My critique of A Manifesto for Networked Objects ??? Cohabiting with Pigeons, Arphids and Aibos in the Internet of Things is going to be slightly delayed. I didn’t realize how much this thing is circulating. As such I don???t want to do this half assed. So it???s going to take a little longer than I expected.
In the meantime you can see the rather over-the-top praise the essay is getting here.
![[Olympus VN-480PC]](http://azby.fmworld.net/shopping/hard/category/images/vn-480pc.jpg "[Olympus VN-480PC]")
After careful consideration, and the fact I was able to find a discounted model, I opted for the Olympus VN-480PC
As for the Olympus, so far so good — I’ve figured out how to record and erase. One thing that does bug me is how flimsy it feels. From the pictures I assumed it would have a metal bodycasing. It’s just gray plastic. Oh well. Tomorrow I’ll attempt to record a test podcast to see how it goes. After that there will be no stopping me.
In other news, it’s less than a week till classes begin. RIT is quiet as this is an “off” week for them. It’s still odd to walk these halls. A very uncanny feeling, in the Freudian sense — the unfamiliar familiar.
Tomorrow’s entry should be interesting. I’m planning on critiquing an essay on Blogjects — objects that blog. While the concept put forward raises interesting questions, the essay itself is poorly conceived and is on really shaky social theoretical ground. So tune in tomorrow for a Chicago style beatdown. For those really interested, here’s a copy of the essay:
I’m in the market for a digital voice recorder. Not only is it helpful for the interviewing I’ll be doing in the near future, but I’m also considering podcasting my classes ??? or at least allowing for an archive. In part I want to be able to listen to certain ones later on.
So my dilemma is what technology to use. Or as important, how much do I want to spend. The Olympus model that I???m considering would run about $50 and would do everything I need it to do.
The only kink: the iPod. For 3x the amount I could get a 1GB Nano. And then pay the additional cost for the microphone. And I???d be using a square peg (not to suggest that the iPod is in any way square??? it???s more rectangular if anything???) for a round hole ??? the iPod really isn???t designed for recording and archiving. All of that said, it???s so damn cool. And ever since the ill fated MC3, I???ve been a sucker for convergence devices (all the while knowing full well that something that does everything doesn???t necessarily do everything well).
Today, while attending a New Media Perspectives lecture, I discovered that the view from the last row of Webb Auditorium at RIT provides a sobering lesson for the budding teacher. From my vantage point I watched as student after student opted out of the lecture with the help of portable electronics. The student immediately in front of me spent most of his time watching anime episodes on his video iPod
I’m not sure how to react to this or take it into account in planning classes. The knee jerk extremes would be to either ban laptops (which is just plain dumb) or simply pretend that it shouldn’t happen (or even worse, won’t happen to me). I’m just not quite sure what the middle ground would be. Any thoughts about it?
So yesterday I intentionally formatted my hard drive. I did it both to speed the darn thing up and as a project to keep me busy when I’m not working on the conference paper. And it’s amazing the difference in stability. This may become a once a year type of thing. The crappy part is the back up process. I’m still recovering and juggling DVD’s to get my data and MP3’s back to where they should be. However the renewed speed of my machine more than makes up for it.