Declan Cross "Likes" The Social Network

By Declan Cross, the only black(ish) student in his class.

This past Wednesday, my Communication Technology class and I saw “The Social Network.” I had heard some positive reviews from friends, so I was looking forward to this modern media-related movie. I use Facebook on a daily basis; so seeing a film about the trials and tribulations that were involved in the creation of it was intriguing.

            The story is set in two different stages, with one being the progressive tale of how Facebook was created, and the other a static story of the meetings between Mark Zuckerberg, his ex-best friend Eduardo, and a handful of Lawyers. Mark Zuckerberg is the main character, and also a programming wizard at Harvard University, which is the primary setting for the movie. In the beginning of the film, Mark just broke up with his girlfriend, Erica Albright, and he is heart-broken. He mends his broken heart in the usual way… drinking. After a couple hours of drunken blogging, coding, and hacking, Mark had successfully made a website, called FaceMash, which compared all the women at Harvard, one-on-one against eachother. This was the beginning of the end for Mark, as that act had granted him notoriety among the technological community at Harvard, and also got him noticed by two brothers looking for someone just like him. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss approached Mark with an offer to help them create HarvardConnection. Mark took the idea and ran with it, improving upon it with his own ideas, and within just a couple weeks Mark had already laid the foundation for TheFacebook. From then on out, everything happens so fast that Mark is overwhelmed. The site spreads to Universities across America, and eventually goes International. It’s at that point that the Winklevoss brothers sue Mark for stealing their idea; a common, recurring theme in this movie, which always swirls back to the idea that “if you think it, can someone else technically steal it?”

            All of the actors did a magnificent job throughout the movie, but I was especially shocked at two in particular; Jesse Eisenberg (Mark Zuckerberg) and Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake). Jesse’s portrayal of Mark was so genuine throughout, that from the beginning to end, I felt an emotional connection to him, and was actually interested in what would happen to his character next. As for Justin Timberlake, he had the same effect, but in reverse. I didn’t even know Justin could act, but he successfully made me hate him by the end of the movie. His portrayal of Sean started off as an intellectual media business mogul, but ended up being a slime-bag druggie looking to make quick cash. Excellent jobs by both of these actors kept my interest in the movie, but the other actors and actresses were also stellar in their portrayals of each character.

            There are two parts that really stood out to me in the movie; the hacking scene, and the final scene. The hacking scene in the beginning of the movie really stood out to me because it was one of the most emotional parts of the movie, since Mark had just broken up with his girlfriend, which, combined with drinking, made for a very expressive sequence of hacking numerous sites. The final scene, with Mark sitting at the table, constantly pressing refresh, is one of the most moving scenes of the entire movie. He has fame, money, and respect worldwide, yet all he wants at that moment is to have, at the very least, some form of contact with his ex-girlfriend. It really works to tie the whole movie together, since it started with her, it is only fitting that it ends with her as well.

            The main lesson I learned from this story is to always remember who your true friends are, and to look out for them. If they’re real friends, they’ll do the same for you. This was the main theme throughout the movie, because as Mark gained fame and wealth, he let his best friend Eduardo slip away, as he was replaced by the untrustworthy Sean Parker. As for others who watch it, hopefully they will at least realize that sometimes the old saying, “keep your friends close, but your enemies closer” isn’t always true.

            This movie is geared towards our generation. In other words, if you’re aged 14-20, or even if you’re older and use Facebook, then this movie is for you. To see a movie about something that many of us use every day is intriguing, and worth the price of admission to be sure. However, to fully appreciate the movie, make sure you come ready for more of a drama-type of movie, since action is pretty sparse. It’s rating of PG-13 makes it appropriate for most audiences, with only a few sexual references.

            Overall, “The Social Network” was an excellent film. Great script, near-perfect acting, and a story movement that is unusually captivating for a non-action movie.

I give the “The Social Network” 8.5 chicken legs out of 10.

Declan Cross is a half-Jamaican, half-Polish Senior at Holy Trinity Catholic Secondary School. He is the only blackish student in his Communication Technology class, but he feels at home around all cultures. Declan is a captain on his highschool’s football team, and has an excellent booty. He is going to get 100% in Comm. Tech. this year, as reflected in his outstanding effort in all aspects of the course.

Spiderman's got nothin' on these goats!

Imagine you're on vacation in... oh, I don't know... Italy. You're going sightseeing one day, and you pass the great Cingino dam.You're marvelling at it's architecture. The old world charm in the beautiful stone. The high, nearly vertical walls of it's side... and it's... it's specks of... GOAT?!?! Yes that's right, the Cingino dam in Italy, has frequent furry friends visit on a daily basis.

Take a look at this article, which contains pictures of the damn, as well as a video showing the goats climbing the wall of the damn!

Now remember, this is an almost vertical, 160 foot rock wall. Yet, these Alpine Ibex goats are casually climbing it, grazing on it, and just generally having a good old time on it. These goats are no stranger to steep climbs either, as they usually live on mountains at elevations upwards of 4600 metres. They are on the dam's wall because of the abundance of salt present on the rocky surface. So, they climb up the wall during the day, lick the rocks up and down, and then leave when they please.

It's a good life for a goat.

Work, Home, Sleep... Hospital?

It seems that the workers in Asian assembly lines, particularly the ones in China, have even worse conditions than many suspected. A common day in the life of one of these assembly workers could consist of spending all day exposing plastics to fire, smelling the chemical-smoke that it emits, and sorting the plastic in any number of bins, then repeating the process for 14 hours of the day, every day. They could even be working for  any number of reputable companies, like Microsoft or Apple. Assembly line workers have been exposed to dangerous chemicals from the adhesive used in making Apple laptops, or be subjected to a chronic disease from the cleaning chemicals used in making a touch screen computer.

These are mothers, daughters, fathers, and sons who are being affected. Everyday, working-class people in China are put under extreme conditions and given little or no monetary compensation for the suffering their work environment causes. For example, a computer assembly line worker in China was exposed to a dangerous chemical for many years, and eventually his condition deteriorated to the point where he was in the hospital; his nervous system irreversibly damaged.

"I am back at work but my symptoms are still with me. My legs still hurt. This will accompany me for the rest of my life. It’s very painful", says the assembly worker.

It's things like this that gets little attention in international news, while it really should. These people have children, and a family to support. Simply using dangerous chemicals that kill-off workers for the sake of efficiency and low-cost simply isn't right.

Decide for yourself by reading the full article here.

What should I do?

This is an incredibly inspiring video that has different interpretations and different meanings to each person who watches this video. It's a Nike Ad... and you really have to check it out for yourself, because explanations just don't do this video justice.

Lebron James - Nike Commercial - Rise

Nike outdid itself with this one. Lebron James has been the subject of ridicule for longer than most will remember. Back when he was still on Cleveland, people wanted him to be the winner. They wanted championships but he couldn't deliver. Now, in Miami, people call him the traitor, they want him to fail because he left Cleveland. After all he did for the Cavaliers and their organization, the fans still treat him like dirt, and they expect him to be a certain way, act a certain way, play a certain way; but that doesn't always happen. So, Nike teamed up with Lebron to create this new video, depicting the different things that people want Lebron to do. Not just the fans, but also players, friends, children, coaches, and analysts.

The use of sound effects, along with colourful overtures during each scene, creates an almost comical atmosphere to the video. However, with Lebron speaking throughout, the message is still very clear. Lebron is confused about what everyone wants him to do, and what everyone wants him to be. So, by the end of this commercial, when the Nike logo and slogan shows, "Just do it.", it seems to me that Lebron wants to just be Lebron for once. He wants to win and succeed and do well wherever he goes, and this video is a perfect representation of the stress he goes through on a daily basis.

I prefer lemons anyways...

LIMEWIRE, the popular music-sharing software used by millions around the world, has been sued! That's right, after many years of filling our iPods with hundreds, even thousands of songs, they are now being taken to court.

I logged in yesterday to Limewire, hoping to download a few songs to complete my Modest Mouse album, only to find a bland looking Limewire with a non-descript message in the middle of the page, reading "downloading or sharing copyrighted content without authorization is illegal.” Apparently the music industry simply had enough of them spreading music to the masses free of charge, and they wanted a slice of the pie... well, technically they wanted their whole pie right back. All of the music Limewire provides for people, at one point came from a legitimately obtained CD. However, that one CD was "shared" with millions of people, and those millions of people had a couple songs from CD's that they "shared" with people, and pretty soon nearly every song you could think of was available on Limewire's Peer to Peer network.

Now, is this "sharing" of music really illegal? According to the federal Judge in New York who issued the "cease and desist" injuction against Limewire... it is. For me personally, it was extremely useful to be able to go on Limewire and download entire albums quickly and easily. Now, I'll be forced to use a youtube to .mp3 converter to obtain my music. Not necessarily the end of the world for obtaining music, but it's a real hassle. Also, this act of taking music from youtube and simply converting it to an .mp3 is, at it's roots, doing the EXACT same thing as Limewire. Youtube users come to one central site, upload/"share" movies and music, and other users can download these movies and music for free.

What's next? No more Youtube?!?

Michael Jackson - Rotoscoped

 

A video. Michael Jackson - Beat it. Rotoscoped... 549 frames.

Too legit to quit.

If only this really happened...

Animator vs. Animation

In this clever flash animation, the animator created a video where the unthinkable happened... What if that harmless stick figure you just drew, came to virtual life and started causing mayhem on your computer? Well, that's exactly the situation in this video. I presume this video was made in flash, and it was very well done, with several hundred frames required to create this masterpiece. It recreates a fictional fight between a stick figure and your mouse. However, the stick figure has some very sneaky moves up his sleeve. Fighting the Firefox, using paintbrushes to defeat the AOL Guy, and even emptying your recycling bin, and destroying nearly everything on your computer before the virus blocker finally quarantines the nasty 'lil stick figure. Some serious man-hours went into this project, with great use of Flash, and a very creative mind. Technically, I could create something like this, it would just take a huge amount of time and energy to do.

It really makes you think... what if this could REALLY happen??

Well... apparently it does...
Enjoy. http://www.addictinggames.com/anivanigame.html

Colours make the world go 'round.

Feeling Colourful?

Apparently, as human beings, we ALL are! According to this article, we are all attracted to colours in specific ways that are dependent on our location, surroundings, and even lifestyle. However, the general rule for colours, and what each represents is as follows:

Red......excitement, strength, sex, passion, speed, danger.
Blue.....(most popular) trust, reliability, belonging, coolness.
Yellow...warmth, sunshine, cheer, happiness.
Orange...playfulness, warmth, vibrant.
Green....nature, fresh, cool, growth, abundance.
Purple...royal, spirituality, dignity.
Pink.....soft, sweet, nurture, security.
White....pure, virginal, clean, youthful, mild.
Black....sophistication, elegant, seductive, mystery, sexual.
Gold.....prestige, expensive, elite.
Silver...prestige, cold, scientific.

 Don't think that wearing red will suddenly make you seem like a strong, dangerous, sex-god/goddess or anything though... all of the above colours have the effects to some degree, but usually it is sub-conscious, and we don't even realize the effects these colours are having on us. For example, have you ever noticed that most fast food restaurants feature a lot of red, orange, and general bright, vivid colours? It's because they want their consumer base to come in, eat quickly, and get out. Cool, right? Also, library's will often feature substantial amounts of browns, pastelles, blues, and greys. Why? Those are all calming, non-intrusive colours, which provide an ideal environment for comfortable reading and studying. Using these rules, a web designer could make his website more attractive for his ideal clientele, and the result could be increased site traffic.

In other words... sometimes it pays to match.

Microsoft decides to give BIOS the "boot."

This afternoon, I decided to turn on the village's computer. Sounds simple enough, but as usual, the process of turning on (or "booting up") the computer takes what seems like a lifetime to complete. I pressed the power button, and after waiting for five minutes for everything to load up and get sorted out... I, !Xobile, had forgotten why I had wanted to use the computer in the first place! Why does this happen? Why does something as simple as turning on a computer take so long? Well, according to Microsoft, it isn't as simple as it's chalked up to be.

Apparently, for the last however many years we've been using PC's, despite the upgrades to RAM, Hard-drive Memory, Graphics Cards, and Processors, no one thought "Hey, why not fix the one thing EVERYONE has to do before using a computer?!" Finally, Microsoft smartened up and announced a new code to be used next year, called the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). This is supposed to cut boot times from 2 minutes (or more depending on your computer) down to 2 seconds! How is this possible? According to Microsoft, they royally screwed up in the very beginning of coding start-up, and haven't updated it sufficiently to account for newer technologies (USB peripherals), which caused an already ancient code to run even slower than usual. Hopefully, next year, when I turn on my new computer, it will boot up fast enough for me to remember what I wanted to do in the first place! Thanks Microsoft!

For you tech-savvy people, here's the full article: DailyTech

Human Chain - Nike

Check out this motivational video by Nike, called the Human Chain. It's all about determination, and the drive to persevere and continue fighting even when things get tough. In this video, representatives from almost all major sports are shown performing a move typical to their sport (a basketball player dunking, or a football player running). The editing is done in such a way as to make it appear that the athlete has clones that are following the exact movements of the athlete. Not just one or two clones though, there are at least 10 or more clones for each person shown in the video. How they managed to capture and edit the video in such a way as to show all the clones of the athlete in a moving, changing environment is beyond me, but all the effort certainly paid off to create an emotionally and aesthetically pleasing video, with music that suits it perfectly. The video leaves you with a feeling of newfound strength and pride, as it asks you "When you're knocked down, are you going to get back up? Are you going to finish?"

JPEG versus WebP

The WebP image, at 36,154 bytes.

The battle for photo web supremacy has just been re-awakened with a new challenger by Google... WebP.

The JPEG image, at 46,768 bytes.

For years, the clear-cut best choice for images in terms of the trade-off between quality and image size has been JPEG. Just enough edge sharpness and smoothness, with a relatively low memory footprint. However, with so many images and other content now on the internet, Google has been trying to develop a new type of image that is of comparable quality to a JPEG, but that takes up less memory. That image type is known as WebP, and it is designed specifically to display internet images at about 40% less memory usage than it's older brother JPEG.

Take a look for yourself at the images to the left, the above one is the WebP image, and the bottom is the JPEG. At first glance they seem to be identical, but upon closer inspection, the JPEG is slightly smoother and contains less jagged edges than the lower quality WebP counterpart. However, at 10,000 bytes less memory, that could really make a huge difference if there are numerous images being displayed at once. And, with about 60% of all Internet memory usage coming from pictures, less memory could mean a drastically different internet. Faster, smoother, better internet.

check out the article here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20018146-264.html?tag=topImage1

Freediving World Record or Work of Art?

This 288 foot, 88 metre free-dive video, created by Vertical Blue and Blue Eye FX, is more a work of art than a world record footage clip. The editors used beautiful, calming music to set the mood for the attempt, which begins with panning views from the depths of a coral reef, and then fades into the surface of the water, where the diver is preparing for his dive. Dozens of little breaths, taken less than a second apart, seemingly being stored into his slender frame. And then, as the picture changes to a bottom view of the diver, he makes his descent, calmly and smoothly into the depths of the water. As the dive continues, the water blackens, and the music sets the tone by throwing out thundering low notes, almost bass-like, yet still calming, as the diver effortlessly reaches the 288 feet, and turns around for his ascent. Now a close-up view of the diver during his rise to the top, it is clear he is struggling. Much of his air is gone, which makes him less buoyant, and the pressure at the bottom must feel like his whole body is in a vice. Nevertheless, as he gets closer to the top, the music layers in some high sounding flutes, and triumphant vibes are clear as he nears the world-record setting mark at the surface. The scene begins to brighten, the surface is in view, and at the last moment, he surfaces. Taking about 30 seconds of rest and recuperation at the top, the music switches to nervous sounds of sharps and flats, before finally... he pulls out the marker he grabbed at the 88 metre mark, and holds it proudly in the air. Success.

Without the beautiful camera angles and expertly composed music, I probably would have overlooked this video. But, because of the aesthetic and emotional appeal to watching this video, I love watching it. It seems to tell a story without words, and that is the mark of an excellent creation. DOUBLE success.