To Guthrie Lonergan, however, Web junk is the basis of his most popular online art. "I'm sort of interested in that boringness," he says.
"Internet Group Shot" is one example. The collage, cobbled from dozens of group portraits, shows how people adopt the same huddle when they're saying "cheese." For "MySpace Intro Playlist," Mr. Lonergan looked for the self-made videos that young people post to their personal pages, then strung them together to show how teenagers tend to act similarly and say the same things when they're introducing themselves.
"There are defaults in our culture," Mr. Lonergan adds. "MySpace doesn't set up something for you to create an introduction video, but kind of like a telephone answering machine, you assume a certain kind of voice and say certain things."
The 23-year-old, who lives in L.A., is one of many artists mining Internet culture for creative inspiration. They make videos out of email spam and multimedia projects from MySpace profiles, and make a case for Web surfing as an art form in itself.
]]>According to Piper Jaffray, Apple stores exert “what can best be described as a gravitational pull” on mall shoppers. A shopper walking within 25 feet of an entrance has a 27% chance of going in, said analyst Gene Munster, whose firm spent six hours monitoring foot traffic at Apple stores this weekend. Most of them don’t buy anything, he added, and Apple stores are often in high-traffic parts of shopping centers, but this signals a possible shift in buying intentions to Macs from PCs.
]]>Gadget blogs like Engadget and Gizmodo are buzzing about the device's free wireless capability and odd design. Media and publishing bloggers, some responding to Newsweek's nearly 5,000-word advance look, are discussing what Kindle means for the e-books industry and reading itself. Other tech bloggers are hashing out its price tag ($399) and the notion of having to pay for blog feeds.
And everyone has an opinion, mostly negative, about how it looks. A sample description: "like a prop from an old sci-fi horror flick."
Amazon customers have weighed in, too, with more than 100 reviews already online. Kindle, so far, is rated 2.5 stars out of 5.
]]>Scribd, which allows anyone to upload documents much like YouTube lets users post videos online, has grown quickly since its September 2006 debut. Users have added more than 350,000 documents in various languages, ranging from instructions for solving a Rubik's Cube to the sheet music from Johann Sebastian Bach's "Ave Maria." Groups dedicated to sharing everything from Federal Communications Commission reports to Japanese comic books have sprung up.
But rivaling Scribd's growing collection of schoolwork, public documents and other miscellanea is a significant amount of adult content, which the start-up has taken pains to downplay while it decides whether the explicit material will stay or go. As other Internet destinations that rely on user-generated content have learned -- from photo-sharing sites like Flickr to video sites like YouTube and Veoh -- keeping the site "clean" while not alienating users is a central challenge.
]]>The Nasdaq Composite Index sank 7% in three days and ended the week down 6.5%, as highfliers like Google and Apple reversed course midweek and dropped sharply for three straight sessions.
The Nasdaq Composite fell 68.06 points, or 2.5%, to close Friday at 2627.94. It was the Nasdaq's biggest three-day drop in more than five years, as investors fled large tech stocks that had surged in recent months.
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]]>In the three-minute film "Cognizance," a hit man on his way to his next target wordlessly reflects on his life. He walks past shoppers browsing in stores, children on a merry-go-round, a young couple embracing. Finally, he spots his intended victim across a busy street, and, as the soundtrack music by Coldplay swells, he reconsiders and drops his gun in an alley.
As the killer turns and begins to walk home, he finds himself facing the barrel of another man's gun. A subtle smile crosses his placid, yellow face as the screen fades to black.
One reviewer said he was "overwhelmed with emotion" by the film. Another called it "a gleaming gem," adding that it was "required viewing for anyone interested in our little plastic world."
"Cognizance" is one of hundreds of movies known as "brickfilms" that are getting attention on YouTube and other video-sharing sites. Amateur filmmakers use Lego pieces to create characters and scenes, sometimes spending months painstakingly arranging and rearranging the blocks before the camera. Re-creations of famous moments in "Star Wars" and "Titanic," faithfully rendered in the primary colors of Lego pieces and stitched together from thousands of stop-motion frames, have drawn hundreds of thousands of viewings. Many of the productions are original films with elaborate plotlines, soundtracks and voice-overs.
The growing genre is driven by a lively online community of would-be Spielbergs who swap tips on message boards about tackling the unique challenges of the medium.
]]>The story, published in Radar Magazine's latest issue, envisions a world in which Google turns into Big Brother. Customs agents grill travelers about their search queries, public places are swept by Webcams and officials look for terrorist connections in social-networking sites. All of this is made possible by Google's powerful search tools and the company's willingness to share its trove of personal data with the government.
While a work of fiction, Mr. Doctorow, 36 years old, one of the editors of the popular blog Boing Boing, said his story builds on his real concerns about the amount of information that Google and others collect and store about Web users, including search histories, email and videos. Its publication has sparked online discussions about online privacy and the plausibility of Mr. Doctorow's scenario.
Asked about the Orwellian story, a Google spokeswoman responded: "Google is proud to offer a range of innovative products that have proven to be both useful and trusted by our users. User trust is central to our business and that's why we aggressively protect our users' privacy."
Mr. Doctorow spoke with me about "Scroogled," why he's fond of Google despite his dystopian tale and why it's hard to get people worried about online privacy.
]]>In recent weeks, spammers have been bypassing corporate email filters by hiding their content in PDF attachments instead of the body of messages. Like most junk email, the messages hawk things like penny stocks, prescription drugs and lotteries.
The so-called PDF spam is the latest volley in the cat-and-mouse game between spam senders and network defenders. Despite the federal Can-Spam Act of 2003 and heavy spending by corporations on antispam technologies, junk email remains a problem. It accounts for more than three-quarters of email transmitted over public networks, according to Ferris Research Inc., a San Francisco market-research firm. Spammer techniques have become increasingly sophisticated as filtering methods have improved, and spam fighters admit that they frequently play a reactive role.
]]>By all accounts, patrons of the Perry Branch Library in Gilbert, Ariz., are happy with the new digs.
Since the doors opened last month, visitors have checked out about 900 items a day, far more than the 100 to 150 that typically circulate daily in nearby branches, said Harry Courtright, director of the Maricopa County library district. Part of the branch's appeal has come from the addition of bookstore-like features, including lower shelves, lounge furniture and displays of popular titles.
But it's what's missing from the library that has drawn the most attention: Perry abandoned the Dewey Decimal Classification System for its books, whose spines instead carry labels with plain-English subjects such as "history" and "weddings." Instead of locating books by the traditional numerical system, patrons use a computerized catalog to find out which subject a book has been filed under, and then follow signs posted throughout the library. Many visitors skip the catalog altogether, and just head for the aisles that interest them.
The opening of a Dewey-free facility has sparked heated debate in the library world. "The day that the Maricopa news hit, I just had to steel myself," said Karen Schneider, a moderator for PubLib, an online discussion list where comments blasting the move have been running about even with those praising the new library.
In defending Dewey, some have decried what they call the "Barnes & Nobling" and "Googlization" of libraries. On blogs and newsgroups, more than one commenter fumed "Have you ever tried finding something at a bookstore?" Some pointed out that Dewey is already essentially a list of subject headings, whose call numbers specify exactly where each book should be placed on the shelves. Many libraries print those subject headings on shelves under books.
Others, however, praised Perry's decision, saying doing away with the inscrutable codes makes libraries easier to browse and more approachable.
]]>(Also appeared in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Baltimore Sun, CareerJournal and St. Louis Post-Dispatch.)
]]>But the 23-year-old, who received his undergraduate degree from the University of New Mexico, instead plans to study the growth of social-networking sites like Facebook and why unpaid volunteers spend time fixing incorrect Wikipedia entries. He enrolls this fall in a new graduate program in social computing at the University of Michigan.
Michigan's program clinched his decision to attend that school. Social computing "has more of a focus on real-life applications, whereas [computer science] is very broad and more ambiguous," he said. "I do think there's a growing interest from students, myself included, and the universities seem to be responding to that."
After years of worrying about how much time freshmen spend on Facebook, schools are incorporating the study of social networking, online communities and user-contributed content into new curricula on social computing. The moves, like other academic expansions into fields like videogame design, are part of an effort to keep technology studies relevant to students' lives – and to tap subjects with entrepreneurial momentum. Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are among the tech companies that have invested in schools' social computing programs.
The programs tend to draw as much from the sociology, psychology and communications departments as they do from more traditional computer science classes.
]]>Time was, interacting with a favorite band didn't go much beyond joining a fan club and singing along, lighter or cellphone outstretched, at a concert. Now, artists are asking listeners to shoot their next music video.
Several popular acts, including established artists like Björk and the Red Hot Chili Peppers as well as indie bands like the Decemberists, are holding video-making contests to coincide with the release of their latest albums. Even Ozzy Osbourne will invite fans to create the video for his single "I Don't Wanna Stop" later this month. Prizes range from cash and computers to having your creation distributed as the band's "official" video.
Record labels hail the competitions as a way to tap into the growing interest in user-generated content, and connect with their most passionate fans. While music videos are no longer a central part of the programming on MTV and VH1, they've enjoyed a resurgence in popularity thanks to sites like YouTube and MySpace. But the contests are alienating some listeners, who gripe that winners tend to be highly skilled video producers looking to gain attention, and aren't always die-hard fans.
See samples of music videos fans have entered into contests. The videos range from amateur efforts produced by high school students to entries from professional videographers.