Television sets often determine the layout of the furniture in communal rooms. Their position in the typical American home is a clear testament to their social function, a purpose that can be traced back to the origins of theater and other communal rituals. Television programmers have always been involved in family and/or group dynamics. Successful [...]
From the Wikipedia entry on the origins of the scrapbook in the 15th century and their ongoing function as self-portraits: From the standpoint of the psychology of authorship, it is noteworthy that keeping notebooks is in itself a kind of tradition among litterateurs. A commonplace book of literary memoranda may serve as a symbol to [...]
Nissan Leaf, Apple iPhone recently, i went to check out one of the most expensive high tech gadgets you can buy: a new car. perhaps, our experience was atypical. but I suspect not given the larger transition underway in the auto industry. at one dealership, only a single dealer – out of say 10 – [...]
What RSS promised, Facebook delivered: easy to use, personalized news. There’s tremendous canny in shortening “subscribe” to “like”.
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Computers have transformed music production and consumption by enabling the cheap and easy manipulation of sound. Digitization took apart music culture (industry included) and put it back together again in a very new way. Using free software, consumers took apart the pop album ushering in an era of digital singles. Using samplers, producers took apart [...]
One of the benefits that record companies enjoyed when albums were the prevalent packaging for pop music was the upward pressure this scheme placed on song prices. In a typical pop* album, there will be a few hit songs as well as some songs that never really catch on. Yet even these less popular songs [...]
[I wrote the below last August but never posted it. Now, seeing the depiction of movie color palettes at moviebarcode, I've relented.] The Speech Analysis and Interpretation Lab (SAIL) at the USC engineering school has an Emotions Research Group which might make my dreams come true: the automated analysis of television dramas for the sake [...]
I began this current journal, XSML, with the intent of reducing my own notes to extra small, XML-friendly updates. Increasingly, I have been drawn by the allure of the 140 character limit of Twitter. I may get a round Tuit and synchronize my use of Twitter with this blog. For now, here’s a dump of [...]
Here’s a headline you don’t want to miss, from January 18, 2007: MIDDLE EAST: Population growth poses huge challenge for Middle East and North Africa – – International Herald Tribune. More from the Arab Planning Institute: Currently, an estimated 2 million Egyptians are out of work. The overall unemployment measures, high as they are, do [...]