Cell phone research...

So I'm going to be taking a class this semester called mobile lab. Pretty much it will be creating media and applications using cell phones . Now the class will be supplying the cell phones, but one the class is over, we will of course have to give the phones back. =(
Well the past couple of weeks I have been researching different kinds of cell phones to see what I might be able to get for myself incase I might want to continue trying my hand at cell phone based projects. At the moment I can neither afford the type of cell phones that we will be using nor does my current provider, which is Sprint, carry some of the best phones out there for this area. I really don't know what it is, but Sprint always seems to behind everyone in the phone market. I mean it took them nearly a year and a half to finally pick-up the razor. So here I am looking at other cell phones that are of course offered by other providers. One of them being the I-phone which I really want one (many might argue that that is due to my love for Apple) but the I-Phone is for another blog entry.
I got pretty tired of going from website to website and just reading the reviews and looking at pic of the phones. I want to actually see what they were capable of. So I decided to hit youtube. It was here that i found video reviews for many of the different phones out there. The one that have been using the most is from phonescoop, which have a website under the same name. There are other groups on youtube that also do their own reviews of the phones, which can be good just so that you can get different opinions of the phones, but phonescoop has worked out just fine for me for the moment. Now I still haven't decided what phone could work the best for me, but the great thing is thanks to video hosting sites like youtube, it is a bit easier really see the full capability of the product that you interested in knowing about.

My return and Second-life...

Well here it is nearly three months later. I know that it has been way to long, but better now then never. Its been a long three months, but I ready to jump back on the band wagon and start getting this blog where it was needs to go. Where exactly that is suppose to be, I’m not exactly sure yet, but it's not going to go anywhere if I'm just letting it sit here and collect dust. I am back to start posting my findings about the world of new media. I will be continuing to work on my audio pod-cast, but hopefully eventually I may add video to this blog. I been doing some research over the past couple of months on how to maybe incorporate live video into here, but till then your stuck with what you've been getting so far. =)

Well now to the topic of my entry. I've have been spending a lot of time on second-life and have gained a new interest on there. Among spending time on the virtual plain, I have also been reading a lot of blogs from people on SL that post about machinima. As I stated in an earlier post, machinima is the process of making movies using video game engines. One really interesting this I have found out is that there are virtual companies within SL that specialize in creating machinima. There are even film festivals in SL for people that have tried there handing at creating there own movie. Some are really awesome, others not as great, but still all in all you have to give props to these people for even trying their hand at it. I have only done a little shooting so far. RL video projects haven't allowed me the time I would like to be able to do more, but the plan for later down the road is to try my hand a completed short film. I have already started networking with other people on SL who I plan to use at actors.

I'm not entirely sure what the full title of the video I have posted here due to my lack of Japanese studies. Damn Kanji! Anyway the video is the open sequence to movie shot made in Second-life. It is very well done and you can see most of it posted on youtube. The opening reminds me so much of an opening from any typical anime. Still from what I have watch of it so far, these people have put a lot of time into it.

Well that is it for now. Before I go I will leave a few links to some of the blogs and sites that I have found from people working in Second-life:

moomoney.workpress.com
taotakashi.wordpress.com
www.naturalselectionstudios.com
www.lunadude.com

Sorry...

for the lack of post or episodes this week. Finals along with grading for me class has just got me so bogged down, but that will all be over by tomorrow morning. Don't worry, I plan on continuing this blog. It's not going to be something that I'm going to just say that I'm done with since the class is. I really want to make this into something. Both with the blog and the pod-cast., and don't worry I plan on making that a weekly event. If i can I want to see if somewhere down the road I can actually get a fan base for it. I guess only time will tell. Well just keep post and I promise this plenty more to come.

Episode #2

Just here posting the Second episode of Kyle1.0
I'll write more about the show later.
Kyle 1.0 #2

The First Official Episode...

Where here we go with the first official or my first attempt at the first episode of Kyle 1.o.
Kyle 1.0 #1

First Experimental 1.0 Podcast

So here is my first attempt at where I may be going with the podcast. I pretty much titled this Kyle 1.0 experiment. This one started out a bit different, but then I put it one hold while I tried another one. The other podcast is considered the First official show and has the format I'm going to try for a while. While I was working on the new one I went back to this one and change it;s format to follow the new one a bit more. I'm calling this the experiment because it's more of an intro to what the show is about, where I next one actually has more of a determined subject. So all i ask is that you guys be gentle with both. I'm probably going to go back and change both of these again, but I wanted to go ahead and try to get some feed back. Screw it I know I said to be gentle, but just rip. Let me know what I need to do differently. Anyway, I hope you guys find some enjoyment in them and here I give you the first Kyle 1.0 Podcast. The next one will follow suit on here tomorrow.
Kyle 1.0 - experimental show

What you'll find in the paper...

So after I finished teaching my class today I decided to take a stroll around campus just to get myself out of the Atec building (which i need to more often). So I hit Johnson and I'm about get on the elevator when I decide to grab the campus paper. On the front page I find an article about how the internet isn't always safe for students due to social networks like facebook and Myspace. I'm reading the article finding out things like how some big corporations are skipping the interview process on some applicants and are checking their facebook sites. If they see and pictures or comments that they don't like, then they decide against them. They had a list of how different students had also lost their jobs due to stuff the either said or posted on there facebook/myspace site. Apparently for UTD even the police are using it to there advantage. The claim they don't check it that often, but they did mention how they are able to keep tabs of parties that are going on on campus due to students posting them on these sites. Some people in the career center have even go as far to advise students that they should watch what they put up on there sites because they never know just how it may end up hurting them in the future. Now I know that people already had to be careful with there sites due to such characters the sick predators that create false accounts just to get close to young girls, but now people are going to have to be careful with there accounts from the other end of the stick, They now have to be careful from people that are there to help us such as job recruiters and the police. I mean these site were created so that students could have fun and keep in touch with there friends, but now it looks that even that could be taken away from everyone.

Columbine all over again...

So I'm pretty sure that you have all heard by now about Virginia Tech. I first saw it around 1:30 when I flipping through the channels. In my opinion it's Columbine all over again, just at a university this time instead of a high school. I will first go off and say that my heart goes out to all of the families that lost a love one there today. I don't know if they have mentioned anything about the gunman yet, but I plan keeping tabs on the news. Well if your about to ask what this has to do with new media, I'm about to tell you. There are two things that I saw that prompted me to write this post when I was watching the news channels. The first was an uncut piece of video that one of the students took during the event. The footage wasn't all that great and was blurry which made me guess that it was shot using his cell phone. Anyway, it was about 30 seconds and you can hear the gun shots up until you hear a cop telling him and others to get out of the area. I really figured that it would be all over youtube now, but before writing this post, I went ahead and did a search for it, and weirdly enough, no one has posted it yet. This does bring me to the second thing. When watching the new-cast on MSNBC, I was reading the text bars at the bottom of the screen, and saw one that said that students were all ready on Myspace and other networks discussing the incident. I was already amazed at how fast information can be transmitted due to media devices such as cell phones how soon it's available thanks to site like Myspace and youtube, but with this situation, I think we are going to find out so much more. I mean when Columbine happened, we didn't have all of this, but now, forget the press. We are going to be able to get the real information almost first hand. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that this whole thing happening was a good thing, but were as in the past we would only get half the truth or what we thought was the truth, with everything that society has at it's disposal, we are going to get the what actually happened straight from the people that had to live through it. I don't know whether to say if the might be good or bad in the long run, but it will defiantly change things for the future.

Well it's started...

Well I can say that apparently my blogs are actually getting read. Two post ago I wrote about the podcast Scriggity and how the original host had left the show. Well I log back on yesterday to find out that the creator of the show Drew, left a comment on my blog. Now if some random reader had left the comment, I probably wouldn't have thought all that much about it, but when the main person for large podcast replies to me, well that is just something else. I originally stated this blog for Dan's class, over the last couple of weeks I thought about it and I think this will be something that I want to continue you with. I mean I don't know whether this will happen again. I mean really, who out there is reading this blog, but since I want to see just how large of a web presence I can create, this really has started me in the right direction.

Well Drew, I'm glad that the split of Shauna from Scriggity has not destroyed both of your friendship, and don't worry because I'm going to continue to watch. I wish you all the best for the show and I hope we do see great things to come.