I’m thinking Mini 9 just because - you know - sexy - and affordable with my tax return, I knew the right thing to do was spreadsheet, spreadsheet, spreadsheet!!!

And the results were obvious.  The Acer and Dell may overlap slightly, but the 901 soared ahead - battery life, size and price kept winning out.  Then I see an ad from Myer announcing the 900HA.  $200 cheaper than the Dell, double the size of the closest HDD (80GB from the Acer), a 4 cell battery (better than a kick in the teeth), and the smallest footprint of all the Netbooks - albeit at 1.1kg.

Love, pure, unadorned, idealistic love.  So, of course they’re all sold out - why would I expect anything different? - BUT they will order one in for me.  Come next Wednesday or so, I expect my puter to be in at the store across the road from my house.  Hooray!

And I’d like to belive that my instinctive response of “I don’t care” to the “which colour?” question asked by the salesman, helped infinitesimally increase the standing of women in the geek community.