October 2006 Archives
Quick viz of the cell-tower info data output by the FCC. This graphic shows data from 7000 records (thanks to the FCC's failure to enforce carrier/controller info submission and inability to put out a workable dataset - which is a post for another time). More to come...
Cat and I have an ongoing discussion on whether corporate vs. governmental regulation is more dangerous. She leans towards the corporate being the lesser evil, where I believe corporate regulation (that is, companies deciding policy, disregarding lobbying) is the greater evil.
Visa just announced their intention to block payments to the Russian music download site AllofMP3. AllofMP3 insists upon its legality in terms of Russian copyright law—but has promised a change in its business model, hoping for more international acceptance (of course, this will come at a price, as the downloaders are quite happy with the current system).
But is Visa's extreme measure to block payments to AllofMP3 acceptable? As a digg poster commented, Since when has it been Visa's obligation to judge business morality? While I believe that businesses should have models of moral obligation, decisions such as these should be questioned by general consumers and more closely examined by relevant subscribers. Business policies, and corporate morality policies should be easily available, and digestible to consumers, subscribers, anyone who wants them, really—public accessibility is key. Archives of past business and policy movements should be equally accessible.
Link (Must login to NYTimes.com)
I remember when my elementary school banned the game dodgeball - when I was in the 4th grade. We [the students] thought this was ridiculous. Yeah, dodgeball is kind of violent. Yeah, we could get hurt. But it was fun. I still think bans on contact sports (such as dodgeball) is ridiculous. There's something basic about fight-for-survival games, involving contact or not. And while these games may seem a little violent, these games are playful, and build strength and survival instinct—much better than any text-book or educational film ever could. School boards might as well ban talking during recess, since sometimes kids can be verbally abusive. Another cop-out, diplomatic move for the school systems, brought on by some overzealous, sheltering parent whose kid can't hack it. F double-minus.
Cingular Wireless is seeking an injunction and suing mobile telemarketers, alleging a number of companies have been using auto-dialers to deliver unsolicited advert calls to customers. This is good, I think, and much overdue. Though, I wish the customers would take the action.
If I hear any more interpolations of GooTube, I might lose it. Google buys a place for people to upload KnightRider episodes, and Yahoo! yells at aliens from a pyramid. Times are crazy.
Imagine a room full to bursting of people, all talking; A room in which everyone can be heard. Who talks the loudest? Who hears the most? Where can voices travel unimpeded and reach far? What languages are used and understood? Babel exists in binary, flowing from node to human node across paths of hypertext—not the babel of difference, but noise. If a tree falls in a forest full of falling trees, does it make a sound?
The internet is a dangerous place. Never before has such a huge population had access to such a staggering distribution channel—or such a huge catalogue of content. It's the age of magic. Naming and transmografication abound. But what happens with this power of access? Does it matter—is the access all-important or the use? I'm inclined to believe the option, choice, availability is most important. But access is limited, regulated. The media-distribution spectrum is regulated by subversive cultural standards and vulgar, direct controls from the corporate. Norms and biases, bandwidth and search-ranking... all poured into the same global crucible. And does the seperation matter? Paralels can be drawn to the system of incorporated religion, going all the way back to the explosion of indulgances—direct flight to heaven, meal included, movie featuring Ralph Macchio to be shown. Buy your access, distribution, audience (all seperately, of course) in the non-neutral net. Pay as you go, pay as you show. And some things you can't buy. No tithe, no pile of gold on the collection plate can give an anti-christ absolution.
Lonelygirl 15 and angry-wife billboards1 vs Diamonds are Forever vs this concert is brought to you by Sprite vs Run DMC's adidas. I want to say the obvious is better. I want to see the vulgar adverts and know them for what they are, not be tricked into coveting two purrr of those Urrrr Force Ones because everyone's a star-fucker, a follower. And I hate advertisements and commercials and all the fucking billboards staining the scenery on cross-country highways. I hate finding myself humming some jingle heard on a commercial break. What's it mean when ad campaigns spew forth memes like so many ozone particles from a can of hairspray? I want original and independantly bedroom produced, evocative content on YouTube, not episodes of Night Rider, or do I? Does it take a professional of a medium to create in his medium? I hear about a surge of amateur. With Apple's all-included personal publishing platform, YOU TOO can be a multimedia producer, actor, musician, recording engineer, blogger, oh annointed child of the information zeitgeist. But I don't care if your cat makes funny faces.
There's an electricity in the mob. Are people inherently evil, vulnerable and so easily manipulated... Can individual desire mesh with the collective mind, and is there a quantifiable difference? Which of Plato's worlds do people live in—shadows or ideas? There's a disconnect between the physical and the meta-physical, attributed to media-confusion and individuality. The anti-luddite jumps the not-quite-metaphorical shark, pausing to store more data with cell-phone, digital camera, palm-pilot graffiti text entry, blue-tooth enabled heart-rate sensing Nike ipod shoes. Memory has been kicked in the face by storage, only to be picasso'd by a bullshit classification from the folksonomy. Hegemony painted in the jersey of the masses by the minimal -expense, -scandal—strike that, scandals create investment, cause frenzy. The insestuous wasps hive grows paths that lead to no-where but the catacomb of the minataur.
New systems are being created faster than the old ones can die. The sun sets on event horizons before they are visible, still blocked by mountains of zeros and ones, pixels and frames. Media confusion is eclipsed by techno-fetishism. And the content is forgotten. Media is fine, but it's conduit. New York City water is only as good as its rusty, lead and arsenic and asbestos-lined, ninja-turtle-dwelling pipes. What is the hive-mind putting out? Who is the benefactor, who is the audience? Is the arm aware of the big-toe and where's the brain in all this? Fuck your cat and your sneakers.
