From SNL: Real retribution for online comments

Pity a show like this doesn't actually exist. Daring local newspapers should take this idea and run with it. It's a web-video gold mine.

This is from the Oct. 2, 2011 episode of "Saturday Night Live," with host Melissa McCarthy.

Symbolic subjugation to our iDevices

We're all slaves to our technology, whether we're
Apple fanboys or not. (Image credit: Unknown)

In light of the passing of Steve Jobs on Wednesday, probably paired with my having read this essay at GOOD titled "Why I Dumped my iPhone — And I'm Not Going Back," I had a thought today while typing a run-of-the-mill e-mail.

When referring to ourselves in writing, even in the middle of a sentence, we use "I," capitalized.  This convention symbolically demonstrates the importance we put on the ego, on ourselves as individuals.

Apple's product-naming convention, on the other hand, famously puts the "I" in lowercase, and capitalizes the first letter of the device name: iPod, iPhone, iPad.

Symbolically, this demonstrates the subjugation of the ego to the device, the tool, the machine.

With these products (and competitors') so ubiquitous in most of our daily lives, that symbolism becomes very profound.

Out of the loop: The pros and cons of self-imposed social media exile

Image from DesignReviver.

I haven't been following my Twitter stream for about a week now. I mean, I've popped in and out, made a few @tweets and replies, followed a few links. But for the most part I haven't checked it as regularly as I had in weeks and months prior.

This isn't new behavior for me, and possibly not even the longest stretch I've taken myself out of the loop. But I had a thought this morning as I filled my coffee mug at work (relevant in that so much of what I follow now is work-related, either directly or tangentially):

Not following Twitter is both liberating and alienating.

Liberating in that I'm not obsessively grasping for my phone, or acting on the compulsion to click the browser tab everytime I see "(x)" in the tab title to indicate how many new tweets have poured in since I last looked.

Alienating in that I feel like I'm not really up on what's going down.

Twitter is really my only social media tool of choice right now (not counting this blog, my other blog, and my phlog), but I suspect this statement is true for any SM platform.

A final thought: Social media platforms and tools make it incredibly easy to stay in touch, yes, but they also make "social networking" an often exhausting process (at least for me). As someone who really values social relationships that are natural, comfortable, relaxed, and not exhausting to maintain, I wonder sometimes why I bother with this relationship with technology/social media/online social networking.

Internet surveillance of the annoying kind

Answer me these questions three, ere the other side ye see.
View this scene from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."

Ever navigate to a website and immediately get confronted with a popup requesting you take a survey after your time visiting the site?

How many times do you volunteer to take the time to answer said useability survey, knowing it's likely going to be several annoyingly-phrased questions? Or do you just click, "No thanks!" and go about your way?

How about the sites that request some demographic information about you before you can proceed. Do you answer truthfully, or have you suddenly become an Internet-savvy old woman born in 1917 and currently living in Minnesota?

It seems ironic to me that we use the Internet to funnel information to us, but when the source of our info requests a little of their own, we often decline or provide false data.

Or maybe it's just me, and I've outed myself as the jerk. Still, I suspect Minnesota is nice this time of year ...

The 'God Emperor of Dune' on technology

I'm fascinated by the way technology shapes human cultures and societies, from the local to the global scale. Below is a section of text from the end of an early chapter in "God Emperor of Dune" by Frank Herbert that, for some reason, I felt the need to share.

If you're not familiar with the original Dune series, I can't recommend the novels enough. I was never really into sci-fi as a reader, and this is probably some of the heaviest the genre offers. But I find it a fascinating, intoxicating exploration of themes that include religion, technology, politics, human evolution, economics, and more. Basically the kind of stuff I find myself fascinated by in real life.

That lasgun is no more than a machine. But all machines fail or are superceded. Still, the Army worships at the shrine of such things—both fascinated and fearful! ... In its guts, the Army knows it is the Sorcerer's Apprentice. It unleashes technology and never again can the magic be stuffed back into the bottle ... 

...But the genie is not dead. Technology breeds anarchy. It distributes these tools at random. And with them goes the provocation for violence. The ability to make and use savage destroyers falls inevitably into the hands of smaller and smaller groups until at last the group is a single individual.

...Jihads create armies. The Butlerian Jihad tried to rid our universe of machines which simulate the mind of man. The Butlerians left armies in their wake and the Ixians still make questionable devices ... What is anathema? The motivation to ravage, no matter the instruments.

A little context: These lines are part of an internal monologue of the "god emperor" the title refers to. He, like his father before him, is capable of casting his mind into the infinite possibilities of the future, exploring each and every decision, event, and seeming bit of minutia that led to it. This is part of the reason he comes to be worshiped across the universe during this reign — of several thousand years.

As such he is determined to guide humanity along what he has identified as "the Golden Path." Pleasant as that sounds, it's apparently not without its share of repression, death, destruction, brutality and misery at his hands.

The Dune universe has inspired a number of ideas relevant to the topics I want to explore in this blog, and at some point I'll get around to getting them out of my head. It's also inspired ideas for my other blog, Hypothesis of Faith. In fact, the words I quoted above were on the page facing some other text I felt the need to share over at that blog: Free will in the universe of Dune.

Now that's synergy.

Another blog: Check out my Tumblr for photos

So I started a photo blog on Tumblr to post some of the photos I take on my cell phone. For now I'm calling it Shoe's World View, though that's subject to change.

I found myself in need of a creative outlet, given some current events in my life (my mother's health). Over the past several months, I've really found enjoyment in using my cellphone (HTC Incredible) to snap photos, using the Photoshop Express app to edit them. I like to take pictures of the natural world, and right now I feel like my eye is drawn to things that strike me as both beautiful and sad.

I've been interested in, and learning about, photography for a few years now, just at my own pace. I haven't equipped myself with a DSLR yet, but my Panasonic Lumix has a lot of manual operations that have allowed me to play around and understand the mechanics of photography. However, I almost always have my cell phone with me, so I find myself taking a lot of pictures with that.

For now the plan is to strictly post photos taken with the phone. It's got a pretty robust camera itself, one that allows me to adjust resolution, ISO, white balance, saturation, contrast, exposure, and brightness. The Photoshop app helps clean up the image and tweak it to my taste. I'm using the Tumblelog Beta app to upload directly to my Tumblr account. Easy.

I think posting some of these shots online is more for my own enjoyment, to see them displayed in a way more formal than on my phone's screen or an online album. But of course I hope others view them and find some beauty, too.

The plank: Why walk it when you can BE it?

Planking: Risky even for inanimate objects. See the
editor's note below.

This one's going straight into my "People are Stupid" file:
 
"Planking." Not to be confused with the yoga pose. Apparently it's a trend where people take photos of themselves in supine or prone positions to post on their social media network of choice. It's an activity, evidently, in which folks attempt to one-up others by laying on surfaces of ever-increasing degrees of impressiveness (and, one assumes, ever-decreasing degrees of narrowness). This post at the blog of The Atlantic associate editor Nicholas Jackson mentions that an Australian man died after attempting to plank on the railing of a seventh-floor balcony.

Of course.

"Stupidity" doesn't come close to describing this sort of behavior, no matter which angle you chose to discuss it. If you're going to injure or kill yourself while attempting to impress others, at least take up an activity with some panache, one that requires some level of technical or physical prowess.

Like parkour.

Does anyone else hate the mimicry mentality that has blown up with the Internet? 

Editor's note: I managed to prove to myself the folly of planking. One Android was harmed in the production of the above photo. In attempting to plank on the edge of my desk at work, it tumbled off the edge. I bobbled it a few times before securing it in my hand. 

As I set it down I noticed one of its antenna had snapped off. I did a little in-the-field triage in an attempt to reattach the appendage, but Elmer's Glue is not the most powerful of surgical adhesives. I will monitor the patient's recovery and perhaps try a more potent glue. In lieu of flowers or sympathy cards, please send money for medical expenses. I'll be sure the funds are administered ... somehow.

No doubt nervous, the other Android stepped up, this time secured with a bit of scotch tape.We value safety here at TiW; it's usually our second priority.