Here’s a powerful look back at this thing we call the Internet, and how it’s different than anyone could have imagined. Plus an ominous and foreboding look into the future. Definitely worth a read.
Anthropology of the Web
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Monthly Archives: January 2008
The shoe’s on the other foot
I just read an interesting review article of Microsoft Windows. Alternatives to Windows (like Mac OSX and various builds of GNU/Linux) often get a bad rap because they are inevitably looked at through the eyes of a Windows user. This article attempts to put the shoe on the other foot by looking at Windows through the eyes of a Linux user (but don’t worry, it’s not overly-technical). Another article points out that it’s unfair to do a feature-to-feature comparison.
The Book of Lost Things Review
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly is the story of a young boy named David who loses his mother at an early age after a long struggle with disease. When his father remarries, David takes his anger out on their new family. At the same time, David’s family moves to a new house in the English countryside, where David begins to see and hear strange things, including his mother’s voice. Before realizing it, David becomes trapped in another world, full of strange creatures and stories. Many of the stories are alternate versions of those he loved to read back home. As David navigates his way through this treacherous world, he learns about himself and the world he left behind.
Connolly’s writing is great and the story is enchanting. One of the most interesting things is that the last third of the book is dedicated to Connolly’s review of the various fairy tales found in the book. He includes a brief analysis of what each fairy tale represents in the book and how and why they became altered in the story. He also includes a traditional telling of each for reference. These analyses added an intellectual element to the book that complimented the story quite nicely.
4/5
The Office
Well, talk about a productive winter break. I went from never having seen more than 10 minutes of NBC’s The Office to now having seen every episode. I bought Sadie Seasons 1 & 2, and it had me hooked. I’m not going to lie. The show is definitely funny, but if it weren’t for the Jim and Pam storyline, I don’t know if it would have had me hooked. I think that underlying story helps move the plot along and adds tension that a normal comedy or sitcom doesn’t have. And I guess I’m just a sucker for a good love story once and a while.
Ah well, a few notable quotables I picked up:
- “Two queens on casino night. I’m going to drop a deuce on everybody!” -Michael Scott
- “It kinda sounds like prison is better than Dunder-Mifflin.” -Pam Beesley
- “Have you heard of paper?” -Dwight Schrute
4.5/5
Joining the Facebook
After holding out for about 5 years, I finally joined the infamous Facebook over winter break. Although my 2 cousins and sister helped me set up an account, I made the conscious decision to join a few weeks earlier but never got around to it due to finals. My decision to join was definitely not made out of any enthusiasm to their service. Rather I started feeling like I was socially isolating myself from my peers in school, and this is something I want to change. If you’re reading this, feel free to add me as a friend.
I still don’t think I’ll use it too much, but at least I’ve joined, which is half the battle. One thing I have found is a nifty little application called Wordbook, which allows you to add new posts at this blog to my Facebook feed. This will hopefully bring some new blog traffic for me and get some of the people stuck in Facebook out into the real web. Anyways, a more thorough post (rant) of my thoughts on social networks like Facebook and why it took me so long to join is forthcoming.
I, Robot Review
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov is a collection of short stories told by Dr. Susan Calvin as she is about to retire from her position of chief robot psychologist. First, I’d like to mention that if you were a fan of the movie and are expecting a similar story, you’ll be very disappointed. Aside from the title and a few character’s names, there is basically no overlap between the two. This is not to say that if you enjoyed one you cannot enjoy the other. In fact, I enjoyed both very much for different reasons. Here I am only concerned with the book.
The stories center around the four laws of robotics, ingrained in every robot produced by US Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc. They usually involve a robot acting in a peculiar way, forcing the scientists to assess where the problems in robotic logic are occurring and how they can be remedied. The logic and deductive analysis appealed to me and Asimov’s writing style made the book very enjoyable to read. It was also nice to read separate stories with an overarching theme than a long story since I was reading it during school. With only a few characters to keep track of, the book was easy to pick up and put down whenever I wanted without getting lost trying to remember details I’d read 3 weeks before. The only criticism I have is that, while the problems were interesting, there wasn’t a whole lot of “story,” which some people might interpret as dry. 3.5/5