AAAGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!

Why is it that no matter how many times I go into each blog and fix up the spacing, making everything perfect and matching, every time I publish the post and view it, everything is out of line!!!! Particulary the timeline of computers, I have tried soooooooooo many times to fix that, making sure everything is neat and the spaces are even. AAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!! Maybe I'm a bit of a perfectionist, but it is really, really frustrating. Well everything WAS perfect.. until I published the posts!

Blogs I've Found.. So Far

Over the past few weeks I have come across some pretty interesting blogs. I found them on blogger.com on the Dashboard page by looking at the Blogs of Note for each month. I have listed below a few of my favourites.


Paris 2e


“I am Cedric, discoverer of things that would go unnoticed in the streets of Paris, historic haven of fashionistas and city of lights ('lights' as in 'enlightenment', not street lights). But seriously: I'm an expat from Luxembourg (the country, not the garden), living in the center of Paris (hence 'Paris 2nd arrondissement'), and currently studying art history...”
I could easily spend hours on his blog looking at all the amazing pics of Paris. It makes we want to pack my bags and buy a ticket for the next flight there!! It’s really interesting seeing Paris from a less touristy perspective. He has just been to New York and so his most recent blogs have been pics of sites around there.

Here’s a few pics from his blog:










Swish and Swanky



“My name is Amanda and I love all things beautiful. Swish and Swanky is a collection of fabulous finds, design inspiration and lifes loves”

It reminds me of those homeware stores, though you have never have any intention of buying anything, you always go in and look around at all the beautiful things. It’s a collation of things Amanda has found in stores and magazines of.... This blog would be of great help if you needed decorating ideas for your house.


Here’s a few pics from her blog:

Skull-A-Day


“My name is Noah Scalin and I made a Skull-A-Day for a year. I started by making an orang paper skull on June 4th, 2007 and posting it online saying, "I'm making a skull a day for a year". I made my 365th skull on June 2nd, 2008 (and even posted a bonus skull the day after since it was a leap year!). June 3rd, 2008 marked the start of year two of the project (called Skull-A-Day 2.0) and featured daily submissions from readers.”

Well I’ve only had a look at some of the skulls he made – all 365 would be a little too time-consuming. From what I saw though, they were all very cleverly done. It is such an interesting concept.

Here is a few pics from his blog:

Post-It Project


“this blog was originally dedicated to documenting the post-its i doodled while at work. however, this blog has grown beyond it's original intent to encompass the post-its drawn by me and any post-it compatriots who deem to grace it's halls with their own artful pictographs.”

Again I didn’t actually look at all the post-its, but from what I saw they were very interesting. Like the skull blog, a really fascinating concept... wow so many imaginative and creative people out there!!

Here is a few pics from his blog:

I Heart Photograph

I couldn’t actually find anywhere an About Me section, but the blog is a eclectic mix of different photographs. It seems as though they are from all different photographers that she has found. I saw many, MANY, amazing photographs on here.

Here is a few pics from her blog:

Lecture - Week Five

Well yesterday we had a different lecturer, not sure what his name was. He was, well a interesting man.. haha. When I first got to the class he was daring people (I think it got up to $30) to drink from a jug of juice that had been sitting there for over a week.. strange start.





The lecture was about Net Art and creative ways to use the internet. He briefly touched on the history of websites; 1997-1999 the Dot.com boom where all businesses were creating online shops, this was the bulk of websites on the internet. In the early 2000's though most of these crashed and lost a lot of money. Then along came the social networking phenonemon, Myspace and Facebook in particular. Though our lecturer predicts that once this craze dies down, the next big thing will be more specialised websites.

He showed us numerous different websites, about all kinds of different things. We looked at how website layouts had changed over the years, using the example of Yahoo. He showed us different kinds of social networking sites, and a list from Wikipedia of the hundreds that are out there. A funny one we looked at was Elftown where members create their own Elf badges, I guess catering to your more Lord of the Rings, etc. kind of fans. We also looked at Google Maps and how you can add places to it. Apparently we will be doing this next week in the lecture.

Troops + BMW

In last week's lecture Josh showed us the start of the first ever internet movie 'Troops'. He also showed us one of the ten short films 'The Hire' made by BMW purely for their website. Each movie starred Clive Owen as The Driver and each film featured him driving a different BMW. The one we watched in the lecture was 'The Star' directed by Guy Ritchie. I found both really interesting so I decided to watch some more..

I thought the Troops movie was hilarious. It was very short though, I think it only went for about 10-15mins. It was made as a parody of the Star Wars movies and Cops TV show. I haven't actually watched any of the Star Wars movies before, but I still sort of got the jokes (I think) and recognised some of the characters names. The basic plot was set as a documentary (day in the life of), of the 'troops'. It begins with one of them explaining their job and they come across two young creatures (don't know what they are!) who had stolen 'droids' and so they go to investigate and end up putting the two creatures in lock up. The troops walk off talking about how they are going to have to contact the parents. It then changes to another call they've received about a domestic dispute between a husband and wife, that begun over their missing child. Things get pretty violent and they end up taking the wife away to stay somewhere else for the night. As the troops walk away they are discussing the fight they were having about a stolen droid and missing child. It ends here where you realise the two stories are connected.. VERY CLEVER!

The next one that I watched was the 'Beat the Devil' from the BMW commercials. This one was directed by Tony Smith and stared James Brown, Gary Oldman and a cameo with Marilyn Manson. This was my favourite of the BMW commercials. The story begins in 1954, Brown's character sells his soul to the Devil (played by Oldman) for fame and fortune. It then skips to 2002 and Brown's character now having aged goes to see the Devil to renegotiate his deal to get his youth back. They agree on having a car race, The Driver driving for Brown and another guy driving for Oldman. It's a very close race and ends up at a railway track just as a train is coming. The Driver just makes it across to the other side as the train crashes into the Devil's car and so Brown regains his youth. Manson quickly appears at the end as an angry neighbour complaining about the Devil making too much noise.

I then watched 'Powder Keg' another from the BMW commercials. Josh said in the lecture that this one actually made him cry, not sure if he was joking or not.. but it did make me want to watch it! This was directed by Alejandro Gonzalz Inarritu, I didn't actually recognise any of the actors in this one. It is about a Times Magazine war photographer that was wounded after witnessing a massacre in Nuevo Colon in South America. The UN send a vehicle to get him, and The Driver arrives to take him home. In the car ride they speak and it is revealed that the reason he became a photographer was because of his mother who "taught him to see". Dying in the car, he hands The Driver the 'powder keg' (not sure what that was..?), his camera film, and a necklace to give to his mother. As they cross the border The Driver pulls over, but realises he has already died. The Driver takes the necklace to give to the mother and when she opens the door we see that she is blind. It was such a good storyline, but very sad! I didn't actually cry, but I could definately see how someone could.

Who, What, Where, When, Why and How

We were given the task of watching a TV show / movie and give examples of the different kinds of shots used.


My examples are from Scrubs Episode 1, Season 1 "My First Day":







WHO?
(Close up)



JD is narrating the show and introduces his friend Turk.


WHAT?
(Mid shot)




JD is looking at himself in the mirror wearing his scrubs uniform, "I'm the Man".


WHERE?
(Long Shot)

Outside shot of hospital, as JD is walking inside for his first day.

WHEN?
(Wide Shot or Close Up)



JD's alarm clock is going off on his first day working at the hospital.




WHY?
(Big Close Up)




JD is getting out of bed, him narrating saying he didn't get any sleep.

HOW?

(Medium Close up)

JD is nervous talking to Elliot for the first time.

Film Shots.. A Little More Explained

After looking back over my notes from last week's 'Cine-Speak' lecture, I still wasn't 100% sure about some of their meanings so I have found some more examples:


Headroom Shot




Well I guess it doesn't get much clearer than that!

Talking Room

When a person is talking and they are not directly facing the camera, extra space is left in front of them as if space was left to insert a dialogue box. (http://www.wnylc.net/pdf/star-watch/NovDec03Newsletter.pdf) I couldn't find any pictures by searching talking room, so hopefully this is ACTUALLY an example of it.

Rule of Thirds

The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal part and is applied by aligning a subject with the guide lines and their intersection points. The main reason for observing the rule of thirds is to discourage placement of the subject at the center, or prevent a horizon from appearing to divide the picture in half. (Wikipedia)

The 180' Rule

This schematic shows the axis between two characters and the 180° arc on which cameras may be positioned (green). When cutting from the green arc to the red arc, the characters switch places on the screen. (Wikipedia)

Lecture - Week Four

This lecture this week was about the Big Screen to Small Screen. We went through the timeline of Cinema and Film beginning in 1895 all the way through to 2001 and the creation of Internet Movies.

Film began in 1895 as Exhibition of Moving Images. No story line, just 20 images of daily life. The first feature length narrative film was made in Australia and a story of Ned Kelly and The Kelly Gang in 1906.

Dialogue was introduced to film in 1927, prior to this a live orchestra played alongside the screen. Two years later the first all colour film was released. Snow White, the first colour, all singing, all animated movie was released by Disney in 1937.

In 1939 TV was introduced in New York Trade Fair. Hollywood took awhile to catch on to they hype, but in 1955 began to sell back catalogue of movies to TV stations.

The birth of the Multiplex cinema came in 1963, originally with just two cinemas. The box office really started to skyrocket. By 1970 the cinema screens had started to get progressively smaller, and so the IMAX cinema was introduced.

In 1972 Pay TV begun, allowing Hollywood to be paid three times for a film; cinema, pay tv and normal tv. The first Blockbuster store was opened in 1985, in doing so creating even more profits for Hollywood.

In 1997 came the birth of the DVD. In the same year, the first internet movie was released, 'Troops' a parody of Star Wars and Cops. In 2001 BMW hired some of the best indie directors to make 10 short films starring the driver, played by Clive Owen. Each film went for about 10 mins and a different BMW used. These were made purely for the BMW website.

The rise of the internet movie has created a real shift in how films are produced and how the movies are viewed today.

Scavenger Hunt

Today's task is to answer questions without using Google or Wikipedia.


1. What is the weight of the world's biggest pumpkin? How long did it take to grow?

Joe Jutras from North Scituate, Rhode Island, brought a 1689 pound pumpkin to the Topsfield Fair GPC weigh-off in Topsfield, Ma. on September 29, 2007. His new world record beat the previous world record by 187 pounds. Last year's world record holder was Ron Wallace with a 1502 pound pumpkin at the Rhode Island Weighoff on October 7, 2006. It took 87 days to grow.

Found through searching Yahoo(http://www.pumpkinnook.com/giants/giantpumpkins.htm)


2. What is the best way (quickest, most reliable) to contact Lily Allen?

Myspace
Facebook
Twitter

3. What is the length of a giraffe's tongue?

46 cm long.

Found using Yahoo(http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-giraffe.html)

4. How would you define the word 'glycomics'? In your own words, what does it really mean ? What does the term 'seagull manager' refer to?

Glycomics: The term glycomics is derived from the chemical prefix for sweetness or a sugar, "glyco-", and was formed to follow the naming convention established by genomics (which deals with genes) and proteomics (which deals with proteins). The definition of glycomics has evolved to cover a range of scientific disciplines that are applied to study the structure and function of carbohydrates (sugars) in biological systems.

Found through searching Ask.com (http://www.ask.com/bar?q=definition+of+glycomics&page=1&qsrc=2417&ab=5&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.griffith.edu.au%2Fscience%2Finstitute-glycomics%2Fresearch%2Fwhat-is-glycomics)

Seagull Manager: A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.

Found through searching Ask.com(http://www.ask.com/bar?q=%27seagull+manager%27&page=1&qsrc=2106&ab=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.urbandictionary.com%2Fdefine.php%3Fterm%3Dseagull%2Bmanager)

5. What was David Cronenberg's first feature film? Which of his films Had 'Blondie' in it?

First feature film was Shivers in 1975.

Found using Ask.com (http://www.ask.com/bar?q=david+cronenberg&page=1&qsrc=178&ab=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Fname%2Fnm0000343%2F)

Videorome was the movie with Debbie Harry.

Found using Yahoo(http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/6300182770/filmfreakcent-20)

6. When was the original 'Hacker's Manifesto' written?

It was written January 8, 1986.

Found using Ask.com (http://www.ask.com/bar?q=When+was+the+original+%27Hacker%27s+Manifesto%27+written&page=1&qsrc=2106&ab=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mithral.com%2F%7Ebeberg%2Fmanifesto.html)


7. Why do phone numbers in Hollywood films start with '555'?

FOR MANY years, 555 was unassigned as a dialling code in the US and could thus be used to prefix fictional numbers with impunity. Due to expansion, the code has recently been assigned, but scriptwriters and others maintain the use.

Found using Yahoo(http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-2357,00.html)

8. What is the cheapest form of travel from the Gold Coast to Sydney?

Travel by air - Jetstar.

Found using Webjet (http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-2357,00.html)

9. What song was top of the Australian Pop Charts this week in 1965?

Help! I'm Down - The Beatles.

Had to resort to Wikipedia, tried looking on Yahoo and Ask.com in class and had another LONG look at home and still couldn't find anything. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-one_singles_in_Australia_during_the_1960s)

10. Which Brisbane band includes Stephen Stockwell on keyboards and vocals?

The Black Assassins(sometimes known as the Young Butchers).

Found using Ask.com (http://www.ask.com/bar?q=brisbane+band+stephen+stockwell&page=1&qsrc=19&ab=2&u=http%3A%2F%2Fweb.revolutionrock.com.au%2Foral-hist%2Findex.php%3Fid%3D24)

Lecture - Week Three

Today's lecture was about "Cine-Speak". Josh told us about all the different shot sizes that are used and their abbreviations - it sure would have been handy to have had this lecture PRIOR to the tute yesterday.

The types of different shots are;

VLS/WS: Very LS/Wide Shot
LS: Long Shot
MLS: Medium LS
MS: Mid Shot
MCU: Medium CU
CU: Close Up
BCU: Big CU
ECU: Extreme CU

Josh then went on to explain how each different type of shot is used to answer the Who, What, Where, How, Why and When in relation to the story that is being told.

The last thing we learnt was the Headroom, Talking Room, Rule of Thirds, and The 180'. This part I didn't really understand as much but I'm sure it won't be long and I'll be talking the lingo.

The one point that Josh did stress is that in film, every shot needs to serve a purpose. Every shot must move the story forward.


And so another lovely 8am lecture came to an end..

iMovie

The longest 40 seconds you'll ever come across..

DEFINITIONS

We were given the challenge of trying to find the definitions to; ECU, WS, MS which proved to be quite difficult. I tried looking on Google, Wikipedia, Dictionary.com, Encyclopedia of Brittanica and still had no luck. Eventually Kaya helped us out on what they stood for.

• ECU - Extreme Close Up

The shot is so tight that only a fraction of the focus of attention, such as someone's eyes, can be seen. (Wikipedia)

• WS - Wide Shot
  

Shows the entire object or human figure and is usually intended to place it in some relation to its surrounding. (Wikipedia)

• MS - Mid Shot

Shows some part of the subject in more detail, whilst still showing enough for the audience to feel as if they were looking at the whole subject. (http://www.mediacollege.com/video/shots/mid-shot.html)

History of Computers and the Internet

Timeline of the History of Computers and the Internet

- Charles Babbage: Designed the Difference Engine & Analytical Engine. Babbage's machines were among the first mechanical computers, although they were not actually completed, largely because of funding problems and personality issues. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_babbage)

The Difference Engine

- Ada Lovelace: Translated an Italian memoir on Babbage's Analytical Engine. Lovelace is now widely credited with being the first computer programmer.








Ada Lovelace

- Alan Turing: Created first working computer 'The Bombe' which broke secret German 'Enigma' codes in the War.

The Bombe

- IBM's 701 EDPM: The first commercially successful general-purpose computer was produced in 1953.It was created as a 'defense calculator' to aid in the United Nations' policing of Korea.(http://inventors.about.com/od/computersandinternet/a/IBM701.htm)

The 701 EDPM

- Xerox PARC: In early 1970s developed the mouse, graphical user interface (GUI) and pull-down menus. First PC was created in 1975.

Company Logo

- Bill Gates: It all began for him when he contacted creators of the new microcomputer, MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems)offering to demonstrate an implentation of the BASIC (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code)for the system. He dropped out of Harvard and created the company Microsoft. (Wikipedia)

The early days for Bill Gates and Microsoft









- Apple: Created around the same time. Comprised of two computer nerds Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Sold first Apple computer for $666.60. By 1979 both were rich enough to never have to work again





Original Apple computer










- IBM & Microsoft: In 1981, a contract between IBM and Microsoft was made to develop languages and a operating system known as Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS), which later went on to become Windows. And so begun the competition between Microsoft and Apple.
(http://www.thocp.net/companies/microsoft/microsoft_company.htm)










Microsoft Windows

- Steve Jobs: After a lot of disputes with the president of Apple, John Scully, Steve Jobs resigned in 1985. Microsoft continued to go strength to strength, where as Apple's popularity slid more and more. It wasn't until Steve Jobs return in 1998, which in turn resurrected Apple.
(http://www.theapplemuseum.com/index.php?id=57)









Steve Jobs & Apple Reunited










- Linus Torvalds: Created his own operating system GNU/Linux. GNU/Linux was made available for free and spread quickly across the world as an alternative to the other expensive operating systems (such as Windows, MacOS and Unix).







Mascot of GNU/Linux