Books

You know you're a Phd student when…

* you can identify universities by their internet domains.
* you have difficulty reading anything that doesn’t have footnotes.
* you understand jokes about Foucault.
* the concept of free time scares you.
* you’ve ever brought books with you on vacation and actually studied.
* Saturday nights spent studying no longer seem weird.
* you can read course books and cook at the same time.
* you find yourself citing sources in conversation.
* your office is better decorated than your apartment.
* you are startled to meet people who neither need nor want to read.
* you have ever brought a scholarly article to a bar.
* you rate coffee shops by the availability of outlets for your laptop.
* you look forward to summers because you’re more productive without the distraction of classes.
* professors don’t really care when you turn in work anymore.
* you find the bibliographies of books more interesting than the actual text.
* you have given up trying to keep your books organized and are now just trying to keep them all in the same general area.
* you have accepted guilt as an inherent feature of relaxation.
* you often wonder how long you can live on pasta without getting scurvy.
* you have more photocopy cards than credit cards.
* you have a favourite flavour of instant noodle.
Basically you are underqualified, overburdened and eternally in the dark…

for comfort there is Piled Higher & Deeper.

Posted on by mklang

A book…

“A book is a fragile creature, it suffers the wear of time, it fears rodents, the elements and clumsy hands. so the librarian protects the books not only against mankind but also against nature and devotes his life to this war with the forces of oblivion.”

Umberto Eco – Name of the Rose

rose

Posted on by mklang

Grafitti as Social commentary

Grafitti is a difficult topic. I dislike it when trams and buses are vandalised and filled with repetitive tags and I am not impressed by any sloppy, messy and defacing uses of a can of spraypaint. However this doesnt mean that I dislike everything I see. Some of the work out there falls into a category of its own. I am particulary fond of social commentary. Where there is a large communicative process. The difference? Well tags are simply the marking of turf in the same way as a dog would pee on a lamppost. Important to the dogs in the area perhaps, but not really a communication to anyone else. Social grafitti partakes, and asks others to partake, in a social discourse. One of the best examples of this I have found is the work of Banksy, who makes grafitti a form of social commentary.

“Imagine a city where grafitti wasn’t illegal, a city where everybody could draw whatever they liked. Where every street was awash with a million colours and little phrases. Where standing at a bus stop was never boring. A city that felt like a living breathing thing which belonged to everybody, not just the estate agents and the barons of big business. Image a city like that and stop leaning against the wall – its wet.” Take a look at examples of his outdoor collection here. I particularly like his work on the Israeli/Palistine wall which can be seen here. His work can also be seen in Retort Magazine – Where you can see a picture of Mujahidin Mona Lisa. More of Banksy’s work can be found in his books Existencilism (2002) and Wall and Piece (2005)


existencilism Wall and Piece
Books by Banksy

—

Another interesting example of interesting grafitti is done by a lesser, but more local anonymous hand holding the spray-can. I came across this wall while working in a nearby town. I would not really have bothered with it much since it is simply the words “Civil Disobedience” (in Swedish) sprayed on the wall of a concrete underpass. The thing that makes this interesting is that the writer asking for (demanding?) disobedience corrects his own sign to conform to spelling.

civil olydnad
On a wall in Uddevalla (Now repainted)

If its disobedience you want – then why bother correcting the direction of the N? Is this actually more than simple tagging? Has the hand that sprayed thought about what it was doing? Is the changing of the N actually a subtle communication by the artist on the ways in which even disobedience is ruled by conventions? This work was trivial but with the changing of the N it becomes a subtle form of communication on the nature of laws, rules and social conventions. All this in two words on a concrete wall that never previously inspired me to think. Dont tell me that grafitti isnt important.

Posted on by mklang

Privacy, GPS & Children

After taking a short look at some of the products available on the market (and it is a growing market, I did a similar small survey about a year ago) it is obvious that GPS surveillance of children (but obviously not only children) is only going to grow. Privacy & childrens rights be damned this fear of the terrible has led to “paranoid parenting” (Furedi 2001).

Here are some of the products and services available for parents and other amateur Big Brothers:

ULocate http://www.ulocate.com/
uLocate Communications is a leading provider of wireless location-based services (LBS) that leverage an individual’s location to deliver customized, actionable information:
â?¢ last known locations
â?¢ maps
â?¢ directions
â?¢ location-based alerts
â?¢ proximity-based points of interest

Wherify Wireless http://www.wherifywireless.com/
The GPS Wheriphone: Through the convergence of Global Positioning System (GPS) and digital wireless technology – along with Wherify’s patented location technologies – the GPS Locator Phone offers parents, family members and business people peace of mind knowing they can locate loved ones or valuable property, 24-hours a day, seven days a week. The slim, small and lightweight GPS Locator Phone can fit almost anywhereâ?¦from a backpack to a purse to a coat pocket to the family car.

Teen Arrive Alive http://www.teenarrivealive.com/
Features of the Teen Arrive Alive GPS service:
â?¢ Locations are updated every 2minutes.
â?¢ 7 days of location history is available.
â?¢ Location data can be downloaded to your computer.
â?¢ Our service provides physical address, speed, and heading for each location with a corresponding data point plotted on a map. See the route your teen has taken each day.
â?¢ Our patent-pending locator hotline allows parents to locate their teen anytime, from anywhere in the world from any phone.
â?¢ Location data is available in real time, 24 hours a day, everyday.
â?¢ You have unlimited access to location information with no additional fees or charges.
â?¢ Our service is as mobile as your teen. We locate the phone, not the car.
â?¢ The java application on the phone allows the teen to get their physical address and a corresponding street map directly on the phone – useful if they get lost.
â?¢ Choose from 5 different reports to analyze travel data.

DriveDiagnostics http://www.drivediagnostics.com/
Parents can receive:
â?¢ Recieve real time warnings when their child drives aggressively or dangerously.
â?¢ Be informed of specific and recurring aggressive and dangerous maneuvers performed by their teenager.
â?¢ Recieve real time warning messages to the parent via mail, SMS or phone call
â?¢ Gain access to driver profile, guidance and advise as to how to improve the teens driving
http://www.drivediagnostics.com/site/industry.asp?subMenu=teen

GPS Kid Locator Tracker Backpack http://www.spyshops.ca/trackerbackpack.htm
â?¢ Safety: The hours before and after school is in session are when parents worry most about their childâ??s safety. The GPS Kid Locator Tracker Backpack gives them an easy way to pinpoint their childâ??s location at any time.
â?¢ Convenience: The rechargeable battery operates for up to one week between battery recharges. Without having to remove the battery pack from the backpack, simply plug it into any outlet to recharge.
â?¢ Emergency Help: The GPS Kid Locator Tracker Backpack features an emergency call button that can be used to summon help or directly alert a parent to a childâ??s specific location. The child could also use the emergency call button to alert a parent should he or she become lost.
â?¢ GeoFence: Parents can easily construct a GeoFence online using the patented LOBOâ?¢ mapping software. A GeoFence is a defined are in which a parent can be alerted if the child is not inside the area or goes beyond a predefined area.
â?¢ Easy to Use: The GPS Kid Locator Tracker Backpack is self-contained and ready to use. Programming is done remotely online anytime anywhere. Our secure web site transmits programming instructions to the unit implementing them immediately.

Sentinel Watch (30 June 2004) – This may turn out to be vaporware since I have been unable to find updated information.
CPS and Xion collaborate on development of GSM based communications and security device
The new Sentinel Watch is based on a tri-band GSM engine and consistently delivers 100m accuracy in urban, suburban and rural areas. In addition the Watch can be tracked and located indoors and metal framed buildings. The watch also offers:
â?¢ parent/child communication via SMS/MMS
â?¢ a warning for parents if the child moves outside a designated or defined area
â?¢ a panic button which sends an immediate alert message to the parent
â?¢ security clasp and security strap the alert the parent when the watch is removed without authorisation
â?¢ gaming facilities
http://www.cursor-system.com/cps/news_detail.asp?ID=119

and finally the silliest of the lot…
SmartWear Technologies plans to launch a line of pajamas embedded with RFID tags (http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=165701942).

Posted on by mklang

Pope not Potter Fan

No real surprise really that the new Pope is not a Harry Potter fan. In a letter he wrote as a Cardinal he warned that the books are dangerous to children. “…because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly.”

So I dont think that he will be lining up for an early copy…

Times Online

Posted on by mklang