Theoreti.ca – Page 149 – Research notes taken on subjects around multimedia, electronic texts, and computer games.

The LongPen

LongPen Logo The Globe and Mail has a story about Margaret Atwood’s LongPen technology, Border no barrier for Black’s autograph pen. I remain convinced this is a really stupid idea, but I have the feeling no one else does. Exactly why would someone want to not get their book signed by telepresence. The videoconferencing with the author may be a draw, but the remote signing? The answer, according to the site is that,

According to fans, this is a more intimate experience than a traditional signing, as you are looking directly into the face of the fan, as opposed to briefly looking up from your chair when signing in person. The video conferencing also makes it easier for the fan to be expressive about your work, as the technological distance makes them less nervous.

Atwood must really hate book signing tours.

Blog Action Day

Blog Action Day Logo Johnny Rogers reminded me that today is Blog Action Day when we are supposed to blog about the environment. I wish this wasn’t such a depressing subject, but my understanding is that this is the big frog in warming water problem that everyone knows about but noone will do anything about. The problem goes something like this:
We can have clean energy (coal with scrubbers) or we can have energy that doesn’t produce greenhouse gases (nuclear) but we don’t seem to be able to have both in the quantities we need. The amount of energy we need is growing with countries like India and China adding plants at a rate that will wipe out any improvements in North America and Europe. (See New Coal Plants Bury ‘Kyoto’.) Running out of oil may not cure us because there is lots of coal (under Alberta among other places) that can be converted into energy or oil. Biofuels won’t solve much as there just isn’t enough biomass unless we clear cut in a way that doesn’t replenish the soil. Solar and the other forms don’t seem viable replacements yet.

What is depressing is the politics (everyone agrees it is a problem, but no politician is willing to risk drastic solutions) and the the economics (to cut back on greenhouse gases significantly may mean serious economic disadvantage that is not sustainable politically.) In short we are watching ourselves warm the planet. Time to buy beachfront property in Winnipeg.

Which brings me back to Blog Action Day. What will BAD do to change this tragedy? How can the blogosphere contribute, or will it just give the wealthy (who can afford to have blogs) a “feel good” way of doing nothing other than vent? The only way to really change the outcome may be to relinquish the high-tech life style that includes blogging. Look at the energy consumption table for computers – Barrie Hydro estimates that two computers left on at night waste $100.00 per year. Now look at some of the highlights of Computers and the Environment. Computers are part of the problem.

David McCallum: Warbike

Artist David McCallum has a cool project that was featured on the CBC radio show Spark. The Warbike Project is a bicycle with a device that creates a sonnification of wireless network activity it encounters as you bike around. Bells play as the device encounters a new wifi network and so on. You can sign out the bike now at Interaccess in Toronto.

The Warbike turns this wireless network activity into sound. As you cycle the streets, you’ll hear the activity of this invisible communications layer that permeates our public spaces. Who knew that so much was going on?

Digital Historian Roy A. Rosenzweig Passes Away

On Humanist they announced the passing away of¬† Digital Historian Roy A. Rosenzweig. I had worked with him at the University of Virginia Tools Summit and admired many of the projects he led like the 9/11 archive. He will be missed in the digital humanities.

PocketMod: The Free Disposable Personal Organizer

Image of Paper Folding PocketMod: The Free Disposable Personal Organizer is a cool web site where you can make small booklets for your pocket from a printout. They have Flash tool where you drag out the types of pages you want and then it prints the PocketMod so all you have to do is cut and fold into a booklet. Saves on cute little pocket organizers as they have a variety of pages you can use. A great way to recycle paper too.

Otto Ege and Karpeles: Manuscript Mavericks

Screen Shot of Manuscript Interface
Manuscripts are on my mind. At the 2007 Congress I heard a lecture by Peter Stoicheff about the architecture of the page. Stoicheff talked about Otto Ege, a manuscript trader who cut up manuscripts and sold sets of pages – one (set) ended up at the University of Saskatchewan and was featured in an exhibit Scattered Leaves that ran during the conference. I was fascinated first by his reorientation from the book to the page and then by the project of Remaking the Book – virtually reconstructing the books that were scattered across the sets Ege assembled. Stoicheff pointed out that it is easy to criticize Ege for cutting up books to sell pages, but went on to ask about the history of the book as the privileged object. The immediate horror we feel when we hear or see the cutting up of a book hints at how fundamental and unexamined an object the book is to academics. Stoicheff’s The Future of the Page (conference and book)

I was reminded of this story while reading about the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museums, two of which are in historic buildings nearby in Buffalo. David Karpeles has put together what is supposed to be one of the largest private manuscript collections and makes many of the manuscripts available both through his museums and online through the Karpeles Manuscript Library. I particularly like the neat interface for viewing the manuscript with a lens to see the plain text. The web site for the Museums, however, is idiosyncratc, with music (including O Canada) that plays and poor navigation. Is Karpeles another manuscript maverick like Otto Ege?

Playing the Gallery

Playing the Gallery Logo I just gave a paper for the Playing the Gallery symposium organized by the McIntosh Gallery, The University of Western Ontario. My paper was on “The Problem with Serious Games” where I worked with definitions of play to work out the tensions between playing games and serious work.

Serious Games (not serious gaming) is a label being used to self identify and authorize games designed for non-entertainment purposes. In 2002 the Serious Games Initiative was founded at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars. The CMP Game Group has been running semi-academic Serious Game Summits and a web site Serious Game Source.