Right now I am connected to the internet via some wonderful hub named “MS-Wireless” that, despite a genera-horrible name, has been trucking on for nearly 6 months somwhere across the street from my office. With a locked down guest Wi-Fi and VPN, that hub has been a lifesaver.

Well, with anonymity on the brain, I have been suprised at just how hard true anonymity is on the internet these days. So, of course, the following post from Cult of Mac made me smile:

You know what it’s like when you’re strolling around looking for networks. They’re all the same. They’re all called “belkin54? or “NETGEAR” or “BTHomeHub”. So generic. So default. What we really need is networks with imaginative names. Names like “Vicious Evil Network Of Mayhem”

(more…)

Is there a dark side of email? I couple weeks ago I posted the following on Twitter:

Apparently the answer is yes.

Is there a solution? Brett sent me an email a couple days back. All it contained was a link to one of Google’s new projects: “Mail Goggles”

According to Gmail’s blog,

When you enable Mail Goggles, it will check that you’re really sure you want to send that late night Friday email. And what better way to check than by making you solve a few simple math problems after you click send to verify you’re in the right state of mind?

But as TechCrunch points out, it is far from fool-proof:

There are two problems with the product. First, I hate math. Second, if I want to send a drunken email, and all that’s standing between me and success are a few math problems, I’m gonna go find that calculator.

And of course what about Twitter, IM, or the infamous drunk Facebook wall posting? In the meantime Brett, I resent the insinuation that I am bad at math.

They say the one thing you are never supposed to do on a blog is go “silent”. Sorry about that. This semester has been so crazy busy that the blog got pushed to the back for just a bit there.

So what has been stealing all of my time? Well, on top of thesis proposals, chapter edits, preparing to launch the MCAT for the 2009 year, and regular course work, I also will be giving two presentation/lectures in the next two weeks on issues of anonymity and identity online, and computer mediated communication (CMC).

Given my obsession with practices of anonymity and self-identification via technology and communication, these two lectures are a perfect opportunity to share a bit of that crazy passion around campus.

In Communication Theories and Frameworks, I will be providing a veritable smorgasbord  of CMC theories including:

• Cues Filtered Out Theory
• Social Identification Mode of Deindividuating Effects (SIDE)
• Social Information Processing Theory, and
• Hyperpersonal Theory

Of course I am giving the lecture, so there will be plenty of conversation about how anonymity and self-presentation might be understood (or not!) in each of these theories.

In Netspeak, the linguistically oriented CMC course I am taking this semester, I will be leading the class in considering all of the ways that anonymity problematizes our understanding of communication. This is not to suggest there is a deficit, in fact quite the opposite. We will be examining various practices of anonymity and self-identification, and evaluate the utility of the resulting identities across different technologies and user practices.

Hold on to your hats, and I will let you know how it turns out.

Well this was flattering. The Buzz Bin, Livingston Communication’s blog, gave a shout-out for one of my posts on gnovis.

Why blog? There are many reasons and many types of blogs. Jed Brubaker of gnovis says, “Blogging is just one way in which to assist the collaboration and dissemination of knowledge.” Brubaker argues that at a time when schools aren’t sending kids home with textbooks, it’s important to provide an outlet where information is widely available and “every voice” can be heard.

This was after Geoff Livingston himself dropped by gnovis and shared his thoughts (check out the comments on gnovis).

Thanks guys, I am sure I speak for all of gnovis when I say that it is great to have you keeping an eye one us.

Did you know that 80-90% of all scientific discovery has been accomplished in the last 100 years? Apparently if we calculate the percentage of scientists who are still alive from the total number of scientists that have ever lived, we will get just about the same number: 80-90% (Sismondo, 2004).

Of course asking a question like “do you believe in science?” might seem absurd. Ever since my days back in Alexander’s lab at the University of Utah I have considered myself one of those scientists, but now having read too much philosophy I find myself questioning what I was doing. Much like Bruno Latour’s anxious friend who only dares to admit he isn’t so certain about “reality”, I find myself trying to justify this scientist identity.

Looking towards the past, and in anticipation of my future, gnovis is running an essay of mine that briefly considers two theoretical heavyweights: Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn.

If Popper is right, then we are accomplishing some of the most remarkable work in human history. However, if Kuhn is correct, then we might need to come to terms with the reality that all of that work might be thrown out the window some day.

This time around I don’t have any answers. If you do, I would love to hear them.

Read more here:
Falsifying my Paradigms @ gnovis Journal

TheMachineIsMe twittered me after my post on Treadmill desks to make sure I had heard of the Hawaii Chair.

Oh, yes. I have. Here, TMIS, is a rocking endorsement:

It kind of makes me appreciate my non-walking, non-moving desk. Just don’t take away my second monitor. Then we would have a problem.

Welcome to the week!

Today’s video entertainment is brought to you by Microsoft. After teasing the world with two either brilliant or horrendous ads featuring the unlikely duo of Bill Gates and Seinfeld, the two co-stars have (literally) walked into the sunset. Speculation remains on whether these two ads were faux or not, but either way they have been replaced with this:

Always a sucker for ads, I was excited to see this new campaign. It is certainly smart. We will just have to wait to see if it is effective. Engaging in brand wars while employing the competition’s terminology (“I’m a Mac/PC”) is always dangerous.

Enjoy the movie, and check out the comments on YouTube if you get a chance. blackghost10sg’s quip was especially entertaining:

I’m a PC and i have virus now. oops! I’m dead now. lol!

I recently shook up my gym routine. I decided I needed more cardio. You know, all that time behind a desk at work, behind a book at school (well, hundreds of books). Of course, the problem might have nothing to do with the gym. When trying to shove three lives into the space of one, why not blame my faux-obesity on my “outdated” work desk?

Imagine my delight when running across the Treadmill Desk! Jason Kotke brings us today’s innovation, explaining that “some people now work at walking desks, standing-height desks outfitted with treadmills.”

Although this isn’t an entirely new idea, the timing is particularly rich: I am preparing to start a thesis exploring the ways in which technologies and users essentially create each other. While I won’t be studying ergonomics, I can’t help but wonder: If my desk has created my hunched back, will these new desks create (as Kotke reports) thin World of Warcraft addicts?

Here is some video to drive the point home:

(Thanks John for the link!)

As a new member of gnovis’ New Media Team, I will be spending a good chunk of time this year engaged in “academic blogging.” I am not quite sure what that is yet, but I am thrilled to invite you to help me find out by participating in the conversations on gnovis’ blog. In case you haven’t bookmarked it, here is the address: http://www.gnovisjournal.org/blog

Bravely charting its first year, the New Media Team is comprised of Patricia Fancher, Margarita Rayzberg, and myself. This means there is a lot of passion on gnovis’ blog, and so we thought it was appropriate to each take a moment and talk about what blogging means to us.

“Why We Blog” is a four part series that considers the relationship between the academy, journals, blogs, and their authors. Can you relate to Margarita’s telenovela-blogger-lifestyle? Or is blogging more like Trish’s caffeinated conversations? You might, as Brad Weikel does, consider blogging a type of exploration, or agree with my belief that blogging can fulfill an obligation to the community:

I blog with the hope that the open dissemination of knowledge will add pliability to the nature of academia and education, much in the same way blogs are currently restructuring traditional news media. I strongly believe that the Ivory Tower has an obligation to the global community that makes its very existence possible. Blogging is just one way in which to assist the collaboration and dissemination of knowledge. In this information age, there is no reason that information should be scare or that every voice should not be heard.

Or perhaps you have a different viewpoint all together! That is what gnovis is about. Come share your thoughts, tell us what you think. With your participation we can, as Brad Weikel hopes, “propel the discourse, instead of merely chronicling it.”

Welcome to the conversation!

Also known as things I am a bit embarrassed to admit I haven’t gotten around to yet.

Back in 2005, when I first started coming to D.C. for business, I was a power-tourist. Each day I would finish with my work obligations around 3:30 and then book-it over to the Mall to get in a museum. This of course didn’t always work.

Funny story: One afternoon after having spent most of the previous night preparing for that day at work, my touristy dedication had me at the Hirshorn viewing art. Intrigued by the video exhibit downstairs, I walked in, sat down, and was happy to be off my feet. Next thing I knew a security guard was roughly poking me.

“Museum’s closed,” he said. Through the mix of exhaustion and confusion, I suddenly realized that this poking, so anachronistic in the moment, could only mean that I had fallen asleep. Asleep, in a suit, sitting on a bench in the dark. Lovely. Rushing past the guard, I quickly excused myself, still trying to reorient myself to the circumstances.

When I moved to D.C. I fully intended to spend every weekend at the Smithsonians. “One a week,” I told myself. I am sure many people have this ambition, and like many of the same, I am sure we never quite make it. Well, with the prospect of moving on for that Ph.D. I decided that to start this academic year I should make a list of all those things I have been meaning to do, but haven’t quite gotten around to. So without further ado, in no particular order, my top ten: (more…)