CYBERPUNK- Week 9

WHAT IS CYBERPUNK?

- a science fiction genre based on the possibilities inherent in computers, genetics, body modifications and corporate developments in the near future.

The word comes from forming of 'Cybernetics' (study of communication, command and control in living organisms, machines and organisations) and 'Punk' ( style of fast, loud, short rock music with an anarchist political philosophy and a DIY, anti-expert, 'seize the day' approach to life).


It developed as reaction against the over-blown and predominantly safe stories of 'space opera' such as George Lucas's 'Star Wars'. The precedents for cyberpunk can be found in reality-challeging literary work of Phillip K.Dick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep made into 'Bladerunner').

Common themes include hackers vs corporations, artificial intelligence and cities out of control and and post-industrial dystopias dissected with a film noir sensibility.

WILLIAM GIBSON

- is a US/Canadian writer whose fictional work has spawned a number of key concepts like 'cyberspace' and 'virtual reality'- His work sits uncomfortably in the sci-fi genre because its gritty realism about the near future makes it too close to the truth- dystopian.
His writing is hard to understand. He takes ideas from science and theory and reinvents them, he jumps right into the middle of a story and provides the reader with few clues to understand what is going on. The only way to appreciate Gibson is to re-read his stories until you 'get it', if there is anything to get.


MATRIX

- pushed the limits of cyberpunk.

It pushes the boundaries of computer-generated effects as it explores a possible future world where machines dominate humans but keep them in ignorant bliss of their real state. The machines in Matrix create a totally illusory reality for people, constructing their identities to suit the purposes of the machine.


CYBERPUNK THEMES


Utopia and Dystopia

Some of the most powerful myths for and against technology have been intertwined with utopian writing. Utopias tell of imaginary places where everything is perfect, usually because people and technology are in harmony. The last two hundred years have seen a large number of Utopian experiments where people have attempted to live out the literary myth.

Technology itself has often been visualised as Utopia - somewhere we can create, a microcosmic recreation of nature sanitized and optimized for human enjoyment. All the hazards of life will be screened out of the technological 'program'. Technology will provide us with something 'nicer' than the real world. Once we've recorded nature in some hyper-real form, the real thing will no longer be necessary. We can dispose of nature.
Cities as Machines

The City in Bladerunner is post-modern where people are moving to the Off-World. Sometimes it is crowded, sometimes it is lonely - which is what cities are like: you can be anonymous in the crowd. It is LA; it is noir sci-fi.

Three non-exclusive alternatives:

the city is a machine for living ... it creates human life just as humans create it
the city is a natural thing, created by natural beings just as bee-hives and ant nests are created by natural beings
the city is a living being ... a cyborg which combines human tissue with synthetic infrastructure.

In the 1960s, a group of English architects designed a new type of city. Their dream was of a city that built itself unpredictably, cybernetically, and of buildings that did not resist tvs, phones, air con and cars but played with them; inflatable buildings, buildings like giant experimental theatres, buildings bedecked in neon, projections, laser beams. This project called ‘Archigram’ was detailed in a set of posters called ‘Architectural Telegrams’.


Technological change

-Mark Poster says the first electronic media age was characterised by the use of one source and many receivers.

One person could write a letter, make a film or television program, record an album and thousands could receive that message. Only certain groups of people could produce and send messages as there were educational, financial and technical restrictions to those who could produce- 1st electronic media age.

Telephone was different because anyone could both send and receive messages with a minimum of technical and financial resources. The latest development to mimic the telephone is the Internet- made it possible for an individual to 'publish' to a huge audience.

In Aust household accessing the net has gone from 286,000 in 1996 to 1.1 million in May 1999. By mid 1990s there were + 30 million users around the world. Early 2000, was estimated there were 262 million net users world-wide.

Modernism to Postmodernism

Shadowing this split between the technologies of dissemination and the technologies of interaction is the shift discussed by a variety of theorists from moderism to postmoderism.


But who controls the switches?

Just as postmodernism is built upon modernism, second media age is built on the first, therefore is largely dependent on world view inherent in existing technologies. It is through the combination of old and new technologies that new industries, uses and expansions have occurred, and continue to emerge. The new media brings with it a need for new understandings.

Virtual reality brings with it even more complex questions about the nature of society. Remember that, in virtual reality, a type of cyborg structure exists in which your body - your mind and senses - is part of the medium. Virtual reality duplicates and warps reality. It multiplies the experiences you can have and therefore the memories you can have. It alters the ways in which you construct yourself as a person. If the individuals are changed, then so is the society. This opens up space for new forms of culture to emerge.

FINAL ESSAY

Old wine in a new bottle?

The advancement in technology available in modern society has provoked significant concern and research among experts and community bodies. “Is modern technology desensitising Gen Y to violence, sexual abuse and humiliation? Is it feeding a growing culture of cruelty? Is modern technology normalising otherwise unacceptable behaviour?” (is this generation).

Technology has instigated the transfiguration of our means of information sharing. Now increasingly accessible, technology has created a domain for youth in which bullying and cruelty is rampant. “Technology has turned the traditional image of the bully waiting at the school gates on its head. Now a 24-hour, wireless, faceless, version 2.0 of the school bully hides behind text messages, MySpace, YouTube and social networking sites” (Dubecki 2006).

The term Cyber Bullying implies the willful and recurring act of inflicting harm and harrassment on others by the medium of electronic text: instant messaging, email, text messages, mobile phones, blogs, pagers and websites (Stutzky).

‘The stealthy nature of the Internet can motivate some youth to do and say things on-line that they would never attempt in person or face to face with another student” (National School Safety Centre, 2006). “The perpetrator can choose to remain anonymous but the victim's humiliation is compounded by the often very public nature of the bullying” (Dubecki 2006).

Modern interactive, networking technologies allows today’s youth 24 hour access to one another so that when tension and disputes do surface, they can bully their peers with ease through these electronic devices without reprimand from adult figures (Simmons 2003).

“The aim of bullies is power, control, domination and subjugation” (Bully Online 2007). Exercising dominance and power over their victims, bullies gain an immoral and vicious sensation of satisfaction (Bully Online 2007).

Perpetrators of bullying are inclined to use whatever media is available. Just as the types of medium that they adopt are diverse, so too are the methods that they use. “Texting derogatory messages on mobile phones…sending threatening emails, and forwarding a confidential email to all address book contacts” are all methods of cyber bullying, so is the practice of setting up an insulting web site targeted at a particular student and then emailing others the address. “Web sites can be set up for others to vote on the biggest geek, or sluttiest girl in the school” (Snider & Borel, 2004 in Campbell 2005, p.2). Attacking victims with spam email messages, computer viruses and conducting online impersonations of the bully’s victim are also forms of cyber bullying (David S. Wall 2001, p.141).

“Now treated as a distinct form of social aggression, the consequences include acute anxiety, depression, truancy, self-harm, eating disorders and, in extreme cases, suicide” (Dubecki 2006). These severe effects are illustrated in the case of 17 year old Kentucky girl, Rachel Neblett, who is alleged to have taken her life with a shot gun after experiencing harassment via her Myspace page. It is also demonstrated in a case in New Zealand whereby multiple teenagers were accused of being the distinct cause of a 12 year old girl’s suicide, by attacking her with menacing and aggressive text messages. (Dubecki 2006).

Characteristics of the personal computer, allow for cyber bullies to exploit these modern electronic technologies with immoral intentions. “They can hide behind some measure of anonymity…which perhaps frees them from normative and social constraints on their behavior” (Patchin & Hinduja 2006). False names employed in chat rooms, and instant messaging programs and the availability of short-term email accounts provokes difficulty in exposing the rightful identity of antagonists. “It seems that cyber-bullies might be encouraged when using electronic means to carry out their antagonistic agenda because it takes less energy and courage to express hurtful comments using a keypad or a keyboard than with one’s voice” (Patchin & Hinduja 2006).

Another feature of today’s technologies which has contributed to the emergence of the cyber bullying viral phenomenon is the lack of supervision. In regards to insulting, inappropriate content present in text messaging and electronic mail, there is no monitoring system present to censor this behaviour. Despite efforts to monitor conversations in chat rooms, personal messages, only seen by the sender and recipient, are beyond authoritarian control (Patchin & Hinduja 2006).

From 1500 Internet-using adolescents who partook in a 2005 study by Hinuja and Patchin, over one-third disclosed that they had fallen victim to bullying via electronic technologies, whilst a staggering 16% pleaded guilty to having engaged in cyber bullying on their own behalf. It was revealed that of these victimized, 18% were bullied through name-calling, 40% were disrespected, 12% were physically threatened, and 5% feared their safety (Hinduja & Patchin). In accordance with the National Children’s Home charity survey conducted in 2005 of 770 youth between 11 and 19, 73% were conscious of the aggressor’s identity whilst 26% stated their bully was a stranger (National Children's Home 2005).

The cultural shift which has seen the youth of today engaged intensively with computers and mobile phones, has seen the emergence of a technology which has “the capacity to quickly, efficiently and anonymously deliver messages of ridicule, put-downs, threats and exclusion throughout a ‘connected’ community” (Nickson).

Being able to easily “obtain an anonymous web-based e-mail address”, create a website, and “given the number of sites that allow you to send free SMS messages”, cyber bullies operate under minimal risk of being caught (Nickson). The developing complex nature of modern mobile phones of now being able to call, text, instant message, have internet access, mp3s and videos also adds to the growing cyber bullying phenomenon.

The modern behaviour of having the cellular phone on the person at all times sees spiteful, unsolicited actions such as harassing, threatening and insulting text messaging and telephone conversations emerge. Text messaging poses as “pervasive and intrusive, a much deeper violation” as emails and online users can be obstructed, yet youth keep their mobile phones on their person enabling them to receive texts instantaneously (Nickson).

Myspace, that has accrued 54 million users in just three years (Powel 2006), “is a cyber social phenomenon that elicits a full spectrum of reactions - from pure delight to disgust, addiction to downright hatred” (Staats 2006). This very public social networking site, encompassing music, videos, personal profiles, photo galleries, blogs, chat rooms and instant messages (Staats 2006) , sees the posting of cruel gossip and rumours, harassing antics and racial insults for millions worldwide to view (Powel 2006).

Kathleen Gardner, mother of 13 year old epileptic daughter Olivia of Novato, was utterly shocked and traumatized after learning of the "Olivia Haters" club pages created by fellow Hill Middle School classmates (Staats 2006).

YouTube is the latest concern as more than 65 000 videos are uploaded daily for worldwide viewing, capturing humiliation, degradation and cruelty on an enormous scale (Haywood 2006). This site has recently be banned from 1600 Victorian public schools after a video featuring 10 male students attacking a teenage girl was uploaded onto YouTube (The Australian News 2007).

The father of the assaulted 17 year old confirmed his daughter encountered two young men in a chat room and arranged to meet them in person. Months later the young men and several other males filmed themselves harassing, assaulting and humiliating the girl on video and allegedly sold the tapes in Melbourne High School and uploaded the film on various internet sites (ABC News 2006).

Due to cyber bullies lacking in-person communication skills, the “impersonal nature of email” and Instant Messaging is perfect for oppressors to terrorize and intimidate their victims with ease and minimal effort (Bully Online 2007). Passwords being stolen in order to access other’s personal accounts and profile pages are actions that cause the development of “forums where students vote for the ugliest, fattest or most hated person in school” (Dubecki 2006).

Although there are positive areas regarding modern technologies, “socially-anxious individuals being able to communicate better and deeper self-disclosure between people have been claimed” (Kraut et al 2002; McKenna & Barge 1999 in Campbell 2005), the fact still remains that technology has caused the unwanted emergence of a new face of bullying. As long as advancements in electronic devices continue, cyber bullying and its severe, disquieting and brutal effects will develop and worsen.

REFERENCES

JOURNALS

Patchin, J. W. & Hinduja, S. (2006). ‘Bullies move beyond the schoolyard: A preliminary look at cyberbullying’, Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, vol.4, no.2, 148-169.

Hinduja, S. & Patchin, J. ‘Cyberbullying: An Exploratory Analysis of Factors Related to Offending and Victimization’, Deviant Behavior.

Staats, Jim 2006. ‘MySpace.com: Why parents and cops fear a hot site's dark side’, Marin Independent Journal.

Campbell, Marilyn. A 2005. ‘Cyber Bullying: An old problem in a new guise?’ Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling, http://eprints.qut.edu.au/archive/00001925/01/1925.pdf

BOOKS

Wall, David.S 2001, Crime and the Internet, Routledge, London.


ARTICLES

Dubecki, Larissa 2006, ‘Technological trauma: cyber bullies more powerful than schoolyard thugs’, The Age, http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/technological-trauma-cyber-bullies-more-powerful-than-schoolyardthugs/2006/10/27/1161749315262.html.

Nickson, Chris, Cyber Bullying: The Dangers and the Cures, Heartland News,
http://www.kfvs12.com/Global/story.asp?S=4944916

Haywood, Ben 2006, ‘Totally tubular technology: Issues in the news: YouTube’, The Age, http://www.theage.com.au/news/education-news/totally-tubular-technology/2006/10/27/1161749321299.html?page=2

2007, ‘YouTube banned in Victorian schools’, The Australian News, http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21306209-1702,00.html

Powell, Kimmy 2006, ‘The Facts About Myspace’, Bigbruin,
http://www.bigbruin.com/reviews05/article.php?item=myspace&file=1

Simmons, Rachel 2003, ‘Online bullying the next challenge for the web masters’, The Age,
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/10/06/1065292524799.html

ABC News 2006, ‘DVD of girl attack sparks cyber-bullying warning’, ABC News Online,
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200610/s1772378.htm

WEBSITES

National School Safety Centre, 2006, Meet Hilda Clarice Quiroz: Keynote Presenter, Program Developer and Training Specialist, http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:qh00S-_NaJAJ:www.schoolsafety.us/pubfiles/talking_with_hilda_about_bullying.pdf+has+technology+created+bullying&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=au

Bully Online 1997-2007, Bullying by mobile phones and abusive text messages, http://www.bullyonline.org/related/mobile.htm

Be Safe Online 2002, Bullying online,
http://www.besafeonline.org/English/bullying_online.htm

National Children’s Home 2005, Putting U in the picture. Mobile Bullying Survey 2005,
http://www.nch.org.uk/uploads/documents/Mobile_bullying_%20report.pdf


Stutzky, Glenn, Cyber Bullying Information, http://www.ippsr.msu.edu/Documents/Forums/2006_Mar_CYBER_BULLYING_INFORMATION_2006%20--%20Provided%20by%20Mr.%20Glenn%20Stutzky.pdf

VIDEO GAMES- Week 7

VIDEO GAMES- 23rd April Tutorial


‘Both games and technologies are counter-irritants or ways of adjusting to the stress of the specialised actions that occur in any social group.’

‘As extensions of the popular response to the workday stress, games become faithful models of a culture. They incorporate both the actions and the reactions of whole populations in a single dynamic image.’

Marshall McLuhan


EXAMPLES OF VIDEO GAMES:

· Arcade Games
· Consoles- ps2, x box, nintendo
· Computer Games
· MUDs- world of war craft
· MMOGs


The Video Game industry rakes in more money than the film industry, even despite piracy.


ACADEMIC APPROACH TO VIDEO GAMES

Media Effects and Games- do they shorten attention span, cause shootings and increase aggression?

The Persistence of Effect- if play hotted up racing car game for 6hours and then get into real car, psychology suggests we still think we are in the game.

Games and Utopia; video games create worlds that are magical.

Thinking about video games as a new form of cultural practice... in the same way we now think about old media like newspapers, radio, television, films...- do VG have their own history?

what are some ways to approach thinking about games that might be unique to this genre?

Are there questions that are specific to video games that don't apply to any other form?



NARRATOLOGY- is the study of video games from the perspective of them being stories or literary works. Can we study VG like texts? Eg. Is it interactive fiction?

LUDOLOGY- Concerned with the Game Play elements.



The Aesthetics of Video Games:

· Game/play elements
· Fun elements
· Story elements
· Virtual world elements

SHORT HISTORY OF THE INTERNET- week 4 March 30th Lecture


Great lecture this week! BECAUSE I actually thought that cyberspace, the web and the Internet...so now i know MORE! ! ! !


Benedikt-

‘Cyberspace is…a territory swarming with data and lies, with mind stuff and memories of nature, with a million voices and two million eyes in silent, visible concert of inquiry deal-making, dream sharing and simple beholding.’



THE INTERNET-

Is the sum of interconnected computer hardware and the software that runs it- practical material construction. The internet is a network of networks. These networks include servers and personal computers and other devices that use CMC (computer mediated communications) technology. They are loosely connected by telephone system, broadband cable and satellite services, linking people around world into an information-sharing system.

The internet, created in 1960’s. Researchers in Us were working on ‘Packet Switching’ which is system that breaks down messages into small chunks and transmits them from one computer to another. So then RAND struck a deal and set out to apply these concepts to utilise connections between computers and phone lines.

Us Dept of Defence originally funded project to connect computers working on defence matters through phone lines. ARPANET was developed. This was about downloading academic data, but then functions such as email were added as hobbyists, hackers and counter-culture turned ARPANET to own purposes.


WWW-

WWW is particular application of the net. In 1990’s researchers from ‘Cern’, a physics lab in Switzerland, were looking for better way to share info. They developed html and the first web pages.

The web merges techniques of internetworking and hypertext to make easy, global and powerful system that shares info.



CYBERSPACE-

Is the sum of users’ imaginations as they use the Internet. Cyberspace is a contrast with the tangible products of the web and internet. It is way people interact with pictures/ words, making them think they are in a different space/ place. William Gibson’s quote suggests the idea of hallucination, that people agreed to imagine they were in a new place- another form of reality.

It is a conceptual space where words, relationships, data, wealth and power are manifested by people using CMC technologies.


EARLY INTERNET APPLICATIONS-

· Electronic Mail (email)
· File Transfer Protocol (FTP)- move larger files more directly than just to emails
· Internet Relay Chat (IRC)- early version of msn.
· MUDs (multiple user domains), MOOs, MUSHs- simple approaches to net.


RECENT INTERNET APPLICATIONS-

· Instant messaging
· Peer-to-Peer file sharing- ppl share programs that are on their comp eg. Windows
· Blogging
· Portable Audio (ipods, MP3s)
· VOIP (Voice over internet protocol)- use net as phone system
· Virtual Worlds- ‘Second Life’
· ‘Web 2.0’- YouTube


NETIQUETTE and BAD BEHAVIOUR-


The internet rapidly changes therefore so does netiquette, but always based on ‘do to others as you would have them do to you.’ The social construction of reality requires civility between participants.

Need for netiquette arises mostly when sending or distributing e-mail and or chatting. The practice of netiquette depends on understanding how e-mail and chatting actually work or are practiced.

Practices as spam (unsolicited email) and flaming(abusive communications) are bad behaviour that disrupts other people's use of the internet.
Cracking, is not hacking - hackers are computer experts and programmers, crackers are computer criminals. Cracking is computer crime.
Kevin Mitnick, notorious cracker, who got into US Air Defence System was jailed for reading a company’s email. Never hurt anyone, he just showed how shoddy security systems were.
Many of the rules of this virtual society mimic those of non-virtual life; call back, don't insult people always reply to personal email quickly etc. In a chat environment, for example, if someone is operating outside the understood rules of Netiquette they are removed from the site until further notice.

Many of the rules of this virtual society mimic those of non-virtual life; call back, don't insult people,always reply to personal email quickly etc. But they are often more quickly and effectively administered in the virtual world. In a chat environment, for example, if someone is operating outside the understood rules of Netiquette they are removed from the site until further notice. It's almost medieval! Rudeness is grounds for banishment.
It appears people are much more polite and caring compared to how they are in their non-virtual community. People who have never passed a word with the guy next door will maintain a network of relationships within a virtual community, ranging from close friends and lovers to acquaintances.


ECONOMICS OF CYBERSPACE

John Perry Barlow’s ‘Economy of Ideas’ gives utopian account of economic possibilities inherent in cyberspace and info economy:

· Information is an activity, experienced not possessed, propagated not distributed.

· Information is a life form, it wants to be free, replicating in the cracks of possibility, perishable and always changing.

· Information is a relationship between sender and receiver, the meaning generated has a unique value to both.

· Information may be commodified, but most importantly it is its own reward. -

As early utopian goals of the Internet (that net will provide revolutionary break with past economy) meet the financial forces of convergence we can expect to see further rapid change and a lot of instability.

The most important commodities on the Net are credibility, a distinctive point of view, familiarity and exclusivity.

There are vested interests that oppose cyberspace becoming the scene of economic activity, referring to it as a 'black economy'. What they are really mourning is the lack of bureaucratic/government control over the Net. As always with new technologies, the issue of who controls the buttons is of particular interest to governments and big business.

Cyberspace’s interactivity suggests new ways to think about capital that reflects new ways to do things with each other:
o Social network capital - the value in person to person interaction though we might never meet

o Knowledge capital - the value in ideas means that sharing information equals sharing power

o Cultural capital - the value in the values we share and that allow us to live creative lives in a civil society.


CONVERGENCE

The last ten years have seen a growing tendency to Convergence as the possibilities of communication technology develop.

Information technologies are converging as computer technology provides the means to draw together telephone, radio, television and print so that they can be accessed from the one point.

Lecture 3 - THE BIRTH

BIRTH OF THE COMPUTER- Week 3 March 19th Tutorial

Well, I found this lecture rather interesting BECAUSE, until now i had no idea in the world what Bill Gates actually did to be so $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. BUT NOW I KNOW. So here are my notes on what i now udnerstand about the birth of the computer!

Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace

Charles Babbage was born in 1791. As the inventor of the first digital computer, a mechanical rather than an electronic device, he sketched out the logical structure of the modern computer. He made parts of the Difference Engine, but was not completed in his life time. Later, he conceived of the Analytical Engine: a massive, brass, steam-powered, general-purpose, mechanical computer.

Babbage was aided with Analytical Engine by an aristocratic woman with a creative approach to mathematics, Ada Lovelace. Ada saw herself as a metaphysician in search of poetical science. She conceived of a machine which would be able to compose and play music, produce graphics and be of everyday use. She also conceived the first computer program.


Turing and the Birth of the Computer

The serious work required for the development of the computer was done by Alan Turing. He studied quantum mechanics, probability, logic, and wrote a crucial paper clarifying the computability of numbers and the possibility of a machine to compute them.

During WW2 he worked with teams of mathematicians and cryptographers to devise the first working computer,The Bombe which they used to break secret German 'Enigma' codes. After War, he investigated programming, neural nets, and the prospects for artificial intelligence. His philosophical paper on machine intelligence suggested the Turing Test: a human sits at computer terminal and interacts with both a computer or a human by written communication only; if the judge cannot tell which is which then the machine has passed the test and it would be reasonable to call the computer intelligent.


Moore's Law

Computers were first commercially produced by IBM in 1950s- they were large and expensive used for military, government and corporate work. In 1965, Gordom Moore propounded Moore's law: the capacity of microchip's doubles every two years. His 2nd law claims because capital costs are rising faster than revenues, financial feasibility will limit the rate of technological development.


Xerox PARC

At Xerox PARC in the early 70s, a think-tank developed concepts such as the mouse, the graphical user interface (GUI) and pull-down menus that made the personal computers of today possible and approachable by the general user.
The first PC was released in 1975. It was called the 0 but didn’t do much, just got tech-nerds excited. But the Altair didn't have a language - a set of terms by which the user could communicate with their computer. Bill Gates dropped out of uni and began writing a language called BASIC so it could be used for word processing, basic accounting and games. In order to market his program he started a little company in his garage - Microsoft.

Apple

Computer nerds got together at meetings to exchange ideas and display their latest and greatest home-made PCs. Here, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started their own company - Apple. They produced the Apple I - machine with single circuit board, no case and no keyboard. They sold 50. Their dream was to produce/sell the 1st self-contained PC for people who weren't techies. Wozniak set to reducing the size of every component he could while Jobs went out to find some money.
Two years after the Altair, the Apple II was launched in 1978. Next two years saw Apple grow like crazy- they had made enough money so neither would ever have to work again.

IBM and Microsoft

At this time, IBM ( large ultra-conservative firm and slow to move) noticed what was happening. By 1980 they were determined to get into the PC market. Chairman, Frank Carey, called Bill Lowe, who promised IBM a product within one year. His product basically involved buying shelf products from a range of other companies and putting them together as a package.

To run computers, there are two types of software required: the language and the Operating System. As Gates/ Microsoft did not produce an Operating System, they directed IBM to Gary Kildall- but Kildall wanted a signing of a non-disclosure agreement before conducting a meeting. IBM walked back to Microsoft.

Gates promised an Operating System. They bought an OS developed by Tim Patterson called Kudos. Microsoft paid Patterson's employer $50,000 for it. In four months IBM had it running as PC DOS 1.0 and in the marketplace at $50 each. GATES WAS RICH.

IBM gained more and more of the market share through its association with Microsoft. For a long time Apple believed they owned and could rely on their position in the marketplace due to their user-friendly technology (GUI). But then IBM and Microsoft came up with their own GUI - Windows. By the time Windows 3 was launched, Apple was on a slide. Steve Jobs quit Apple. Pushed in a niche market by the convergence of IBM and Microsoft, Apple was on a downward slide. But the 1998 return of Steve Jobs and the success of its iMac line turned the fortunes of the company around.

INTERESTING WEBSITES.......YERHA!

So....interesting websites is the topic of todays tutorial....YERHA COWBOY...how exciting...lets see what i can find.....

i went to www.scroogle.org then typed in 'plot generator' and a website came up where you can be a MOVIE CREATER and devise your own plot. It asks you:

ENTER TITLE
THE GENRE
MAIN CHARACTER
SIDE KICK
THEIR GOAL
CHARACTER GROWTH
WHAT IS THE MOVIE LIKE?

etc etc etc...it gives you options to choose from.

THIS IS MY NEW FILM

Susan
An original screenplay concept by Kate

Comedy: A pimply computer nerd teams up with a kind hearted prostitute to save the earth from aliens. In the process they deflower a gay interior decorator. By the end of the movie they run away from 7 oogly aliens and end up winning the admiration of their 3rd grade teacher, living happily ever after.
Think Titanic meets Happy Gilmore.

DEFINENTLY WORTH MAKING!


THEN

I typed in 'nickname generator'

It is a website where you type in your first and last name and if you want your nickname to be 'G', 'PG', or 'X' rated!

my new nickname is...

FAIRY BALD SMILE

That is all....

NEXT ATTEMPT

SECOND ATTEMPT...im so good at photoshop now....the little man looks like he belongs.....sorta....kinda....hahaha next week i shall advance to a higher level. horay! im learning....