http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edwardbaig/2009-01-21-windows-7-beta_N.htm

Windows 7 gives me faith in Microsoft again. It’s no secret people aren’t fond of Vista and their confidence has been shaken even in the entertainment world with countless Xbox 360 with red ring of death and news that half the 360 were deffective to begin with. But Windows 7 seems closer to a Mac OS. What attracts me is the compatability with many devices in it’s beta stage, and also it’s focus on touch technology and small extras like the shake minimizer. While Microsoft promised it would be faster, more efficient and crash less I think I’ll wait until the OS is finished to judge it because weren’t people raging over Vista when it first came out?

Studio lab 1

Eric Lam, Carol Tu, Dylan Rimmer, Jeff Geyer, Marissa Teoh

Studio lab 1

link is to video of hand gestures

In our game of group telephone, we attempted to communicate messages to one another using these forms of media: mail, smoke signal, carrier pigeon, and hand signals. Throughout the activity we learned each method of communication had its own unique advantages and disadvantages. Furthermore we also learned certain methods were more practical.

The first medium we used was mail. Group member 1 received a long quote written on a slip of paper from the TA and wrote the message down on her own piece of paper. She acted as a post woman and personally delivered the “mail” to another member. This method was convenient consisting of only walking. However, we did not make our own copies of the mail to keep, so after reading it, the information was lost to us and we had no knowledge whether the next person would intentionally alter the message. Furthermore, we concluded in a real life situation, the postman would have had to possibly travel greater distances in order to get the mail from place to place. With the location of each member, backtracking would have been required, which would be an inefficient delivery route.

Smoke Signal was the next medium. Obviously there was no way to make a fire in the classroom, so after receiving the message, group member 2 digitalized the message with smoke and flames. She held it up for member 3 to see, who tried to duplicate the message using his own laptop and painted smoke. The message was only successfully passed to one member because the words on the laptop were difficult to decipher, especially at a distance, and drawing was a time consuming process. Our tried making the words easier to read by enlarging the text, however when using real smoke and fire, this would be impossible. One thing that reflected how smoke signals work, is that it took a fair amount of time to transmit and receive the message. We concluded that smoke signals would only be practical for gaining the attention and locating people. An example of this would be a smoke signal coming from a stranded person on an island.

Carrier pigeon was similar to our first medium (mail), because the message was written on paper. However, instead of handing it directly to the next person, we attached the message to a pen and tossed it across the classroom hoping the pigeon would reach its’ destination without disrupting others. That being said, we hit an innocent bystander. Everyone received the message though, because luckily the other classmates were willing to pick up the pen and transport it to the designated receiver. This procedure only worked out because it was a classroom setting. If it had been a real pigeon flying from one city to the other and had lost its way, there would almost be no way of tracking the pigeon. People would not be able to help even if they wanted to.

Finally, we used Hand Signals. The Hand signals were difficult to understand because we were not all have been thinking on the same level; one wave of a hand had multiple meanings. Also, it was highly unlikely that one person could memorize the entire series of arm movements and expressions after watching it only once. Unfortunately, we were not successful in conveying the message at all. If we had one universal set of signals and meanings, passing the message along would have been easier. This is due to the misinterpretation of signs from the sender to the receiver. After that, the receiver could only transfer what they felt they understood. As the message went through each member, it became shorter and farther from correct.

The original message was:

“‘The Medium is the Message’ is a look-around to see what’s happening. It is a kaleidoscope of interfaced solutions.”

The final interpretation was:

“President Bush saw a reindeer drinking and he was writing it down.”

Obviously, the two messages were completely unrelated.

Despite the experiences this day, we could not have explored each medium in too much depth because after all, this was a lab activity and no matter which method we used, we could still see one another and call out to get attention if we forget to keep quiet. But we still got an idea of the positive and negative sides to each medium of communication.

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Affordances and Limitations

•  Time biased? Durable or fleeting? Archived record or ephemeral?

Synchronous or Asynchronous?

•  Space biased? Transportable/transmittable? Long distance or close

proximity?

•  Access? Who is able to use it? Is it ubiquitous or rare?

•  Encoding/Translation? Easy or difficult to understand? Does it

require decoding or translation?

•  Broadcast model? Centralized or decentralized? One to one, one to

many, or many to many?

Media 1: Mail

-Message did not get altered.

-People didn’t have their own copy.

-We don’t know who actually read it and who just passed it on.

-We don’t know who would receive it after the person we sent it to, they could’ve sent it to other groups.

-Requires work to send it.

Media 2: Smoke Signal

-Maybe some of us couldn’t see the smoke or weren’t looking when the signal was given.

-None of us knew how to accurately convey the meaning with specific smoke patterns.

-We couldn’t finish because it took long to draw smoke (only members two and three received message and only two knew the message).

-Other than the first person I don’t think any of us knew what the message was.

-Copied message wrong.

-Smoke signals are for indicating location, not sending messages.

Media 3: Carrier Pigeon

-Was not thrown directly to the person (missed) so middle people had to pick it up and throw it to the receiver of the message.

-People didn’t have their own copy.

-We don’t know who actually read it and who just passed it on.

Media 4: Hand Signals

-Couldn’t remember all of the signals.

-Easily misinterpreted.

-Some signals had no universally understood meanings.

-Certain words were near impossible to act out.

-Message got shorter.

Original:

“The Medium is the Message” is a look-around to see what’s happening. ­It is a kaleidoscope of interfaced solutions.

Final Interpretation:

President Bush saw a drinking reindeer.