week 5 tute

ahh, well this week was the intro to photoshop, tho i'd never used photoshop before, i have briefly used paint shop pro, which is pretty similar, but has a few things i really like about it, tho now, going through one of the most basic tutorials on photoshop, i find it has some pretty handy features also, for example, the magnetic lasso is great, it makes selecting things within the image SO much easier than in PSP. im still having a little bit of trouble blending layers together in an image, say if i copy something from one image, and want to paste it onto another and blend it in so it looks natural, but i'm sure it'll come to me. All the basics are the same, zooming etc, selecting objects, moving them, editing colours and contrasts, and some of the different selection tools, and brush tools.

looking through some of the online tutorials, it looks like there is some amazing stuff out there, some crazy stuff you can do with it. if it's anything like PSP there should be plenty of plug-ins out there that do some cool stuff also. I guess i just didnt like photoshop to begin with because it was a little more complicated at first, and PSP did most of the stuff i wanted, but after actually playing around with it, its not too difficult, and it's basically the industry standerd for graphic design etc.. so i might as well get to know it.

on the other hand, how can you distinguish whats real and isnt? being able to manipulate an image and basically do ANYTHING to it. sometime's it's hard to tell the difference with the digital editing being so good. poses an interesting question...

essay ideas

Start off with a brief history of the internet, and the hacker, and why they hack.

Manifesto. Ethics etc.

2 types of hackers, ones that hack for good purposes, and the others which hack and create malicious virus’s etc. they basically want to stop one MAJOR company having all the info, having all the programs ie; Microsoft. the want for more open source stuff

History of hacking? From the 80’s to now

Who was the first hacker?

What drives a person to hack?The thirst for knowledge, or the need for power, or are they sadists who like to destroy things?People who hack for profit?Jobs gained thru hacking, information security?

Hackers in today’s society, who are they? Are they your neighbours?

hacker culture

Some famous hackers

Consequences of hacking in different countries.

How hacking has evolved from the 80’s to now.

Week 4 tute

ok, first up we'll start with ye olde scavenger hunt

1. The nation's largest pumpkin weighed in this weekend. It was all part of the 13th annual Giant Pumpkin Growers Championship in Rhode Island. Ron Wallace broke the record for the world's largest pumpkin, weighing in at 1,502 lbs. 1.
   http://www.49abcnews.com/news/2006/oct/09/worlds_heaviest_pumpkin_weighed/
2. Miami Olympic heated pool, 80 pacific ave, Miami, qld, 4220 http://www.geocities/collesseum/court/5449/from_Creator.htm
3. A giraffe’s tongue is 18-20inches long. http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-giraffe.html
4. The area of metaphysics that studies the nature of existence or being as such http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=ontology
5. David Cronenberg's first film was Transfer made in 19661. http://www.empirezine.com/spotlight/cronenberg/cronenberg1.htm
6. the hackers manifesto was written in 19861. http://www.technozen.com/manifesto.htm
7. 555 is used as a prefix to avoid actual phone numbers being phoned after people watch a certain film.. http://www.omegarobot.com/article/555.html
8. take a flight from crete to rhodes which is only a short distance away, once greek island to another. http://www.anemos.net/tour13.htm/
9. Rock and roll music by the beatles http://www.onmc.iinet.net.au/
10. Brisbane punk band, the Black Assassins 10. http://www.griffith.edu.au/school/art/staff/stockwell.htm

Now, what is a search engine? a search engine is a yellow pages in essence. its comprised of a coordinated set of programs that includes:

• a SPIDER that goes to every page or representative pages on every Web site that wants to be searchable and reads it, using hypertext links on each page to discover and read a site's other pages
• A program that creates a huge index
• A program that receives your search request, compares it to the entries in the index, and returns results to you

each search engine ranks differently, some exclude links if they detect spam etc etc, but most major search engines analyse how pages link to each other,they determine what a page is about and whether that page is deemed to be "important" and thus deserving of a ranking boost. My favorite has to be altavista.com, i've been using it for the last 10 years, i like the results i get, and the layout of the page.

Mailing lists.

http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk is a great site, which is linked to thousands of mailing lists, 2 of which are related to this subject are :

http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/EBAY-STUDIES.html: this is the discussion of a variety of eBay themes including identity, community, social capital, collecting in an e-society, consumption, consumer lifestyles, employment effects, website design, usability, the 'real' economy, the 'perfect market' and representations of eBay.

http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/EVOLUTIONARY-COMPUTING.html : EC covers all approaches to computing based on analogues of natural selection: eg genetic algorithms, genetic programming, evolutionary strategies and artificial life. Related fields include complex systems theory, chaos and cellular automata

as far as my essay topic goes, im leaning towards hackers, and hacker ethics....need to choose a more direct issue still.

Week 3 Tute

welcome back faithful reader, this week I'll be addressing the issues which were raised within the french new wave film 'La Jetee.' This film, made in the 1962 was a style of new wave film was radically different from the Hollywood blockbusters of that era, they began to use lightweight equipment, first used by documentary filmmakers. The film used a totally different style of film to which i had seen, utilising a still photo montage with voice overs.

now the film was composed during the time of the cold war, and the threat of nuclear winter was imminent, this being the basis for this film. The 'star' of the film is selected at random to participate in experiments, this being completely immoral and unethical, but i guess at the time deemed necessary for survival. (who has the right to make these decisions?) these experimenters put their Guinea pigs through these excruciating experiments in the hope to gain valuable resources which they lack. weeks go by with the main character, in a haze of pain and disorientation, and gradually the film unfolds into him recognising more and more, until he realises his captors wish to kill him, where he escapes to the past with the help of those from the future. which still, ultimately, ends in his death, coming back to that memory from the beginning of the film on the jetty at Orly.

I guess one of the key concerns is that they are trying to find a solution via technology not yet developed, something so unthinkable such as time travel, to a problem which is imminent, being nuclear war.

This could relate to us in Australia, with the current ongoing water crisis, what kinds of new technology could we implement to solve this? something that may seem completely unfathomable now, but in 20 years may become standard procedure. The same goes for the 'War on terrorism' we could end up in a similar position as the characters in the film, governments are already taking precautionary measures such as photographing and fingerprinting you when you enter the U.S. whats next? They experiment on animals, and they microchip them. Are we next to be chipped, so they can track our each and every move? Just a tad unethical and immoral don't you think?

As a fan of 12 Monkeys, i had no idea it was based on this 40 year old film. i was shocked! and looking back on both films, you can see just how similar they are, but personally i find the original more effective. Raw, brutal images do well to represent the storyline, keep the suspense, and haunt you. If you didn't catch this movie, im sure you could download it, so go see it!

Tute 1 10-12

Hello out there in Internet land, my name is Pavel. I've been a Chef for the past 5 years working in a restaurant in surfers paradise, needless to say, that life is rather mundane, the same thing day in day out, the same people, no new challenges whatsoever. Now as each year passed i pushed the idea of going to uni aside more and more, until it became so daunting that i was downright afraid of going. I reached a point in my life where i needed to advance myself, give myself new challenges, further my learning, etc etc. So i took the plunge and finally enrolled myself in bachelor of arts under the mature age entry option, and now that I'm actually here, it's nothing like what i expected, it's MUCH MUCH better. The people are all so friendly and helpful, and the lectures and tutes are actually ( lo and behold ) ENJOYABLE ha ha. Sure it's a big workload doing 4 subjects and still working 40 hours a week (who needs sleep eh?) but i think overall it's going to be worth it. Well worth it.

Now I've always been interested in computers, technology, the web, and basically anything geeky :P so naturally i picked New Communication Technology as one of my subjects. Just after reading the first few chapters you realise how much more there is behind it all. It's all too easy to just adapt to the new technology these days, and not fully understand it, and what the real issues behind the ideas of it are. There is SO much depth which, all along i realise is there, but don't really pay attention to, from things such as the economy, the ethics of it all, the history behind what is now basic, and what might be in store in the future. I think I'm really going to make the most of this course.

A few of the other courses I've chosen are marketing, psychology, and effective writing. Overall i want to major in digital video, and do some electives regarding the web, possibly some programming, and perhaps some which relate to popular music. After uni, I'd love to make....wait for it....documentaries. didn't see that one coming aye? a friend of mine just graduated with a bachelor of environmental science, and we love the outdoors, and I'd love to travel, see things that people have no clue about, and inform them via film. I figure, why not follow your dreams? you only live once, and you have to give it a shot, i sure as hell don't want to live the rest of my days rotting in a 10x10metre sweat box kitchen.

so there you have it, a basic overview of that which is me, my motives, and my basic interests. I'll be sure not to bore you quite so much next time and ramble on and on and on.

Pavel.