On mid-terms

Hi guys. So we have mid-terms tomorrow and I thought I'd share my answers for the questions provided. Please have a look, and if you spot any errors lemme know (in particular some answers are marked "check" and I'm not quite sure of those). Bon appetit:

MCQ (15 questions; 10 from below, 5 unannounced. 2 points each for total of 30 points)

·        What was Napster and when was it launched? Peer to peer file sharing site (focused on audio files); started in 1999.
·        Where did he come up with the name Project Xanadu? Place name in Mongolia. Taken from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "Kublai Khan".
·        The first real network to run on packet switching technology: Arpanet.
·        What was the very first webpage about? Information on the WWW Project.
·        What is the first webmail service launched in 1996? Hotmail (but not the first ONE OF the first).
·        Which year was As We May Think released in the Atlantic Monthly? July 1945.
·        What is the popular file format to share songs and albums via the Internet? Mp3.
·        When was Wikipedia launched? 2001.
·        Facebook’s original name and target in 2004? The Facebook; Harvard students.
·        What is the Twitter Fail Whale? The image (character) displayed when Twitter experiences an outage or error.
·        What is Derp? A meme used to indicate something silly, dumb or stupid.
·        What does www stand for? World wide web.
·        Besides the mouse, what other devices did Engelbert consider for interfacing with the computer? Touchscreens and light pens.
·        Tim-Berners Lee created the www. True or False? True (with Robert Cailliau).
·        Does flickr allow you to upload photos from your phone? Yes.
·        Name 3 things Engelbart invented. Mouse, shared-screen teleconferencing, windows (more available).
·        Who coined terms such as hypertext and hypermedia? Ted Nelson.
·        When was the first computer mouse prototype released? 1963.
·        Mentally compare and contrast Facebook and Twitter and give 1 example of a difference. (open question; own opinion supported by evidence)
·        If the hashtag number for Daily Shoot is 665, how would you tag this to Twitter? @dailyshoot #ds665 (optional: Photo description) shortened link to photo.
·        When was the year that brought the first unsolicited commercial email message (spam)? 1978.
·        You can message someone on Twitter by putting what before their username? @.
·        Who created the idea of the Memex? Vannevar Bush.
·        Which is the first modern emoticon in 1982? X-).
·        In 1971 Ray Tomlinson first developed what? Email on Arpanet.
·        Google went live in which year? 1997 (domain name registered. Check).
·        Who had the first video conference? Doug Engelbart (check).
·        What does NLS mean? oN-Line System.
·        Who allegedly claimed to have invented the Internet but obviously didn’t? Me (bad question; anyone known is technically a right answer).
·        Who designed the first automatic computing engine? Alan Turing.
·        Which words make up the name Memex? Memory and Index.
·        Ted Nelson’s first attempt (Project Xanadu) on implementation began and was successfully released to the world in 1960. True or False? False.
·        Anyone can suggest their idea for Daily Shoot assignments on Daily Shoot. True or False? True (check).
·        What was Twitter originally going to be called? twttr (this is not one of the provided answers; I believe the choices have a typo).
·        What is the top of the Memex? Transparent platen (check).

BLOG POST (20 points):
·        Embed YouTube video via html (not Blogger’s shortcut method).
·        CC licensed (“share alike”) Flickr image with attribution.
·        Link to 3 other related blogs.
·        2 or 3 paragraphs on topic.
·        Topic provided during exam.

Also, it's dangerous to go alone so you can refer to Justin and Rimi's posts on a similar topic. Good luck. :)

I choose you

ds106 assignment on Messing with the MacGuffin.

Pokemon. Serious business.

UPDATE: Gonna talk a bit on my process here. So I was looking around ds106 for interesting assignments and I was attracted to this particular one because of a very interesting earlier submission.

One of the reasons I figured the thing worked though, was because it specifically drew on a movie that was really popular and that virtually "everyone" would recognise; the laugh is not only in putting new lines on pictures but also about having the original mood of the scene juxtaposed with your new work in the viewer's head.

It's with these concerns in mind that I worked on my own submission for the assignment, firstly looking through most of the past submissions to see what well-known franchises were already covered and trying to do something that had not (The Matrix). While looking through Google images for an appropriate picture I managed to stumble upon the one above, which I thought evoked enough of the "I know what this is from!" vibe while at the same time being ambiguous and strongly emotive enough to reappropriate.

Ironically with another well-known franchise: Pokemon. :P

On triple trolling

ds106's Triple Troll Attack assignment.

Photo: Ronald McDonald
Quote: KFC
Signature: Burger King

So. Who's up for some pizza?

UPDATE: A little bit on my thought processes for this work. So basically one of the key elements that makes for an interesting submission here I think, draws from the fact that you're trying to relate the 3 photo, quote and signature elements together somehow with something that draws them all together. Thinking about it though it's most effective when that connection becomes quite obvious and not too "loose" as to seem arbitrary, which is what IAmOdessa does in a submission that is quite different thematically, but which shares the same concerns, I think.

In this way the draw for my work above, or so I hope, is that one is able to laugh just a little harder seeing not only the disparate elements put together, but simultaneously how they jar with each other in terms of the accepted differences between various fast food chains.

On 4 icons

My 4 Icon Challenge submission for ds106.
What movie???

...

Aaand the answer:

Here's the How:

1. Think of 4 images/concepts as per the assignment (in this case a visual "X", "Man", a Nazi swastika referencing WWII, and a mushroom cloud to reference the clash between the main characters Professor X and Magneto).
2. Search for suitable images on Google images (keywords "male toilet sign", "nazi swatika", "mushroom cloud"; the "X" was made easily enough :P). Images provided below.
3. Put images together on Photoshop (but any image editing software will do).
4. On Photoshop, just for style, turn all images into silhouettes. Alternatively people can just add the word "silhouettes" to their Google image search to find more suitable images that do not require editing.
5. Submit. :D

Images from Google image search.

The planet

A second take on minimalist travel posters, this time based on The Planet of the Apes, because I occasionally check Apple Trailers and the new entry in the series keeps popping up.

Here's the how-to:

1. First, think of a location that would have sufficient cultural recognition and that can be simplified into a minimalistic image. Little point (or at least less) in referencing something that no one can recognise. For me, I found it easier to work off of sci-fi or fantasy movies for this purpose, probably because these movies also have to introduce you to the fictional locale the stuff takes place in, on top of telling the story as was the case here, or so I would think. Doesn't mean you have to go sci-fi/fantasy, but it probably makes your job easier.
2. Tagline brainstorming. This was just to accent the poster and is totally unnecessary, but I think it helps make the poster both memorable and possibly funny.
3. Searching for appropriate reference images on Google image search ("earth" and "gorillas" in this case).
4. Drawing out the silhouettes on Photoshop. You don't need 1337 skillz for this. Basically what you wanna do is copy a photo of something from Google etc., open up Photoshop, create a new layer above your copied image and using the brush tool paint over your desired object. It's basically tracing (colouring in the lines) and requires no real drawing skill. This only works for silhouettes though. :P
5. Making random small circles for stars. Like, seriously. All the background portion is is different-sized circles and a gradient. Minimalist is the word. :D
6. Doing a free fonts search for Planet of the Apes :P. Found. Installed on computer and tweaked a little. If you need help on installing fonts I've got a little walkthrough here.
7. Submit. :D Click. Button. On your mouse, use your finger and click the lef-..okay just kidding :P I'm sure we've got that part covered. Right? RIGHT??

Welcome

My take on ds106's Minimalist travel poster assignment. In response to this guy.

The poster references 300, specifically this scene:

But actually I kinda had the scene on the brain a little before that, having recently discovered the "This is Sparta!" meme.

Process:

1. Think of a location that would have sufficient cultural recognition and that can be simplified into a minimalistic image.
2. Tagline brainstorming.
3. Searching for appropriate reference images on Google image search ("looking down" and "kicking" in this case).
4. Drawing out the silhouettes on Photoshop.
5. Submit. :D

On motion typography

This is fairly unrelated to anything else, but I usually use YouTube when working on the computer these days. No, not to watch videos (although there is that), but actually to create, add to and listen to music off my YouTube playlist. You should try it sometime, there are even audio books up there so go check it out.

And welcome back. See, I'm not really here to pitch audio books today. I'm here to talk about a thing called motion typography (sometimes known as kinetic typography, but you and I both know that those are two words meaning the same thing...right?). It's basically moving text that accompanies a line, phrase or speech and apparently originates in the fields of advertising and film. And speaking of film..

So what do you think? I think it's pretty cool, and even cooler that it actually shows you less than what the original scenario came with (only the original audio), but has an equally impacting effect. Thing is, with modern programs and sites like YouTube this has really opened up the realm of motion typography in recent years to just about anyone so even if motion typography wasn't originally intended in a movie scene at all, that doesn't mean that fans have to sit still and be good for Christmas (see: Fan-made motion typography video to an anime opening theme, below):

So what does this all mean, what does it signify? Well...actually I just wrote this post because I came across this video on my YouTube top page first; a simple breakdown of the Sony PlayStation logo that someone did:

I thought it was pretty cool (maybe even better than Sony's own startup animation), but it also reminded me of the whole motion typography thing which I had come across a few years before. Just thought I'd share the awesome.