THe future of the Interweb

Predicting the future of the internet... Not a simple task by any means. Some ideas I'm having so far
-The sheer number of devices able to access it, more than just pdas, phones, computers and portable computers. Things like fridges and tvs.

-Will all our entertainment be streamed over the web? (not with telstra around it won't)

-Education -> Schools probably won't be eliminated completely any time in the near future, but will online learning take on a major role in the lives of many children and adults?

-Holographic video conferencing -> no more grainy webcam images, but real time 3d projected images of the people you are conversing with

-Virtual reality -> Entertainment & training?

-Bandwidth -> Just how huge and ph fat will the pipes be that will deliver all this content and satisfy our needs

Now to choose something and write about it and get "points" from only the bestest lecturer in the whole damn effing world, thats right, I'm talkin about you Big Jase

word up y0

Heres another rad flash I made. The class had to make animated gifs, Steve and I had to make something in flash. I feel I've bettered the world by creating this and sharing it with you, my readers. Yes, all 4 of you. Hi leath!

oh yeah, the flash

There'll be another very exciting post when I figure out what the gay I'm doing my assignment on. If its about the future why can't it be about Cyborgs and lasers? Why does the chicken burger I ate this morning keep repeating on me? Does Jason REALLY look good with a beard?

All these questions and more answered... soon I guess.

The use of sound on the web, for fun and profit no doubt!

The Web's use of sound

The use of sound on the web has been a somewhat tradgic journey. I remember using the web back in 1996 and people thought it was cool to put annoying midi's and other various beeps and noises. This was usually coupled with horrible web design anyway. Together, flashing colours, rotating gifs and midis from hell provided a VERY unenjoyable web experience.

Today this has somewhat changed. With the advent of broadband connections and exciting multimedia applications like flash, its been possible to incorporate high fidelity audio into websites. And, perhaps the most important feature thats been implemented is the ability to mute sound. No matter how great the background music is and how well it complements the site, eventually, it will get annoying. It should be the users choice as to whether they want to listen to the music or not.

Theres something funny about the satisfication one can get from scaring the crap out of someone through sound on the web. I'm sure everyone has experienced this, you get a mystery link telling you to peer closely at the screen watching for a ghost to appear. Then a picture of the chick from the exorist appears accompanied by a blood curtling scream which is so loud due to you having the volume up from listening to mp3s whilst you work. You jump 3ft out of your chair and swear at the person who sent you the link for the next 15minutes.

Now, unlike Steve I'm going to go have a shower and go to bed whilst he spends the next 2 hours downloading fruity tooty loops as hes been capped already this month. Tee hee hee

Fruity sounds from a non fruity guy for a fruity lecturer

The following is a description of the sounds created in last weeks tutorial using Fruity Loops. It explains why the sounds sound like they do and how that sound represents what it does.

A Chair.
When you listen to this file you get the feeling of low bassy porno music. To me this is what a chair represented, a prop in the adult film industry. I feel the sound captures the mood and essence of the industry and is what a chair would sound like.

The Drunk.
When listening to this file you first get a feeling of high speed and randomness. As if the world is spinning and consequently you are bumping into objects. Then all of a sudden everything slows down, confusion and dizziness take over the feeling. You're drunk.

No hands.
Waking up in the morning and realising you have no hands. You scream, you're confused and most of all you're scared. This sound blends all these emotions.

Driving fast and losing control.
Listening to this sound you get the feeling of something fast, something speeding up as it plays. Then all of a sudden it loses control and then stops.

The world's second greatest website (behind this one)

Journal entry for website content, target audiences, benefits and drawbacks

The website that I chose is called Penny Arcade. It is a comic for the online community that spawned from humble beginnings into the online comic with the largest readership on the internet with over 518 650 unique IPs a day

The comic is based on the cartoon lives of two people named Tycho and Gabe who are gamers. As such a fair proportion of the material used in the comics is geared toward a target audience of gamers. Without some understanding of the games industry including products, games and developers and other genres associated, such as anime, the absolutely friggen hilarious humour may go unnoticed until a more generic subject is found. However, it is possible to understand some of the gamer – minded humour without knowing the background to it. The links below highlight this point:

Anime

Gamer 1 Gamer 2

Slight understanding

Generic 1 Generic 2


As you can see, ball bustingly funny.

The content is generated by the crazy minds of the two blokes who have an uncanny ability to ridicule and satire the industry they are a part of so well. The fact it’s done so bluntly and randomly makes it absolute comedic gold. Articles relative to the industry come from news, reviews of games, cons currently going on etc. The generic humour tends to be the more random stuff.

Revenue from this site is generated by advertising (with so many UIPs per day, people are willing to pay to hit the target audience so specifically) and merchandise. (t-shirts, hoodies, stickers, posters, shot glasses etc.)

The only draw back of the site is that the target audience could be seen as “narrow” compared to other websites. But, one needs to consider that the game industry is now a multi-billion dollar one with young children to 30+ adults. So thinking of it as a “gamer” site makes it seem like a small target audience, yet in reality millions of people could view it daily.

OOOOOOh yeah

check out the mega cool animated GIF I made in class today. Its George Bush shooting Mr Hankey (the christmas poo) who consequently explodes into a mushroom cloud of pooh. Yay! Find it
here

Oh and in other exciting news, Steve actually came to class today. You go girl!

Flash fun

Well jase decided to make Steve and I use flash for this weeks assignment rather than photoshop like all the other kids. We're either special or "special" I guess, depends how you look at it.

Now, I'd just like to clarify that Flash made me its bitch during the editing of these. Especially my uber k-rad shoot em up game. In v1.01 when it's released, I'd like to edit the background and get the code happening right. Oh and in case you can't tell, with the pool table one maybe there was someone around here when I did and they subsequently appeared in the Flash. If it registers on your lame-o-meter, please click
here

Flash 1
Flash 2

The .fla files will eventually appear on the live-wirez server, when I remember the details. Goodbye interweb... for now!
Love Slowy