Google Autopilot

I thought this link was interesting. Google's Autopilot is a program that automatically responds to your e-mails so you can spend more time keeping up with your other messaging systems such as Facebook, etc.

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/autopilot/index.html

Some links from our presentation on biological citizenship...

Because we couldn't get a wireless connection today, here are links to some of the links we were referring to:

The Family That Walks on All Fours (there's a preview of the documentary on this page):
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/allfours/
Cybernetic Evolution:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzd1OiP27s0
Hugh Rienhoff's struggle to decode his daughter's DNA:
http://www.wired.com/medtech/genetics/magazine/17-02/ff_diygenetics
Marjo Van Dijken and the push to sterilize "unfit" mothers:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/04/humanrights-women/print
ACT UP! Paris:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N08sudptGw
http://www.actupny.org/alert/denialists.html
A cybernetic eye:
http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/102/C7184/
James Watson, the racist:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/fury-at-dna-pioneers-theory-africans-are-less-intelligent-than-westerners-394898.html
Stephen Jay Gould's response to racial bias in IQ testing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axcgdAUXai4

Ethnography of a Basement Dweller

This is FPS Doug. He is a character on an internet-based show called Pure Pwnage (shot here in Toronto). FPS Doug is obsessed with playing first-person shooter games. He became a meme when this video of him shouting "BOOM, HEADSHOT!!!" first circulated the underbelly of the internet. It was enough of a cultural phenomenon that a character in the most recent Grand Theft Auto game was modeled after him, and many FPS players mod their own games to enable a recording of Doug shouting his catch-phrase any time they get a headshot.

I should note that he is irritating from about the 2 second mark, but it's worth watching for both the scene where he's getting ready to go for a jog, and the scene where he describes the intersection between his virtual world and his RL world while driving down the street. Note: Language Warning.



In light of today's question regarding the validity of ethnography in a virtual environment, I wonder how it would be remotely possible to study a lunatic like FPS Doug. Unfortunately, his portrayal is popular mainly because of its high degree of authenticity.

On a side note, here are some Furry LARPers. Anyone who remains curious can google "furry" or "yiff" at their own peril. My apologies to any furries in the class.

Another Onion piece...

I laughed outloud. I also snorted. If you're troubled by coarse language, perhaps this one's not for you...

A funny take on technological progress...

Teaching Mom to Internet

This Onion article ran years ago. I was reminded of it 2 months ago when, calling my mom to find out if she had received an email I sent her, she told me that her "firefox is broken."
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/38572

They've since updated it:
http://www.theonion.com/content/radio_news/elderly_woman_destroys

And... something on whether the generational divide influences perspectives on reality vs. virtual reality in online relationships:
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90882/6522273.html

What the google?

Google's newest application, My Location, uses cell signals to locate user's locations. If indeed the medium is the message, what does this innovation have to say about privacy and the individual in an interconnected world?

Check it out:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2223620,00.asp