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The Kindle and “Picard’s Syndrome”

By ~LS~ On December 6, 2009 · Add Comment · In Technology, The Web and tagged Tagged With: Books, Droid, Geek, Interface Value, Media Ecology, Tech Toys, Technoculture

Due to my recent tech splurge, I’m now the owner of a brand new Amazon Kindle, acquired just before Thanksgiving. I’m quite happy with it. Reviews all over the net are fairly accurate. I like the weight, the screen’s readability, the size, the forward and backward buttons. I don’t like the five-way toggle button and the lack of lighting to read in the dark. I don’t care about not having a touch screen since I despise fingerprints and smudges in almost OCD proportions. I found a cute Vera Bradley bag that fits the Kindle perfectly. I’m happy. The drawbacks and the politics of DRM management and not actually “owning” the intellectual property found in books have been discussed extensively elsewhere; there’s no point in reiterating them here. What I would like to talk about, however, is the utterly tactile experience of the Kindle.

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Gratitude for copy machines

By ~LS~ On November 13, 2009 · Add Comment · In Technology and tagged Tagged With: For Wordies, Gratitudes, Technoculture, Technology

A current facebook meme is to post a gratitude in your status. Today I am grateful for copy machines. I have to return comments on group projects to students today and I don’t have to rewrite the comments for each student. I can simply copy them on my magical combo printer/fax machine/copier/scanner. This morning I remembered the days where this sort of task was impossible.

I remember carbon paper, ditto machines, and mimeographs. I remember members of the academic generation before mine telling me that they had to type their dissertations on carbon paper and store copies in the freezer to ensure they would survive a fire. Editing and revising under those circumstances were herculean. Carbon paper gave us the origin of the phrase carbon copy. Does anyone use that term anymore?

I remember my life as a work-study student where making copies was the bulk of the [...]

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Public Speaking

By ~LS~ On October 13, 2009 · Add Comment · In Pedagogy and tagged Tagged With: Public Speaking, Teaching Speech, Technoculture

I’ve been surfing youtube in hope of finding some sample public speeches delivered by students that I can show to my public speaking class. I’m looking for examples that don’t have that polished, produced look common to publishers’ supplementary materials. There are an amazing amount of student speeches on youtube. Unfortunately, most of them seem to be videos of students delivering their speeches to their sofas. This depresses me. Clearly this is the product of online public speaking classes, something I have very mixed feelings about. Ever since I taught an Intro to Women’s Studies class through distance learning about fifteen years ago, I’ve been wary of online teaching.

There’s an MSN Money article going around about whether or not the web will kill colleges. There’s also dispute about what and how students learn in online learning environments. The article makes some interesting points [...]

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The World 2.0

By ~LS~ On September 21, 2009 · 1 Comment · In Technology, The Web and tagged Tagged With: Technoculture

* I can’t remember the last time I heard a busy signal.

Busy signals have disappeared due to voice mail and call waiting, a phenomenon that happened somewhere in the 90s. Perhaps we could think of it as an early step in the direction of 24/7 accessibility and connection via new communication technologies. Although, looking backward, I suppose we can say the same thing for the invention of the telephone, telegraph, printing press, and writing itself. Still, the loss of the busy signal bespeaks a “jacked-in-ness” that I don’t think those older information technologies share.

* The Guiding Light has gone off the air after 72 years. I used to watch that show with my grandmother when I was ten.

Soap operas are disappearing left and right, something easily explained by a double dynamic of [...]

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Telephone Exchanges ~ NYC Nostalgia

By ~LS~ On September 12, 2009 · 4 Comments · In Technology, This is my life? and tagged Tagged With: Chelsea, Media Ecology, New York City, Technoculture

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Christian the Lion

By ~LS~ On August 20, 2008 · Add Comment · In The Web and tagged Tagged With: Haraway, Technoculture

I just saw the viral video of Christian the Lion. It made me sniffle. I almost cried. It is about a lion cub who was domesticated and then re-released in the wild. The story reminded me of “Born Free,” a movie from the 1960s (and it’s quintessential 60s, too). It turns out that the guy who “Born Free” was about helped re-release Christian to the wild. The viral video is a touching reunion between Christian and his caretakers. It made me think of Haraway’s notion of “companion species” and “respecere.” Clearly this animal and his caretakers were in a relationship of respect, communion, and face. Fascinating stuff. There are a couple of versions of the video floating around in the ether, different only in their saccharine soundtracks. Turn the sound off as you watch the video.

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The Kindle and “Picard’s Syndrome”

Gratitude for copy machines

Public Speaking

The World 2.0

Telephone Exchanges ~ NYC Nostalgia

Christian the Lion

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The Kindle and “Picard’s Syndrome”

Gratitude for copy machines

Public Speaking

The World 2.0

Telephone Exchanges ~ NYC Nostalgia

Christian the Lion

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