ASSA!: Thoughts Archives

July 20, 2005

Willy wannabe

Where are the Snozzberries!!!!!!

Willy Wonka and the IMAX Theater... Boy, I was interested to see the film when I first heard about it. Then I saw the ads on TV are really started to loose interest. but baby wanted to see it and she has the great ability to ignore and look away when an advertisements for a film she wants to see comes on, so she still wanted to see it. What better way then IMAX.

It was strange because IMAX sure did not seem like the IMAX I know. I remember it a bit different larger wider and 6 storys? they tell us in the Seattle theater.. maybe in Umpa Lumpa land. But that was the least of my problem with memories. The film is horrible. a true disaster. Great Willy Wonka was turn into a bizarre Michel Jackson wannabe. the Umpa Lumpa's were all "Tiny" while the effect was well done. it was like a bad Aphex Twin video. And what is up with the horrible foreshadowing of 2001 space odyssey? "They're not..." I thought... and oh yes they did!

The movie was off to a bad start with the fact that master puppeteer Tim Burton did the intro in a 3-D render. There the story went for a bit in a wonderful way until "Willy Wonka Jackson" show his face... This was a character they wanted Jim Carrey, but couldn't get him. Then the baton was really dropped when the Umpa Lumpa songs were all reworked in weird wannabe disco style. Other details I don't like are this father son relationship in the Wonka household. Also the fact that Charlie and Grandpa don't get stuck and hide the fact they touched something when they should not have.

The one part that was great was Charlie and Grandpa in this new version. they were great adaptations. There were slight and few changes really so that maybe the reason I like them.

Maybe I am getting old... Scary!

Posted by dimitri at 08:33 PM | Comments (0)

When time stands still

The have been having an off and on relationship with my blog these days. this leaves me some blank days. baby has not used hers' much, maybe it is a summer thing...

Posted by dimitri at 04:19 PM | Comments (0)

July 06, 2005

After the fight ended...

For now flickr has won!

I have been trying to find a simple way to have images on my site. and for now I am going with flickr. I have not given up but until I get things running well I am going to use it.

Posted by dimitri at 07:34 PM | Comments (0)

June 03, 2005

Been a while

Well I'm back!

In Greece trying to get a greek Passport I have a few day so i went to visit my parent in Patmos.

We are bumbling around with small changes of 12NET Elias got a beautiful new antenna tower very professional.

I also brought a kite for learn to kite surfing. It is fun!!!! I wanted to have photos but I was alone doing this. A German couple came by so I asked them, "inna photo bite", a photo please (I have no idea how to write in german or talk it in any real way). They answer... "Nine dunka", "no thanks"... So no photo.

Posted by dimitri at 03:27 AM | Comments (0)

January 28, 2005

$tar$uck$

Today I was at Starbucks with baby... Why I have to wonder but that is not what my thought is... There are two things which happened. First is service. I was waiting and the guy was moving slow. going through my mind was,"he can move somemuch faster easily, I could use my machine at home and make it just as fast..." Well, my thought may have been true for a moment, but to make coffee all day, one would slow down after awhile. So remember to get there early in a shift or be ready for slower service.

Now that was while I waiting, I watched him make mine as he did he finish and hand it to me. He looked at it and did a double take and hand it over. triple shot latte and it was almost as white as milk... I tasted like only milk, so I complained. He was pissed, but he made me a new one. My thought on this is, "look guy you did a double take, why even have handed it to me? Just hoping I'm that stupid?"

Well I know Starbucks sucks... But like a stupid puppydog I can see I will go back again!

In fact off to Seattle with baby and will probably end up at the original Starbucks at some point. Hope years of experience will help them do better then todays adventure.

Posted by dimitri at 04:28 PM | Comments (0)

January 26, 2005

All about help making through this

Thesis time and baby bought me a Daruma to give me luck on my path to graduating... He is cute, but sort of freaky! You paint one eye, this is to start the assistants on my path. At this point he looks sort of evil at this point, but at the end of the path when one succeed, you paint the other eye and he looks much better. But I like him!

Eye-Painting Custom
At New Year time, many Japanese individuals and corporations buy a Daruma doll, make a resolution, and then paint in one of the eyes. If, during the year, they are able to achieve their goal, they paint in the second eye. Many politicians, at the beginning of an election period, will buy a Daruma doll, paint in one eye, and then, if they win the election, paint in the other eye. At year end, it is customary to take the Daruma doll to a temple, where it is burned in a big bonfire.

Historical Notes
The historical Bodhidharma was an Indian sage who lived sometime in the fifth or sixth century AD. He is the undisputed founder of Zen Buddhism, and credited with Zen's introduction to China during his travels to the Middle Kingdom. (Note: Zen Buddhism is the term used in Japan, but Daruma's philosophy arrived first in China, where it flowered and was called Chan Buddhism. Only centuries later does it bloom in Japan, where it is called Zen). There are countless legends, some conflicting, about this sage. The best-known legends say he attained enlightenment (Japanese = satori) after meditating in a cave for seven years (some say nine years) without blinking or moving his eyes. Other tales contend he was facing the wall of a room at the Shorinji Temple in China. During those years of meditation, his arms and legs atrophied, shriveled up, and fell off. Legend also credits Bodhidharma with cutting off his eyelids. Apparently he dozed off during meditation, and in anger, he cut off his eyelids, which fell to the ground and sprouted into China's first green tea plants.

Daruma Dolls
Okiagari Koboshi (Tumbler Doll)
One of the most popular talismans of good luck in modern Japan is the armless, legless, and eyeless Daruma doll, or tumbler doll (see photos below). Sold at temple festivals and fairs, such dolls are typically made of papier-mache, painted red, and depict Bodhidharma seated in mediation. When knocked on its side, the doll pops back to the upright position (hence "tumbler" doll, or "okiagari koboshi"). The doll comes in many sizes - the standard size is larger than a basketball. While most Daruma dolls are male, some Japanese localities have female daruma ("ehime daruma" or "princess daruma").

Daruma's famous encounter with the emperor of China

"I've constructed dozens of Buddhist temples, supported hundreds of monks and nuns, and sponsored countless religious ceremonies," the proud emperor informed Daruma. "How great is my merit?"

"No merit at all," Daruma replied bluntly.

"Tell me then," the emperor wanted to know, "What is the first principle of Buddhism?"

"Vast emptiness, nothing holy!" Daruma shot back.

"Who are you?" the thoroughly perplexed emperor demanded.

"I don't know!" Daruma announced, departing as suddenly as he had appeared.

The most common representation of the grand patriarch in Zen art is as a half-body Daruma. By revealing only the upper half of Daruma's body, Zen artists challenged the viewer to look beyond the surface in order to grasp the patri
arch's essence. Although seemingly hidden from view, Daruma's core the Buddha-mind can be discerned if one contemplates the painting as an organic whole rather than trying to analyze it from historical, aesthetic, or philosophical perspectives. In half-body Darumas, the face and head are brushed first, then the robe and finally the eyes are dotted in to animate the image. When the painting is complete, an inscription is usually added. In addition to half-body Darumas other common portrayals are side-view Darumas, wall-gazing Darumas, rushleaf Darumas, one-sandal Darumas, and snowman Darumas. When asked how long it took to paint a portrait of Daruma, the great Zen artist Hakuin replied, "Ten minutes and eighty years."

Where Are Daruma Dolls Made?
Daruma-making in Takasaki began in the late 17th century as a relief measure for farmers who were suffering from famine. The story is that the Daruma Temple instructed farm households to make dolls from papier mache as a way of earning extra income. These days nearly 100 households annually make about 1.6 million darumas, accounting for about 80% of all darumas made in Japan. Every year on the 6th and 7th of January, a daruma market is held in the precincts of the Daruma Temple, and hundreds of thousands of people visit it.

Posted by dimitri at 09:43 PM | Comments (0)

January 25, 2005

Elevator Thoughts

When one waits to go down why does an elevator stop at a floor when it is already full.

I was thinking... What if the elevator goes to the next floor chosen in the elevator skipping all out side request. If the next floor is the ground floor it would be able to start the cycle again faster.

While I thought about this, I figure people waiting would be rather upset when an elevator goes by them, but it would in the log run be faster. It would just take a some getting use to.

Posted by dimitri at 10:48 AM | Comments (0)

January 16, 2005

Funny Mistakes

There are those funny blobbers on the net that happen and which you run into from time to time. Here is a blopper from the Nike site; I was looking for sneakers and wanted to know where Nike sneakers were sold in the NYC area... This is a screen capture of the result.
FUnny things is I repeated the search and it came back with a result, so one has to wonder what really happened.

Posted by dimitri at 04:41 AM | Comments (0)

January 15, 2005

Custom M&Ms ! ? !

Give your world a burst of color! Choose from 21 different M&M'S® Chocolate Candies, and design your own color blend!

If you like m&ms you like this personal touch... candy made personal or just made to feel personal.

It is interesting the idea of custom and personal, you get a choice of what colors they have and it is custom and personal? Imagine the day when you can send a email with the pantone color of your choice and a few days later a package arrives with the colors you picked.

But it is a wondeful array of colors, and would be a fun present for any m&m fan.

So if you want to make a custom candy box go here: m&m custom

Posted by dimitri at 09:36 PM | Comments (0)

Where to go with this?

German researchers move forward on plastic RFID chip
They have pioneered a technique for printing circuits directly onto foils...

I just bumped into this new hardware development. What a great addition. wonder if the Plastic is recyclable?... Imagine the throw away computer? Send it to the crusher and print a faster one when it is printable...

I could go on and on of things to make with this

German researchers move forward on plastic RFID chip
They have pioneered a technique for printing circuits directly onto foils

News Story by John Blau

JANUARY 13, 2005 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - Researchers in Germany have come one step closer to realizing a dream of manufacturers, retailers and other companies seeking advanced but inexpensive ways to trace products and materials: a cheap chip made of plastic that can be printed on foil the same way a newspaper is printed on paper.

Although PolyIC GmbH, a joint venture between Siemens AG and Kurz GmbH KG, isn't claiming to have developed the first integrated circuit made of polymer, it is taking credit for having created the world's fastest plastic chip to date -- at 600 KHz -- and having pioneered a technique to print circuits directly onto foils.

"We're still at the beginning of using polymer, an organic material, to mass-produce inexpensive chips that could be used, for instance, as RFID tags, but we're moving steadily ahead," said Wolfgang Mildner, managing director of PolyIC in Erlangen, Germany.

Using its technology, PolyIC plans to next year begin production of a plastic 4-bit chip that could be used for applications such as forgery-proof labeling, according to Mildner. The next step will be a 32-bit chip aimed at applications in the logistics sector.

By 2008, PolyIC hopes to have a chip with a storage capacity of 128 bits and a processing speed of 13.56 MHz to comply with radio frequency identification (RFID) standards, according to Mildner.

Today's bar code labels, which many companies hope to replace with RFID tags, have a typical storage capacity of 44 bits.

The prototype plastic chips of PolyIC contain at least four layers placed on a foil substrate made of a special type of polyester. The electrodes consist of conductive polymers. Above them is a semiconductive layer made from poly-3 alkylthiophene, followed by an insulating polymer layer and a counter-electrode.

Mildner referred to the process as "a chip evolving on foil and becoming one."

The plastic chips are only a few square centimeters in area and have a thickness of 1 micrometer, while the electrodes and the semiconductor layer account for only a few hundred nanometers of the total.

In the lab printing process, researchers use stamps to print the conductors. Then they coat the foil with the semiconductor and insulator using a type of squeegee technology that is common in the textile-printing industry.

PolyIC's goal is to produce RFID chips that cost 1.3 cents, said Norbert Aschenbrenner, a spokesman in the Siemens research and development division. Prices for silicon-based RFID chips range from 39 cents to 66 cents.

PolyIC was launched after Siemens decided to spin off its plastic chip research activities into the new joint venture with Kurz, which specializes in production of stamping foils, according to Aschenbrenner.

Albrecht von Truchsess, a spokesman for Metro AG, which is at the forefront of deploying RFID technology in the European retail sector, called the PolyIC development "super." Metro welcomes all technology advances that will help make the price of RFID chips become "a nonissue," von Truchsess said.

In an interview in the German weekly business magazine WirtschaftsWoche, Zygmunt Mierdorf, a Metro board member, said he expects to have the retail group's entire operations -- from the producer and shipper to the warehouse and checkout counter -- equipped with RFID technology within the next 15 years.

Since November, 22 suppliers have been delivering products on pallets marked with RFID tags, according to von Truchsess. The goal is to have around 100 suppliers using RFID by the end of this year.

Currently, around 20 of Metro's 1,800 stores and distribution centers in Germany are using RFID, according to von Truchsess. The goal is 250 by year's end, he said.

Metro, based in Dusseldorf, Germany, has more than 2,500 retail stores and distribution stores worldwide.

Posted by dimitri at 05:26 AM | Comments (0)

January 12, 2005

what a world....

I receive a travel warning email and here is a great snippit:

Airline Insider

Did you know this about Nuevo Continente?!?

It is illegal for any person within the United States, as well as U.S. citizens, nationals, or resident aliens living elsewhere to fly on the Peruvian airline Nuevo Continente.

Think Random

So the new Apple shuffle is making think... Should I have waited just 2 months more and got an IPOD Shuffle instead of the SanDisk? The answer is no.

What is the Shuffle really selling? Some say good design. Some say simplicity. Some even say control! I believe they are just selling iTunes.

The device uses iTunes to understand and choose its "randomness". I bet soon there will be a constant to this randomness. People will say hey but what if I am in the mood for a sound at that moment.

Below is a wired article excerpt:
"I have seen the future, and it is called Shuffle," writes Alex Ross, the New Yorker's music critic, who seems to have recently acquired an iPod.

Stuffy old listening habits -- like listening to albums from beginning to end -- are being thrown out in favor of allowing machines to choose songs at random, which often leads to unexpected, and magical, juxtapositions of music.

"There is something thrilling about setting the player on Shuffle and letting it decide what to play next," Ross writes. "The little machine often goes crashing through barriers of style in ways that change how I listen."

New owner????? So this is where we get our values? Is this a real article about a product or is this a "puff piece", Sorry for my frankness...

He talks of listening to an album from beginning to end? I am not sure when was the last time I did that. That might be more because there hasn't been a good full album in a while. People I have talked with listen to music by genre. So it is good for that, until one wants a specific song

The Shuffle is cool because it is like a sort of personal radio of your music. But one can listen to the radio so much...

In the end the Shuffle is a cute product but surely not its last revision... This could be a good start and is surely a selling point for IPOD owners to get this as well. To question the future of the IPOD I would rather ask, "when is it going network capable?

Posted by dimitri at 01:08 PM | Comments (0)

January 11, 2005

graffiti ringtones?

Saw this on engadget while looking at the cool new stuss and CES and then looked up more information about the abstract Motorola idea. seems it came out for the music conference last year... oooooooh interactive and fun...

graffiti ringtone

Read the more to see a pulled article and find some codes to put in.

There was also a link to a japanese site where there was a Burton Snowboard jacket with a IPOD jack to listen and ride... wonder how it work is 30 below?

Motoglyph, Designed and Developed by Digit

www.digitlondon.com

Digit devised and executed an interactive installation, MotoGlyph for the exclusive nightly Sunset Sessions at Miami's M3 Festival. The innovative installation and related website were developed to represent Motorola's sponsorship of the 2004 Miami Music Summit.

The installation comprised of three glass panels within the MotoGlyph unit, each possessing its own unique library of sounds. Guests were invited to create their own unique digital signature or illustration upon the wall from which the variables of the marks and strokes were translated into the author's own sound and animation.

Users were then able to go to the MotoGlyph website where they could download an MP3 of their unique ringtone to their mobile phone.
www.hellomoto.com/motoglyph

Digit developed a technology so users were could write on the walls with a custom made 'virtual spray can', the movements tracked via ultrasound. The movements were back projected onto glass panels, creating a virtual graffiti wall and the sensation of writing in 'light'. In real time the movements affect and create sounds.

The three panels each have a unique sound effect. The first changes the pitch along the Y axis (from your initial registration point) and adds layers of sound loops dependent on acceleration. The second layers a number of sounds loops together depending on acceleration. The third constructs at random a beat pattern from a number of libraries. It then plays this forwards and backwards depending on direction along the X axis. The speed of playback is connected to the acceleration so for example is the user "scribbles" back and forth you will hear a "DJ scratching" effect.

Visitors had to 'sign out' from the wall, indicating that the signature or illustration had finished for it to be stored on the database. Every autograph and scrawl was filed for the author to listen to on the spot or visit the website and download as a unique ringtone, MP3 or desktop wallpaper.

Please visit the related website www.hellomoto.com/motoglyph to listen to a few examples of authors' sounds. Any one of the following codes can be entered on the homepage to proceed:

20051, 20134, 20191, 20412, 20650, 30062, 30260

The installation was first shown from March 5-9 2004 at the M3 Summit music festival. Motorola plan to tour the project throughout the States over 2004, specific locations tbc.

Posted by dimitri at 10:55 PM | Comments (0)

January 06, 2005

MTA

Why is it subways in NYC have no maps inside the stations?
It can be a real pain if you want to plan in the warmth during the winter.

It is so hard to figure out what route once you are in a subway. Have look the next time you ride the MTA....

Posted by dimitri at 03:43 PM | Comments (0)

January 05, 2005

Manual transfer

Boy long and painful...

but I cleaned out some stuff...

Posted by dimitri at 12:10 PM | Comments (0)

Making a transfer

So I am trying my best to move the contents from one blog to another... Boy is this more that I planned. I think I will get there, but at 2:50am I am not getting anywhere farther tonight.
There is a ways still to go. This transfer then the moblog photo gallery. And then an image gallery that will come there after.

Time will pass and I hope this all to be done. For tonight though... Have a good one!

Posted by dimitri at 02:50 AM | Comments (0)

January 03, 2005

Music on the Go

So I have was an early adopter of the IPOD I bought the first generator IPOD and loved it. The spin wheel was so cool it was like spinning records. This was such a great way to get my music around. I have a loved collecting CD for a while, so my collection is really large... 4 days of burning... constantly... in the end I filled and switched with that IPOD and enjoyed what ever I had at that moment. It was a 5 gig IPOD and thought that was fine and then came the next generation 15 and 20 gig, 15 was the only one I could get my hands on at the time, for I was living in Milano, Italy and was about to ship off to India.. An ideal place for a single device with a massive amount of music. 15 gigs would have to do... I almost didn't get that... But on a trip 5 gig fell out of my backpack... faith I guess.

4 years later and we are up to 60 gig and photos oooooh... I find with a broken hard disk which i am planning to fix at some point, once pick up the new drive.

Where am I going with this? The big question: Do i get the new Photo IPOD? No I figure I would go the other way. I am going to get an iRiver. I like the idea of the iRiver with a camera, such a funny idea but fun.

Looking around I noticed that iRiver is not a hard disk as well. I bumped into the ScanDisk mp3 Player, it is 1 gig. It is truly perfect. Why? I have roughly 140 gigs of music and going through all music on the device i rather fill up a few albums and go with that. usually I get into groves and listen to the same stuff for a while.

The player is perfect, it also can store files and all the songs are drag and drop no need for a software like iTunes.

Plus what happens when a battery runs out, with the IPOD the battery last a long time, but there are those times one forget, so I can use rechargable batteries and get 30 hours, then if I forget, I can stop at a corner store and I can pick up a battery which will last another thirty hours and start listening from that moment.

Posted by dimitri at 08:35 PM | Comments (0)

January 01, 2005

Bastard

Thought of an idea for t-shirts...

persective

got to look for the logo -eps

Posted by dimitri at 03:20 PM | Comments (0)

December 30, 2004

Day before New Years

So I took it as my new years resolution to set a thoughts and comment blog. This will have a lot of the stuff on my mind that I see and think about. welcome new blog to my life!

I will add a gallery of all my photos too. I am interested to get all my work online.

I hope to get this right.

There will be a period of thought which are old but I find important.

Posted by dimitri at 12:01 PM | Comments (0)

October 15, 2004

wireless space

Well, my life has spent every summer on an island in greece. there are two primary towns Chora and Scala. Scala is the port. there where the small fishing boats prepare to leave for the day is a coffee shop called the Arion. this coffee shop is the center for activity before leaving for the beach. it is a place for meeting and deciding where to go, having breakfast or just a plain old coffee. it is a great place because everything happen there in front of your eye the local activities and characters to their things, the traffic passes you by, people need want and must pass by at some point. this makes it a social gathering and people watching place. my favorite activity in a public space. As of four years ago wireless access has been added in the area. One would think, "boy, greek island, who needs the internet." i can agree but could you agree that if that coffee shop became your offices space where you read and answered your mail, which would be better?

I think there are many ways to look at this new phenomena of wireless space and office anywhere. yes it is horrible to listen to people yelling as they walk down the street shouting "NO, THAT WRONG RE DO ALL THE WORK BEFORE I GET BACK..." what does the world care... well take the silent work like email and bring it into the street and who knows its happening... what is is horrible to sit in a coffee shop with a laptop computer out? well I see how it is not worst then a newspaper... and that is expected to happen. Todays world is getting smaller and small and more stuffy, why not take advantage of the world around us, and wireless spaces are there to help.

Posted by dimitri at 10:18 AM | Comments (0)

September 26, 2004

Bryant Park

Blog assignment for next week: What did you see in Bryant Park? Do you think
wireless is a good thing for the park? What factors contribute to the
success/failure of this project in your opinion? How does it relate to what
you’re been reading about good public spaces?

Having dealt with installations i found the park interesting in a few ways one is distances and interference and then the design layout.

I have install over great distances, and also through problematic materials like jungle. why is Bryant park have any problems with connections? funny we sat near the fountain and it was almost impossible to connect, I sit inside a house 200-300 meter an ap in a tropical downpour and have no problems. seems strange but that fact is 802.11 equipment is just inconsistent it make life hard installing and is quite a shame so I learn one must be on top of all the news. even one AP version to the next can have major repercussions on a project.

next as a designer by education it was lovely to see that a park know to be a simple place of standardized objects was about to get the space new life by making the park seem and feel more like a elegant back yard. having the table and chairs the way they are is a wonderful addition the park experience... glad to see the old picnic tables were thrown aside.

these two aspects above make for the park's problems and glories invisible and easy to works around they help to give a easily empty void space a great possibility to by known and recognized and appreciated for what is truly is worth.

Posted by dimitri at 05:14 PM | Comments (0)

September 23, 2004

Thoughts on Live Journal

LiveJournal.com is part of the collection of tools available online today for people to create journals known as web-logs or blogs. Journals have traditionally been used for an inner dialogue, usually with the intention that no one else will read it. "Journal", like "diary", connotes a level of privacy that seems to stand in contrast to anything that is broadcasted, or "live", yet LiveJournal.com pushes journaling into a public space, where the journal becomes a communication tool, connecting the user with his/her friends and communities. The site serves as an outlet for introspection, much like a physical journal does, as well as allowing its community members to explore and sculpt their public personae.

On LiveJournal.com, a user's circle of friends is a constant presence, and an integral part of the experience of the site. Each LiveJournal.com user has the opportunity to select other users as friends, and the interface allows for all his or her friends' latest entries to appear on one page in chronological order, so the user can easily see when a friend has updated. All LiveJournal.com posts have the potential for comments, though this feature can be disabled. Unlike the pen-and-paper journaler, a LiveJournal has an ever-present audience to keep in mind. Instead of being closed back into the notebook, each new entry lies in wait for feedback. Exhibitionism and voyeurism are allowed to flourish.

Like Tripod and Geocities communities in the early days of the web, each user's LiveJournal is centered on the individual's thoughts and interests. Visitors come to a user's site because those thoughts or interests resonate with the visitor. When people visit a LiveJournal, the prominent link to the friends and user info pages, as well as other users' comments on the entries, encourage them to meander through to other users and communities. Practically every mention of a LiveJournal.com member on the site is linked to his or her journal, which encourages users to seek each other out. This emphasis on making direct connections is also reflected behind the scenes with the ability to manage your friend relationships from high level navigation links in the software itself.

However, LiveJournal.com does not completely reject the idea of privacy usually inherent in a traditional journal. LiveJournal.com's unique feature, in comparison to other blogging tools and online communities, is the way in which various levels of privacy are controlled. Unlike Blogger, Movable Type and other blogging tools, LiveJournal.com lets the user decide who will be able to read which post. A post can be declared public, visible to anyone on the web; private, visible to only the user; friends-only, visible only to other LiveJournal.com users who the user has selected as friends; or to certain user-defined groups of friends. This feature allows the user to navigate the different worlds he or she moves in and out of, while maintaining a consistent identity. A person, for example, may post an essay-style entry one day and a personal soul-searching entry the next. The audience for each would be different. In real life, an individual gets to choose which information he or she shares with which people. LiveJournal.com builds this capability into the software, which makes it a more sophisticated tool for managing online identity than many other blogging or online community tools. This feature alone pushes the tone of LiveJournals? from broadcast to conversation.

Meeting people on the Internet often feels risky because one does not know if the people one meets are truly the people they claim to be. By its nature, the Internet is a step removed from reality, which allows people to put on different masks much more easily than in real life. The community-oriented nature of LiveJournal.com and its layered privacy controls provide users with a feeling of security that they may not feel on the web at large. LiveJournal.com users often feel comfortable being honest about themselves. Their interaction may start out as a conversation with themselves, but their willingness to open the conversation to others allows communities to form. The act of controlling privacy options, both for individuals and in groups, lends an inherent feeling of security.

Though signing up at LiveJournal.com is a brief process, creating an identity and becoming part of the communities requires investment. Because access to other users is largely at their discretion, and connections are often made through existing friends, communities and individuals can weed out users who seek to deceive or abuse them. Potential abusers understand that what they say, they say to an audience, and they can be easily closed out of the discussion, perhaps even more easily than real life.

LiveJournal.com does not dictate to its participants the nature of what a community or group should be. The interest box in the user info area is free form and comma delimited. There are no friend requests, which might promote social anxiety; instead a user can filter which friends can read which posts without the friends' knowledge. There are closed communities for those who choose them, and open ones. Additionally, not all one's friends have to be listed on one's public friends list, another level of privacy.

The traditional journal or diary is a way to keep a memento of one’s life just for oneself. It is a very personal artifact and evolves into a private ritual, with random marks, images, doodles, or scraps of material collaged together from various places visited. LiveJouranals? are text, images, quizzes and other plug-ins that this Opensource community creates, still a collection albeit less freeform. LiveJournal.com trades the tactile experience of a private book for a more social exploration of self without sacrificing the safety and control that a diary offers. The consequences and new conventions born of this form of socialization are still evolving.

Posted by dimitri at 02:21 PM | Comments (0)

October 25, 2000

Seven habit of social software

identity
anonymity
pseudomity
lurking

prescense
realtime

relationships
roles

coversations

groups

reputation
keep on thinking too much
true reputation is truly based on identity

sharing

added bonus:
valance:

1 a : the degree of combining power of an element or radical as shown by the number of atomic weights of a monovalent element (as hydrogen) with which the atomic weight of the element or the partial molecular weight of the radical will combine or for which it can be substituted or with which it can be compared b : a unit of valence
2 a : relative capacity to unite, react, or interact (as with antigens or a biological substrate) b : the degree of attractiveness an individual, activity, or object possesses as a behavioral goal

addressability

Posted by dimitri at 02:36 PM | Comments (0)