THE FUTURE DOES NOT COMPUTE

Watch this great Frontline film that raises many of today’s questions about technology and the internet. How competent are we really as multitasking our daily activities becomes the norm? How do we solve and embrace the growing short attention spans of students? Can virtual worlds and gaming allow us to connect with others or only alienate us further?

(Make sure to start on Chapter One by clicking on the yellow dots on the right)

I found this film very personal and intriguing as it connects to many aspects of my life. As millions of others, I cannot live without being connected at all times. It made me realize how just this morning I wake up and my iPhone is not next to me, I start going crazy looking for it as I have this insatiable need to check my emails and messages. A morning ritual that’s so second nature to me that never existed in my life a few years ago. I hope this documentary is an eye opener for everyone as it was for me. Technology is rapidly evolving and we are too, we just have to embrace it with an open mind and not let it take over.

I’ve watched Owl City slowly climb the charts as he blatantly rips off the Postal Service. Owl City is a watered down, stale version of the Postal Service by Minnesota born, Adam Young. In an interview with EW, laptop totting synthpop Adam Young admits his no. 1 single “Fireflies” and the Postal Service in general “are pretty similar,” but at the same time claims he’s “a lot more of a Death Cab fan.” For example, he’d only heard Give Up “a little bit” before people started pointing it out.

EW: A lot of people wish they would put out another album. Is that something you would look forward to hearing?

ADAM YOUNG: I think [Give Up] left everyone asking, “What are they going to do next?” Since no one has done anything quite like it, it’s almost like everyone is naturally saying this is the next step — maybe that’s me, maybe that’s this record.

Ian Cohen of Pitchfork said it best:

But I doubt Ben Gibbard is losing sleep over Owl City’s Adam Young squatting on what is essentially vacated property. Death Cab reportedly cleared $5.4 million in revenue during 2006, basically anyone who’s watched TV in the past three years has heard the Postal Service, and Gibbard is married to the fantasy of every guy this song [Fireflies by Owl City] was ostensibly written for…

Don’t waste your money and bandwidth on this guy. True, there is no new Postal Service anywhere in sight but Owl City should not be your rebound. Judge for youself:

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Sources:

Stereogum
Entertainment Weekly

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So I sit in front of my computer playing around with ideas for my new business card and I’m really debating adding one of those scannable “Quick Response” codes, similar to the ones on prescription drugs and postage. The advantage of doing this, is clients and friends with compatible phones will be able to quickly scan my card and get all my information. No more worrying about loosing business cards or tediously inputing all the information into your address book once every so often. Plus, it looks damn cool. Business cards are boring, lets face it, making them stand out should be your priority, especially being in a creative field. Unfortunately the only phones that currently support this technology are Android based phones, so it would be a very small market. Phone manufacturers and software developers need to step up their game and embrace this technology for the sake of my business card. I think my “Quick Response” coded business card will have to wait until 2011.

Ok, so I almost stopped myself from posting this one as I realized the irony of the story being in an ALL CAPS blog. But it was too damn funny to pass up.

Sibuna comments: BREAKING NEWS WE BROKE THE SHIFT KEY. MORE NEWS AT !!

via Gizmodo

It was extremely satisfying, finding that first hidden cache behind the grave of Alithea Gedney. There was 3 of us as we searched through what are the remains of an old stone wall that encircles the Gedney Cemetery near I95. Geocaching is a high tech treasure hunt where using GPS devices you must find hidden caches scattered around the globe. You follow a series of hints and coordinates to find the location of these treasures. The hint was encrypted with the simple algorithm of substituting one letter for another, not clever at all but annoying actually. We walked around the cemetery trying to read the weathered gravestones until we found the one we were looking for,

Alithea Gedney daughter of Gilbert & Mary Gedney
Died June 30, 1900
Aged 65 years

We then proceeded to search the stone wall directly behind it. We looked through every crack and crevasse, searching for any kind of misplaced container. After about 5 minutes, Eric lifted a conspicuous looking rock and there it was, the Holy Grail of Gedney Cemetery! It was a medium sized plastic hermetic container painted black. Upon opening it we found an assorted curiosity of small objects; business cards, toy soldiers, bouncing balls, yo-yos, foreign coins, discount cards, it was an incredible find. There was a small notebook with a log of names, dates and items from other Geocachers that have stumbled upon this cache. We proceeded to write down our names and date, and left small items for the next hunters. I took one of the “bugs” which is a traceable item with serial number that you can track using the website. This specific item had traveled 187 miles from cache to cache to find its way here.

It was such a fun little adventure. Just to think that dozens of people have come by this very container to leave little souvenirs for others brings me so much excitement. I now have taken it upon myself to find all the local caches. I encourage anyone to join the website and start Geocaching in your area, its so much fun! It’s real life treasure hunting without the danger of getting attacked by pirates!