I've just been watching Hackers, the one and only cult movie for inspiring young technogeeks to hack bank mainframes in the mid 1990s (yeah, I said mainframe). Watching this movie just tickles me these days, although I thought it was SO COOL when I was in grade five.
It's a far cry from what we're capable of 14 years later. Have a look at Microsoft's Surface computer. It's just like using your computer, only it's touchscreen. And a coffee table. And a painting easel. And I thought Eee Pcs were cool.
I'm still scared of downloading torrents, my gran won't click on links or open email attachments. She's terrified of untraceable Internet companies charging her for opening email files. I'm scared of iinet charging me for episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
How are we supposed to keep up with the technology that's thrown at us? Every day I find out about some new gadget and think I'm on top of things - no wait, that's been out for three years already. I've been trying to find somewhere I can go to read the biz on what's happening out there. The best sites I can find are Wired, TechRepublic and Technology Review.
There sheer amount of information on the Internet makes me dizzy. I'm wondering if I can split my brain so one half can spend all its time looking at blogs and reading the news and the other half can do uni assignments and work. If anyone knows about a gadget that can do this already...
The nerd was always an enigmatic organism. A being that lurked in the bedroom shadows of social acceptability, hiding his spotty face from the light with soft white fingers. To be a nerd was to condemn oneself to a life of unattractive stereotypes and ridicule. It meant hovering at the bottom of the abyss of cool and banishment from social nirvana. It heralded exile from the Olympus of golden teenage rock and jock gods. But the nerd ignored the hasty backpedaling of mainstream society - he was oblivious to the subconscious cultural fear that the highly intelligent had the ability to dominate. Now, that fear has come alive. We live in a world where geeks crawl through the streets in expensive black cars and suave dark suits. We are stranded in an alternate reality where polished loafers* reflect the unsuspecting faces of the masses. In our age of technology, the nerd is rubbing pale hands together over the fates of economy, ecology, technology and ultimately, the future.
Earlier I was blogging about sexy young nerds. Well, here are some young-ish, not very sexy, nerds, my subjective list of the top 5 nerds that control your life, now that your life is THE INTERNET.**
Larry Page & Sergey Brin Profile: Co-founders of Google. Presidents of Products and Technology of Google. Facts: Larry’s first computer was an Exidy Sorcerer. The Sorcerer boasted 2 MHz processor speed and 8K RAM. That's as fast as an old calculator. Sergey liked puzzles when he was a kid. Ages: 36 Nerd Rating: ***** Product Addiction Rating: *****
Tom Anderson Profile: Co-founder of Myspace. Public relations invention. Not really Tom Anderson since News Corp took over his Myspace profile. Fact: Tom was raided by the FBI for hacking into a bank in 1985. Age: 30-something. Not as young as he'd like. Nerd Rating: ** Product Addiction Rating: ****
Chad Hurley, Steve Chen & Jawed Karim Profile: Co-founders of YouTube Fact: The idea for YouTube was created at a dinner party. Ages: 33, 31, 30 Nerd Rating: ** Product Addiction Rating: *****
Jimmy Wales Profile: Co-founder of Wikipedia Fact: Jimmy lives in a 'grandma' house. Age: 43 Nerd Rating: **** Product Addication Rating: *****
*Not all nerds wear loafers **May not be entirely true
Talking about legal and ethical considerations has got me thinking about one of my pet issues - when does photography stop being an ethics-free activity and start impinging on people's privacy?
The Australian Journalists Association (AJA) code of ethics covers privacy pretty extensively - suggesting that journalists respect people's private grief, only use accurate material, and use fair and honest means to obtain pictures. The National Press Photographers Asssociation echoes the same ethics and the Society of Professional Journalists advises journalists should avoid "pandering to lurid curiosity".
The Encyclopedia Brittanica Online defines privacy as a right not to be emotionally disturbed or be subjected to tensions from baring intimate life and affairs to public view. Obviously the papparazzi and sensational photojournalists ignore the codes of ethics and overstep people's right to privacy all the time: taking photos of celebrities in their homes, nipple slips, ladies without their makeup on doing shopping etc. etc. They also love to take embarssing photos and videos of politicians doing gross things in session:
Mmmm...yummy... There's always the argument that by being a public figure, you've given up the right to any personal privacy. But c'mon, does that mean it's ok for journalists to take pictures of women exiting cars without their underwear on? (I won't show you the original photos, as they lack the artistically placed stars)
Celebrities and politicians are also a different kettle of fish than your average daily Joe. It's hard to justify taking pics like this of regular ladies hoo-has - then you'd be a perv. Taking photos in times of war is another ethically contentious issue. Is it ok to take a picture of a woman tearing off her clothes in grief over a son who's been caught in the crossfire? Children with their legs blown off, or vultures creeping up on helpless, supine babies?
There's been a few shakeups over the past few years about police and authority figures taking cameras from citizens and deleting photos. There was the Nick Holmes incident where police deleted films off his Blackberry. There were also a number of cases in 2008 where Surf Lifesavers seized cameras and handed them over to police for investigation. Do police and other authorities have the legal power to do this? No, they don't. Arguably, Surf Lifesavers are just using their good taste and morals to get rid of child pornography and unsavoury photos of topless women, but the police obviously have darker incentives. It's also perfectly legal (barring naked children) for people to take a photo anywhere they like in public. Kenneth Kobre says you are even allowed to take photos of people who are on private property, as long as they can be seen by the naked eye from wherever youare standing on public property.
Privacy laws are a double-edged sword at the moment: current Australian law dictates there are no laws against journalists overstepping boundaries into a subject's right to privacy; coincidentally, there are no laws to protect journalists against court suites filed against actions regarding invasion of privacy. But change is coming - in 2007 privacy law reviews from the Australian Press Council suggested a "public interest" defence for journalists. Bingo. It'd be pretty hard to justify photos of pantyless ladies as being in the public interest. Now to see how effective such a defence would be...it turned out to be so useful in defamation law...
Photograph privacy is a complicated issue. I guess journalists (professional and citizen!) should stick by their codes of professional and moral ethics and ask themselves the same question Machiavelli did: does the end result really justify the means?
(Written for the rant column of io9: science fiction website)
One of the frustrating things about science fiction films and television shows is that they’re often accompanied by bad acting. You would think that someone who’s gone to enough trouble to creating aliens, new world, galaxies, (if they’re not dead and they’re wives haven’t taken to producing instead) can take the time to find decent actors to fill the important roles.
This is likely impossible, as the over-cooked performances of Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman (Star Wars), and the starry-eyed Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson (Harry Potter) can attest. There’s a simple solution: make everything into animation. It worked for the Clone Wars, it worked for Star Trek: The Animated Series, and it can work for all science fiction given a bad rep because of shoddy actors.
While Daniel Radcliffe managed to pull of a wide-eyed Potter and Emma Watson a particularly haughty Hermione, it’s hard to think these two actors were the cream of UK’s young aspiring. With one movie to go, the Potter rep has already been concreted: yep, the movies weren’t as good as the books. An animated Potter series could turn this on-screen stagnancy around. Magic and adventure has always had a fantastic animated screen presence, think 1977 The Hobbit or the 1967 Disney take on King Arthur, The Sword in the Stone. Here’s to hoping the planned 2011 release of a filmed Hobbit, produced by Peter Jackson and directed by Pan’s Labyrinth Guillermo Del Toro, can live up to the animated 70s classic.
In spite of being declared anathema by trekkies worldwide, I’ll put it out there that the acting in Star Trek: The Original Series wasn’t particularly first-rate either. Will Shatner’s cowboy cock-ups and beetling brows had to be offset with the warmly chaotic Jackson DeForest Kelley and a smattering of great acting from Leonard Nemoy. Star Trek: TOS and the movies starring original cast could have been bypassed with an animated Star Trek right from the beginning; that would take care of those pesky low-budget sliding doors and shaky cameras. Star Trek: TAS offered the writers far greater creativity and opportunities than the original live-action series. You can imagine that getting an animated humpback whale on board the Enterprise could be more convincing than it appeared in The Voyage Home.
Animated series can be just as successful in creating a sci-fi multiverse as live films—they’re blessedly free from bad acting and give a badass panache to phasers and lightsabers. There are so many possibilities still waiting for the animate world: just imagine an animated Picard rolling his R’s and sipping Earl Grey, or a lithely caricature of Sarah Michelle Gellar plunging stakes into dusky vampires.
WARNING: Explicit Material Following!!! (Written as an album review for Rave Magazine Online)
(Downtown) Hitting it fast and filthy
When an album opens with gongs and someone shouting “Welcome to the Fuck Shop”, followed by a dirty bass drop, you’d think you were in for a booty smacking, hoe tapping 2 Live Crew treat. But this is the start of Bangers & Cash, Spank Rock and producer Benny Blanco’s enthusiastic tribute to Miami ghetto bass and the spirit of old school nasty. Bangers & Cash is an E.P. that should be played full volume in the club, obnoxiously on your car stereo, or in the privacy of your bedroom if you’re too embarrassed for other people to hear Spank Rock spout you got “sweat drip from your cooch to your doodie hole”.
Bangers & Cash visits the sexually graphic genre pioneered by Miami’s 2 Live Crew, whose 1989 As Nasty As They Wanna Be
was banned straight off for being too explicit for U.S. citizens. For those too young to remember “Me So Horny”, Bangers & Cash provides enough potty-mouthed ghetto slang and gregarious sexuality to relive the forgotten forms of the early 90s “dirty rap” era.
The album stays true to the old style: the beats are bumping and Spank Rock’s use of “bitch”, “hoe” and “pussy” is certainly entertaining. But the EP lacks the effortless in yo’ face slap, the six-strong group mentality and the cultural significance of the 2 Live Crew’s mission to obscenity. Spank Rock’s geeky image doesn’t really work with Bangers & Cash; the songs call for a bit more muscle, and also a maturity that’s beyond the 21-year-old producer Benny Blanco.
We had a good taste of Spank Rock’s ingenuity and clever raps with YoYoYoYoYo, but Bangers & Cash falls short on originality. Whether this is a result of mimicking the 2 Live Crew or of following the signature formulas too closely, it means there are only two decent songs: the aptly named “B-O-O-T-A-Y” and “Loose”.
“B-O-O-T-A-Y” opens with a warning siren that gets the blood pumping. The driving RPM and Spank Rock’s rapid-fire delivery is reminiscent of YoYoYoYoYo’s “Rick Rubin” and Blanco slams in the bass with a synthesiser. Contrary to the rest of the E.P., Spank Rock spits some clever lyrics and is followed up with xxx rated feats from Black Betty and Santigold. The sexy guest raps from these two hip-hop ladies are a welcome respite from Spank Rock’s dirty mouthing and give “B-O-O-T-A-Y” a polish that’s lacking from other songs.
The bass hits even harder in “Loose”, which incorporates some classic hip-hop samples, an appropriately sassy rap from Amanda Blank and the dirty synthesiser that is Blanco’s love child for the rest of the E.P. In “Loose” Spank Rock lets us know he serves phallic for the most important meal of the day and makes it pretty clear what Bangers & Cash is all about: money, sex, booze, cocaine, the club and hoochie mamas. ***
Thanks to the "Screen Worlds" exhibition at the ACMI centre in Federation Sqauare, I've been introduced to the Wilhelm Scream: that scream you hear in almost every movie when a guy gets shot, blown-up or falls off a really big cliff. Most easily recognisable as the Stormtrooper Scream from Star Wars whenever a rebel shoots a stormtrooper's guts out. Don't know what it sounds like? Here's a lovely medly running from 1953-1999 by Pablo Hidalgo:
The scream was first recorded in the 1951 Warner Bros movie Distant Drums, recorded as six short, terrorised screams that stayed in the Warner Bros sound effects library. The scream got its name when Private Wilhelm was shot in the leg in The Charge at Feather River. It featured regularly in Warner Bros action movies for the next twenty years until effects master Ben Burtt picked it up for The Scarlet Blade and later for the first three Star Wars movies.
You can also hear old Wilhelm in major action films like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Batman Returns, Pirates of the Caribbean, Kill Bill and Lord of the Rings; it's used in all the Star Wars video games too. The scream is sort of like a lovechild and a running joke for Hollywood sound people - it's been in around 90 movies since the new century!
If you're intrigued, the complete list of Wilhelm Scream movies is recorded in Hollywood Lost and Found. Even better, check out the amazing "Screen Worlds" exhibit at ACMI - you can giggle anonymously in their private Wilhelm tribute booth and see a whole heap of other awesome filmy stuff.
Steph is a dedicated book collector, science fiction and fantasy fanatic. She's a post graduate Melbourne University student who studied Publishing and Editing and now sells books on Ebay. One of her all time dreams came true last week when she purchased the entire Star Trek: The Next Generation series from the local video store.
