Socially Mundane

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey it certainly a lot of eye candy, but an epic story? Hardly. Peter Jackson is trying too hard in his effort to make it feel like one.

A quick recap: John Ronald Reuel (J. R. R.) Tolkien wrote The Hobbit for his son, essentially a children’s story, albeit more like the “anime” type of story with more serious overtones and adult-themes. It was a single book, what would make a great two or two-and-a-half hour movie.

The Lord of the Rings also was written as a single book, but the story so massive and complex that Tolkien’s editor broke it out into three volumes. The story is epic in every definition of the word and so it made sense to create three movies to tell it.

Lord of the Rings, three books, three movies.
The Hobbit, one book, three movies.
What’s wrong with this picture? 

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Who doesn’t enjoy Star Trek? And among you, who does’t love the sound of the Borg?

I thought it would be fun to have the Borg notify me when a call comes in, so I have created these ringtones from scratch (yes: my own voice). I wanted to be accurate as possible and use the original introductory statement made by the Borg in their first guest appearance on Star Trek: The Next Generation. However, I found that statement wash’t the one I was thinking of when I came up with the idea. After doing a bit of searching around, I found the statement I had in mind, which was spoken in the movie Star Trek VII: First Contact. (A video clip is included in the download for your entertainment).

The original statement is:

“We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to serve us. Resistance is futile.”

So I wanted to adapt this to what the Borg might say if they were the incoming caller and this is what I came up with:

“We are the Borg. Surrender yourself to this phone. We will add your personality and intellectual distinctiveness to our own. Your time will adapt to serve us. Resistance is futile.”

So I recorded this statement and spent some time multiplying the track and filtering here and there to create what I feel is a reasonable facsimile of the “Borg million voices” sound. I also realize the full statement might be a bit long (time wise) as a ringtone for some people, so I’ve also created abridged versions:

• “Surrender yourself to this phone. Resistance is futile.”
• “Surrender yourself to this phone. Your time will adapt to serve us. Resistance is futile.”
• “We are the Borg. Your time will adapt to serve us. Resistance is futile.”
• “We are the Borg. Surrender yourself to this phone. Resistance is Futile.”
• “We are the Borg. We will add your personality and intellectual distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is futile.”

And, of course, the “full” version. I felt “resistance is futile” is the main defining statement in all things Borg, so I had to include it into every iteration.

Included in this package:

• The movie clip to demonstrate the original “Borg statement” (for fun).
• The original Amadeus sound editor file (in case you want to play with it yourself).
• iPhone ringtone files, ready to import into iTunes and sync with your iPhone.
• High-resolution AIFF files for non-iPhone users or otherwise tinkerers of all shapes and sizes.

Feel free to share. I only ask you give credit to me for creating these (@sociallymundane on Twitter or App.net).

HAVE FUN, GRATIS!

Full version sound sample (15-seconds - opens in a new browser tab)

Package download

Courtesy of Socially Mundane

There is news of a hardware vulnerability in certain Samsung smartphones and here is the ZD Net Headline:

Samsung Galaxy S3 ‘vulnerable’ to remote malicious reset

I won’t rehash the article as this post focuses more on the comments to it. Among the comments is this from an iOS user:

When something like this happens with an iPhone you fAndroids are all over it but Samsung and other Android OEMs get a free pass. How does that work?

This user “started it”, fair enough. However, I can’t help but to substitute a couple words here: “conservatives” for “iPhone and “liberals” for [f]Android. The statement is just as true.

The immediate response to this (maybe is/maybe isn’t) troll comment is great because it’s exactly how I feel about the political scene. I’ll repeat it here, except I will insert the word substitutions to express my own perspective on it (for those unfamiliar with standard editorial markings, my word substitutions are in [square brackets]:

And I admit I have a bias against the apple [Obama] reality distortion field

Nothing more. I can’t hate apple [Obama] for being the best by any pure definition of business/a company. Who would argue that? [Actually, I would]

I admire [disdain] the apple [Obama] marketing dept. more than any other single collective of people - purely for what they have done with the apple [Obama] brand. [focus on non-truths, spin, and divisive tactics.]

I don’t hate apple [Obama] owners [supporters], I sit within 5m of 3 for 8 hours a day[.]

What I do hate is FUD and BS, no matter what the topic, and that’s what I find fun to pick on. It’s not some ethical crusade, it’s just fun. Why? Because your average itard [Otard: Obama fanboi or grrl] will defend the fruit [Obama] name regardless of facts. I especially hate the distortion of history into what can only be called ‘history - sponsored by apple [Obama]’. That’s good [pathetic] marketing, credit to apple [Obama], it’s blind acceptance by the itards [Otards] that I take issue with. If people didn’t believe the FUD and BS, I’d have no problem.

Personally I find it amusing that anyone can have such an attachment to a faceless corporation [truth-lie-truth misinformation machine] that cares for nothing but the £ [Tax $] you spend with them. A small package of electronic hardware [“hope and change” hot air]? Big deal, I don’t have an emotional relationship with my calculator [broadly-described promises with no detail] nor my SGS3 [the other guy]. If Nokia [Obama or anyone else] bring out an 8 phone that beats everything else out of the water [communicate promises in detail I like to hear], I’ll jump ship [‘switch sides”] without hesitation, how many itards [Otards] can say the same?

But then I’ve already explained this to you and the other itrolls [Ofanbois/grrls], who refuse to listen. Why - because I call BS on the lies and spin that itards [Otards] think passes as coherent argument.

Ultimately, you and the rest of the sunshine bus trip claim fandroids [Rfanbois/grrls] jump on anything to cause an argument, yet here we are, totally off topic thanks to you and the window licker from the front of the bus.

Now, substitute any other two words for ”iPhone” and ‘Android” in the original rhetoric and this argument becomes just priceless and, sadly, accurate. The substitutions above are my own perspective and only my own. Obviously, your own mileage will vary.

Which of these is or is not a photograph?

I’ve been taking pictures since I could handle a camera, I was eight years-old. I was being paid to take pictures when I was about 17, which is when I considered myself a ‘professional’. But at what point did I go from “picture-taker” to “photographer”?

I’m throwing my hat into the ‘photographer versus not-a-photographer’ debate here. Shameless plug: my new multi-touch photography book is here: bit.ly/RtuqGw

We all know what a photographer is: someone who ‘takes’ (creates) photography. A so-called “painter of light”. But what exactly is a photograph? According to Oxford:

A picture made using a camera, in which an image is focussed onto film or other light-sensitive material and then made permanent by chemical treatment, or stored digitally.

Fair enough.

By this reckoning any “screenshot” captured by a Second Life user is not a photograph. However, are they photographers? This is a legitimate question because there really is a debate about the definition of the term. Many so-called “pro photographers” proclaim pocket-camera shooters to not be photographers! The primary subject in the discussion is iPhone+Instagram picture-takers. Seriously. No, wait…seriously?

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CP is SL for FB.

This is not another detailed, glowing review of Cloud Party. Rather, this is simply an account of my general impression. And Linden Lab: you’re on notice.

First impression: Cloud Party is 75% FaceBook and 25% Second Life. It’s an excellent balance if you’re a FaceBook user. I am not. Or rather, I am a very reluctant FB user.

Cloud Party is the new-fad darling of the established mysty-eyed Second Life blogger-crowd, all making a lot of noise about it. Second Life users have been wanting a “replacement” for years - as long as I can remember and I’ve been using Second Life since mid 2005. Certainly the Cloud Party visuals will get better over time, just as they did in Second Life. Cloud Party is still in its beta infancy.

Access ease into Cloud Party is what it should be for Second Life, and I’m referring to the in-world introductory tutorials and such. This is only one of the many reasons why Cloud Party will eventually mop the floor with Second Life.

Second Life requires registration, then a hefty client (viewer) download, installation, then the log-in and acquaintance period in-world. It takes an hour to get going and actually discover whether to like it or not for a new user. There are a lot of off-ramps passed on the way to Second Life “citizenship” and along the way many of those are very tempting: “screw this noise, it’s too much time and effort to try Second Life.”

Not to mention the viewer interface can be a complicated-looking pig in a poke.

Cloud Party, on the other hand, is a light breeze. You’re in-world in about ten minutes on a bad day. Once in-world your hand is gently held, guiding you along the way. With Second Life it’s more like “here’s a quick bullet list on how to walk, then we’ll just dump you in some weird-assed place to fend for yourself. Good luck with that.”

With Cloud Party it feels more like “Here, let me show you this. Now do this thing and then I’ll show you how to do that thing. Come, let me introduce you to your new virtual house, oh - and here is some starter furniture for you.”

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