PCWorld

PCWorld October 2010

Thesis
PCWorld gives general information on various things tech oriented such as good deals on computers, comparisons of E-Readers, and looks at myths surrounding the tech world, such as if Interner Explorer is really as unsafe as everyone says it is.



Brain:
The NEOCORTEX is used a lot due to having to read.  There are also a lot of things you have to think about such as deals on computers and if you really need these electronics.
The LIMBIC brain is used through the various pictures, mostly in ads, but also in articles.



Five Facts:
1) It's first issue was in March of 1983.
2) PCWorld offers a lot of free trial downloads from their website.
3) Expensive HDMI cables are no better than cheap cables.
4) New Intel and AMD Processors automatically overclock themselves.
5) According to Symantec's Security Threat Report:  Firefox has the most vulnerabilities for 2009, followed by Safari, IE, and Google Chrome with the least.

Trends:
CONVERGENCE is a trend utilized by PCWorld, not only is it available in print, but their website is also quite extensive and features a wide variety of information.  The magazine also supports the growing trend in technology with articles on Smartphones and other devices.  The things they promote also go into the TECHNOLOGICAL SHIFT, and a PERSONAL SHIFT from personal to participatory.

Principles:
TRADE OFFS: PCWorld does reviews of many pieces of technology.  They show the pros and cons and try to convince the consumer to either buy or not buy it.

Techniques:
SIMPLE SOLUTIONS: Saying that certain programs or pieces of technology can make certain aspects of using technology or your life easier.
PLAIN FOLKS: Reviews of things by people working at PCWorld.
SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE: Comparing items by doing tests on speed, price, and other attributes.

Media Blog 4: A Brilliant Freeware RPG

Exit Fate

Exit Fate is a small freeware game that I came upon about a year ago and absolutely loved.  It's made by one guy in the RPGMaker program, but I found it to be very enjoyable.  As far as the graphics go it can be compared to other 2D sprite based JRPGs from the older days of the '90s, although there are still a few of them around.  The music in the game is taken from other RPGs, and part of the fun is trying to recognize what game it was originally in. 

Combat is very simple.  It's all turn based, with the character with the most speed going first.  If you've ever played any game like this, it'll come right to you.  The game does a good job of telling you how to do things and what you need to know if it seems to be something that's not intuitive.

Here is a video of a combat scene from later in the game. 



Combat in the earlier portions move much faster, but if you're not patient, this game probably isn't for you.
There is a lot of dialogue between characters to read, and the gossip from the townsfolk which may give you hints or tell you something about the game.

It also features a tactical battle mode in various parts of the game where you control armies to defeat an enemy. These can be frustrating at times, but often give nice rewards for getting a perfect score. Characters also boost an army's capabilities so it's recommended to get as many as possible.

There are many characters to add to your party, in fact there is a total of 75 characters, each with their own dialog and story.  Many of them are minor and are obtained through some small side quest, some can be quite unexpected when they join, and others are obvious or given through the story.

The game is of course, free, and rather enjoyable if you like these sorts of games.  I would definitely recommend checking it out at http://site.scfworks.com/.  He also has another game available called Last Scenario, but I'll get into that another time.

Media Blog 3: Strike the Earth!

Dwarf Fortress is a game that I've enjoyed for a while now, but that many people find difficult to play.  It could be described as "The Sims on Steroids".  The gameplay is complicated and limitless, while the graphics are almost nonexistent.  Here is a picture of the graphics in their original state: 

The infamous BoatMurdered

There are many graphical mods though that will improve how the game looks, three of the more popular ones can be found in the Lazy Newb Pack.

Don't let the graphics fool you, Dwarf Fortress has a lot to offer.  The fun in the game comes from simply how much you can do and how intricate it is.

You start off with 7 dwarves which you can assign skills, and from there you must survive and build your fortress.  As the fortress becomes larger and more succesful you begin to attract migrants who wish to join your fortress.  Eventually you may even attract the king of your civilization who will then declare your fortress the new capital city.

There is no end to the game though, you can continue forever.  Even after a fortress has been destroyed you can form a new party of dwarves to reclaim the land.  The motto of the game is "Losing is fun", this comes from the very odd ways that fortresses have fallen.  The famous BoatMurdered suffered from rampant elephant attacks, other fortress fall from demons from the depths of the earth, and other fall from dwarven ingenuity when a mistake is made and the fortress ends up flooded with water, or magma. 

It can be hard to get started, but luckily there are many tutorials:



The maker of the above video, CaptnDuck has a full series of videos to explain everything that you need to get started, in addition there is also the Dwarf Fortress Wiki.  Once you get started you can find that the game is very fun to play.  It's the fun of The Sims but with more combat, alcohol, beards and digging.  Who wouldn't like that?  Plus it's free!

Midterm Refelections: All the way to Halfway Reflections

1.) After studying 21^st century media for eight weeks in this class, what have you learned? Please be specific.

 I've learned a lot of little interesting facts about the media and the history of media from the Media and Culture book, but I probably won't remember a lot of the dates and numbers.  What I will, will be how to analyze media, the techniques that are used to get us to agree with the producer/buy a product.

2.) What is the most important thing you have learned about yourself as a critical reader, a writer, and a thinker in this class so far?

I don't analyze into the meanings of things.  I've always just sort of taken things at face value.

3.) What’s one thing you would do differently this first half of the semester if you were to take this class again?

 I would stay on top of the blog posts instead of leaving everything until the last minute.  I spend too much time enjoying media.

4.) What’s one thing you would like me to do differently this first half of the semester if you were to take this class again?

 I'm not quite sure I get the point of the personal blogs.  The class blog is good though.

5.) Please comment on the usefulness of the power tools, our course blog, your personal blog, our in-class quizzes, our films, and our book(s) as learning tools.

 The Power tools and quizzes are excellent.  I like these, and the 6-box quizzes.  The two combined teach us to analyze media and to look at it in ways that previously we would not.  The courseblog and book notes are good.  It's an easy way to submit homework, and are good to keep track of what we have for homework.  The personal blogs I don't really like.  I've never liked blogs though, it seems like there are many of them on the internet that are just a few posts, or are people talking about their lives, rather than an informative topic.  I think blogging is like writing, you need to have an interesting topic, and an audience to write for, and a certain skill in writing, or talking in the case of a video blog is required.  The movies shown in class have been good so far.  Movies are always enjoyable and break up the monotony of the day.

Media Blog 2: Quaking it up

A while ago I was introduced to Quake Live, since then it was become one of the few games that I go back to continuously when I am bored and want some fast paced action.

Quake Live is a reinvention of the old Quake 3 Arena, which was originally released for Windows in 1999.  The older graphics can be seen in the picture to the right, but that is no indicated for gameplay.

While the graphics may be lacking, the gameplay is solid.  Unlike a traditional FPS, you do not spawn with a gun, at least not one that can do any damage.  The gun you spawn with can only kill someone if they are already heavily injured.  Instead, you must pick up weapons, ammo, armor, and other powerups and items quickly in order to hold your ground.  Gameplay is fast-paced, and if you stand still for any length of time, you are likely to be shot down before you have a chance to realize what happened.   This fast paced gameplay is one of the things that I like about the game.  It is unlike anything currently seen in popular FPSs like Halo, or Bad Company 2.

For the most part the game is completely free.  There is a subscription service which offers the ability to host your own servers and a few more game modes, but if you just want to play in your free time, the standard version offers plenty of gameplay.
Also due to it's low end graphics, the game runs entirely in your browser, either in windowed mode or fullscreen, allowing you to play on any computer anywhere.

The game grabbed a huge amount of popularity quite quickly, mostly due to the legacy the Quake games have had, before this came out, there were still people playing Quake 3.  And there have been some amazing contests between players who truly know the ins and outs of the game. 
Watching some of these people play is an amazing experience. 
Even without knowing much about the game, you can't help but be impressed.

Media Blog 1: Transformice, Amazingly Addictive

 Transformice is an addictive flash game released in June of 2010, and it has become amazingly popular since.  It went from two servers: a French and single English  to having five: a French, two English, a Russian, and a Brazilian server.


The premise of the game is that you are a mouse, and together with your fellow mice you must gather the cheese and get it to the hole. 


With cheese, you can buy hats to wear to make your mouse more unique, or use it to make custom maps for other mice to play.

               Image courtesy of the Transformice Wiki



Of course there are obstacles, this is where the shaman comes in.  On most maps, the shaman will be responsible to build things to allow the mice to get the cheese and score.
On some maps, it is possible for the mice to get the cheese without the shaman's help, and the shaman can either make it easier, or choose to make it more interesting by adding his own obstacles.

The game itself is largely addictive, and since the introduction of a map editor where users can make their own maps, there is almost always something new to play.

The game features a somewhat realistic physics system, but every now and then it will glitch and the laws of physics will be disregarded, which the players have termed "French Physics".  Oftentimes they make the game much more entertaining, as boards suddenly fly into the air unexpectedly.  Such glitches have given rise to one popular entity known as Anvil God, where many rotating anvils are placed near each other and flail around.

The game is quite simple, but is very addictive and fun, and I'd recommend checking it out, even for a few minutes.  Any questions can be directed to the Transformice Wiki.

Media Introduction: Check out this Title

I was born and raised in Springfield Vermont, which
is about 3 hours, depending on traffic, from Burlington.  It's a small town with not much to do, and I lived out on the backroads, even farther from what little there was to do.  The picture to the right is the view from the backlawn.




This summer was pretty eventful.  I hung out with a lot of friends trying to get in that last bit of time before we all went off to college.  At one point one of my friends wanted to make a movie, and we ended up with a bunch of footage of us fooling around with airsoft guns and playing Brawl on his Wii.

  I love the internet.  It's amazing in all it's forms, from the bad to the worse.  The one downside is that it's very easy to get distracted, especially on Wikipedia.

 I have absolutely no idea what I want to do with my life at all.