Words

March 14, 2005

All together now!

Words now contains my entire blog archive from spring 2001 to the present. Until now it was spread across 2 other old blogs. It took forever to hand edit 1200 blog entries to make them importable into moveable type, but with a few glitches, I got it done. Me happy.

Posted by jason at 05:09 PM | Comments (1)

October 29, 2004

OTHER blog

This blog is not active. It exists only as a repository of old content. Go to http://jasonnolan.net/words/ please."

Posted by jason at 02:57 AM | Comments (0)

June 01, 2004

"NewYorkish: Larry David, Defender of the Innocent"

Murder suspect found not guilty by TV show footage. \""One more reason to love Larry David: he saved a life this week. According to Celebrity Justice (story not online), pillar of journalistic integrity, an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm now lies at the heart of a murder investigation. Here\'s how it goes: in May of 2003, a murder led the LAPD to a suspect, a man with reputed ties to a notorious LA-based gang. The suspicion only increased when the man couldn\'t provide investigators with much of an alibi. He told the cops he\'d been at a Dodgers game, although the only person who could confirm his whereabouts that day was his sympathetic girlfriend.\"""

Posted by jason at 01:15 PM | Comments (0)

yukazine diary

yukazine diary has a nice picture of norman the cat, who just moved back to his owners while we go on holidays. Mom\'s watching the apartment, while we\'re gone, but norman pined for the fjords. Norman in Shrek II"

Posted by jason at 03:04 AM

May 31, 2004

Zero Cost Computing N.Y. Times apology feels hollow

I just posted something at ZeroCostComputing: N.Y. Times apology feels hollow that links to an article megan did in the Toronto Star. Check it out."

Posted by jason at 08:02 PM

Michael Moore.com

Yuka noticed on CNN.jp that Michael Moore\'s new movie has a distributor in the US. But I can\'t find any reference to it on CNN. WHile looking around I found two interesting sites: Michael Moore Hates America and Moorelies.com | Michael Moore\'s Permanent Record which both want to present a (un)biased view of things. Of course, they\'re objective. And we all know what I think of \'objectivity\'. But they\'re fun to look at. It would be nice if we had an anti-moore. Someone as creative and witty as he is, but from the other chauvinistic camp."

Posted by jason at 03:45 PM

May 30, 2004

Just testing file uploads.... and my camera...

I wanna get some good pictures today."

Posted by jason at 03:31 PM

sHuFFle dEMoNs

sHuFFle dEMoNs will attempt to break a world\'s record with the this afternoon: \""Join Toronto\'s famed Shuffle Demons and special celebrity guests as we attempt to shatter the Guiness Book of World Records record for most saxophones playing one song.\"" Yes, I have a sax. I played from 1976-1988, though I never was any good. Luckily, yuka agreed I\'m too busy to do it today though, as we should be preparing to travel, and I can\'t site read the music. Saved.

---

Success! 930 sax players... beating the old mark by about 400."

Posted by jason at 02:44 PM

May 29, 2004

EyeTap: Humanistic Intelligence Lab

After a brief meeting to discuss research issues for the summer, we were able to rename Steve Mann\'s Humanistic Intelligence Lab to something less, er, problematic... It is now the Personal Imaging Lab. The science folks liked the term because it is the Pi Lab (a la 3.14...). I like it because of John Lydon\'s post-punk band Public Image Ltd (PiL). "

Posted by jason at 09:50 PM

May 28, 2004

Damn. Now I have to vote NDP

Liberals deny that cutting funding for public housing contributed to homelessness. And the conservatives are talking about disestablishing bilingualism. Unfortunately, I don\'t like Olivia Chow (my local NDP twitt) for the personal reason that she refused to take up the noise complaints against OCAD during its construction. She liked what it did for the facade of the community, but didn\'t care about what it did to the locals. And her leader is a goofball. But they\'re on the right side of the fight, and one cannot always choose one\'s political bedfellows."

Posted by jason at 12:08 AM

May 26, 2004

MOOs: Polysynchronous Collaborative Virtual Environments

Here\'s a final draft copy of our forthcoming book chapter MOOs: Polysynchronous Collaborative Virtual Environments Rhonna J. Robbins-Sponaas and Jason Nolan in In Workplace Internet-Based Communication: Industry and Academic Perspectives. Pavel Zemliansky, and Kirk St. Amant eds. Idea Group. Any thoughts or comments for its improvement?

This chapter defines, describes, and assesses the form of collaborative virtual learning environment known as MOOs. MOOs offer opportunities impossible in any other actively developed online communication tool, but they have remained largely the purview of hackers, coders, and academics. This chapter deals with understanding what a MOO is, what key features make it a valuable collaborative environment, and issues of accessibility, access, and governance. Key aspects include defining and historicizing MOO, exploring the technology\'s current development, discussing issues that presently limit large-scale acceptance, and speculation about the possibilities and the future of MOO. The chapter considers text-based multimedia environments; general features of synchronous and asynchronous technologies; the notion of polysynchrony; tools for rapid prototyping, education, or training of users; application accessibility; costs in hardware, software, and manhours; and whether it?s worth organizations getting involved in MOOs at their present state of development.

"

Posted by jason at 01:59 PM

KMD1002 & 2003

For all you KMDI grad students out there in TV land, you can pick up your papers outside Kelly Rankin\'s office (just down the hall from mine). Her hours this week are: Wednesday noon to 6pm Thursday 10:30am to 5:30pm Friday noon to 6pm"

Posted by jason at 12:42 PM

May 25, 2004

Democratic Dialogue in Education

Megan\'s new book Democratic Dialogue in Education is out! Haven\'t see it yet, but if it is from megan, it has to rock! Troubling Speech, Disturbing Silence By Megan Boler"

Posted by jason at 02:40 PM

Surveillance Poetry

Just got this from David Wood who runs http://www.surveillance-and-society.org/ I am guest-editing an e-zine called furthertxt (an offshoot of the famous and now-defunct \'Rhizome\') http://www.furthertxt.org in the last quarter of this year. The theme of this issue will be Security, Surveillance and Fear. I am approaching a broad spectrum of writers (from sf authors to cultural analysts, from academics to artists) to get submissions. You\'ve obviously written plenty in thus area. We would be interested in any kind of contribution: fiction, poetry, critique, commentary, thought experiments - anything of any length or style that relates to the theme in any way that is provocative, fearless and fun - but certainly not your usual academic stuff. I would also be grateful if you would forward this to any others you think might be interested in contributing. "

Posted by jason at 02:11 PM

SYSTEM-77 / CIVIL COUNTER-RECONNAISSANCE

sunir sent me an email about SYSTEM-77 / CIVIL COUNTER-RECONNAISSANCE and their new project:

On Thursday, 13 May 2004, the Vienna-based Net culture platform Public Netbase presented the System-77 Civil Counter Reconnaissance (S-77CCR) installation, accompanied Projekt Atol Pact\'s Signal Server! opening performance. Project Atol Pact, headed by Marko Peljhan, is known for its conversion of military information technology for civilian purposes and has received several awards. S-77CCR represents a globally active consortium whose goal is to promote the use of surveillance technology by civil society, in contrast to the intransparent and anti-democratic employment of such technologies by public and private security agencies. The mobile surveillance unit uses unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for reconnaissance, giving the public a clear idea of how state-of-the-art control technologies are used. According to Marko Peljhan, \""unmanned systems are a key technology on the path towards civilian space surveillance\"". Inside the counter surveillance unit, electronic remote reconnaissance equipment and data analysis tools compound the UAV, with explanatory displays and on-screen descriptions offering information to the visitor. According to Konrad Becker, director of Public Netbase, \""the project is an attempt to foster an understanding of art as socio political intervention in the public realm\"". The Karlsplatz square, a point of convergence of urban conflict, offers an ideal environment for the installation, allowing it to address real points of reference. \""The installation is under permanent police observation. According to a TV report, it has generated a feeling of insecurity among the security forces.\"" Ever since the projects beginnings, the S-77CCR principle \""Eyes in the skies, democracy in the streets\"" has proved to be highly effective. \""Vienna will be the focus of attention until 28 May. Instead of further curtailing fundamental rights, technologies will be used to strengthen democracy in the streets\"", Becker concluded.

"

Posted by jason at 12:56 PM

May 24, 2004

Big Fat Stinking Software

Big Fat Stinking Software has all you really need to show that you\'re chronic."

Posted by jason at 06:50 PM

May 23, 2004

Vampire Lady

This is a true and accurate photo of Elizabeth Miller when exposed to the flash of a camera. Picture and mods by me..."

Posted by jason at 08:42 PM

"Simone Maurice - Virtual Dance Instructor, Performance Dance Artist, Choreographer, Artist Development"

I did a photo shoot with Simsim yesterday. This is one of the neat ones. "

Posted by jason at 02:28 AM

May 22, 2004

The Harrow: Staff

I\'m back in the helm as poetry editor for The Harrow. If anyone\'s a budding dark poetry writer... send something along. No pay, only fun and glory."

Posted by jason at 11:23 PM

Garage Sale

Joel and I had a collective garage sale today at his place. We moves a major chunk of junk from our place, and a smaller one from his. It is slow nice to have merely a cluttered apartment again, rather than the overburdened monstrosity we previously lived among. Thanks JOEL!"

Posted by jason at 11:05 PM

May 20, 2004

Rochelle Mazar: Ralph Klien\'s a Plagarist!

The ever vigilant R. Mazar has a link to a article on how the Alberta premier Ralphy got busted for plagaring his paper on Cuba... seems he was taking a correspondence course... he\'s an admitted alcholic too..."

Posted by jason at 01:58 PM

Updating myself. Yuka says I have to.

Well, yesterday I had a long (almost 4 hour) lunch with Jocelyn Piercy co-dean of technology at Seneca. Another digital kindred spirit to go along with Megan at OISE and Jennifer Jensen (York U). There does finally seem to be a group of us interested in tech and social issues in Toronto (yes, I\'m sure there are others). It turns out that not only does she know all my old English d00ds, but at one point she turned to me and said, \""You know that one of your students used to work for me?\"" I guessed it was Emma and I won the prise. Emma\'s teaching at Humber now, I think. Unfortunately Tech at Seneca has had declining enrollment. That also means that there\'s no work up there for me, in Tech. Personally, I\'d like to get into doing some more practical teaching, like I did at Ryerson last year. Speaking of which, I just put in my letter of interest to teach there again next fall. If I got two sections of ECE912 (Early Childhood Education and Technology) it would be great. Anyway, while Jocelyn and I were jawing about everything, Hoder (Mr Iranian Weblogs) walked by. (Gale Moore, director of KMDI did too, but she doesn\'t have a web page I can point to.) All this means that I\'ll have to have another pizza night to get everyone together. After lunch, Jocelyn was off learning about MOOs and how cool they are. I hope she gets hooked. Today, I\'m moving all my junk to joel\'s house so that we can have a Garage Sale this Saturday (68 Hogarth Ave.). Drop by if you\'re in the Riverdale area of Toronto. Lots of cool stuff."

Posted by jason at 01:48 PM

UPS Package Tracking

UPS Package Tracking is telling me that my package is on the way. Don\'t click on the link. It isn\'t your package."

Posted by jason at 04:01 AM

May 18, 2004

"O\'Reilly Network: The Fuss About Gmail and Privacy: Nine Reasons Why It\'s Bogus [Apr. 18, 2004]"

The Fuss About Gmail and Privacy: Nine Reasons Why It\'s Bogus [Apr. 18, 2004] Of course most of us were weaned by Tim Oreilly and his books. Well, for me it was Ed Krol\'s \""The Whole Internet\"" back in 1992. Tim\'s got the geek\'s library in his pocket, and somehow you get the feeling that he\'s not making a buck off the \'net, but that he\'s just helping get the information out there, and making many bucks in passing. Anyway, good article on gmail, and the dangers of ignorant paranoia. Well informed paranoia is where it\'s at."

Posted by jason at 12:00 PM

May 16, 2004

Yuka\'s favorite song of the week

Nippa is a giant limestone cave in Tokyo. Nippa is the theme song for the cave, written by Magical Power Mako. And her friend Nemoto-sensei sings it to his kids a lot. (I took the photo of him on his page.) "

Posted by jason at 05:59 PM

Van Helsing

Yuka, Elizabeth, KAT! and I went to see Van Helsing and then had dinner at the Queen Mother. Dinner was good. Can\'t have too much Pin Gai chicken. But the movie? The movie was great. Much better than we thought it would be. I read some negative reviews from people who obviously think that humour begins and ends with Mr Bean and Monty Python. No obvious gags, but this movie does not for a moment take itself seriously. It rips off everyone from Bond films, to Indiana Jones, LoTR, the obvious two Mummy movies, strangely enough Young Frankenstien, and every other Frank, Drac, Wolfman flick. The ending is yawn, but as elizabeth points out it is a totally suitable salute to Dracula. Unless you find Goddard to be a hollywood sellout and hate overly referential films, it should work just fine for you. Did for us."

Posted by jason at 12:39 AM

May 14, 2004

Scamming the Scammer

Scamming the Scammer This is just tooo funny. Download the story and read it all. Jeremy sent it to me, right?"

Posted by jason at 10:25 PM

Anthony Burgess - Cutting A Clockwork Orange

Anthony Burgess - Cutting A Clockwork Orange This article notes the outrage that accompanied its publication, but that\'s not something that impacted on us when we read it 20 years later. Such a generational thing, I guess. I remember reading it in highschool, almost exactly 22 years ago (May 1982) and not finding any glorification of violence at all. Alex and the d00ds were just victims trying to make sense of the world that had no space for or interest in them. It sounded like us, but it wasn\'t anything to emulate. Too late, we were there already looking for ways out. It just reflected the world around us. But then again, we, in Canada, had the full text. :)"

Posted by jason at 12:59 PM

Rochelle Mazar: Aspiring to various things: Our Lady of the InfoApocalypse

Rochelle Mazar blogs about her Early morning communing with Jason."

Posted by jason at 12:34 PM

Van Helsing

As mentioned, when I was in Transylvania last year, I was interviewed for the documentary that accompanies teh Van Helsing DVD. The doc was shown on TV in the US, and Elizabeth Miller got a copy. I made a deal with the film crew that I would be interviewed on the condition that they didn\'t use any footage of me. Anyway, my interest is in the medieval latin vampire stories of walter map and william of newburgh (here\'s a paper on them), so I was not useful to them... or so I thought. Elizabeth says that I make two brief appearances. Concomitant with this request was a threat that I would post compromising photos of the docs\' director. Lucky for her I couldn\'t find them, but here are some from one of my dracula conference pages.


"

Posted by jason at 12:13 AM

Chatting the day away...

Met up with Dale, the boss of Ryerson\'s ECE program, today to talk about teaching there this fall. Must admit I really enjoyed it, so I hope something comes of it. Then I met up with Trevor Owen, founder and prime mover of Writers In Electronic Residence, a very cool program that puts kids in touch with Canadian writers. He\'s been runing it since the early 90s, and we discussed research and development opportunities. In between, I got a DVD of \""Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil\"" for $7 at Sam the Record Man, and Lounge Lizards and Sisters of Mercy CDs. A good day over all."

Posted by jason at 12:05 AM

May 13, 2004

Hotmail banning UofT again...

\""UTORmail is currently having problems sending mail to Hotmail addresses due to blocks put in place by Hotmail\'s anti-spam service. Most of the time we can\'t send any mail to Hotmail. When we can send it\'s only in short spurts. Then we get cut off again.\"" Don\'t expect mail from me, if that\'s where you are, or have your email forwarded there."

Posted by jason at 07:05 PM

More with Norman the Cat

More with Norman the Cat "

Posted by jason at 12:57 PM

May 11, 2004

ITBusiness.ca: Open source of conflict

Open source of conflict 5/10/2004 5:00:00 PM - A conference at the University of Toronto puts together strange bedfellows like the Linux Professional Institute and Microsoft. Is this enterprise big enough for the both of them"

Posted by jason at 11:50 AM

May 10, 2004

Open Source Conference

I\'ve been pretty much offline, working at the Open Source Conference that KMDI is putting on. Felt too tired to stay all day, so I came home to mark. One more day tomorrow. Steve\'s doing the closing keynote, which should be interesting, as the rest of the conference is very focused towards industry and government, imho."

Posted by jason at 10:12 PM

May 07, 2004

Wired Steve

Just when you thought that there was no more room for Tech in Steve Mann\'s life, he now generates his own electricity in downtown Toronto. This week, a pile of us climbed up to the top of his house and erected a wind turbine. As Steve sees it:

Yesterday, we put a windmill on our roof, so that we have our own power source. This is to run the cyborg community, cyborglog servers, etc., and to charge all our wearable computing batteries, etc.. See http://wearcam.org/urbine/ This is alot like Open Source, or like Peer to Peer, power generation. Power to the people! It brought together the cyborg community, and the community as a whole, so perhaps this would be of interest to your \'blog. --Steve

"

Posted by jason at 12:34 PM

May 06, 2004

Ken\'s BLog

Ken has a new blog on emigresearch.com. No content yet, but soon...."

Posted by jason at 04:41 PM

May 05, 2004

Michael Moore.com : Mike\'s Message

Michael Moore.com : Mike\'s Message Disney Has Blocked the Distribution of My New Film... by Michael Moore Friends, I would have hoped by now that I would be able to put my work out to the public without having to experience the profound censorship obstacles I often seem to encounter. Yesterday I was told that Disney, the studio that owns Miramax, has officially decided to prohibit our producer, Miramax, from distributing my new film, \""Fahrenheit 9/11.\"" The reason? According to today\'s (May 5) New York Times, it might \""endanger\"" millions of dollars of tax breaks Disney receives from the state of Florida because the film will \""anger\"" the Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush. The story is on page one of the Times and you can read it here (Disney Forbidding Distribution of Film That Criticizes Bush)."

Posted by jason at 01:27 PM

May 04, 2004

Garage Sale!

Joel and I are doing a combo garage sale Saturday May 15 at his place, 68 Hogarth St. That\'s just south of Danforth and just east of Broadview. I\'ll try to set up a livecam, and perhaps offer online bidding... not."

Posted by jason at 04:12 PM

JEMAA El FNA : Morocco\'s Rendezvous of the Dead DVD SF005

JEMAA El FNA : Morocco\'s Rendezvous of the Dead DVD SF005 I have no idea what it was about, but it was interesting. Time for a donkey tour."

Posted by jason at 02:52 AM

May 03, 2004

Virtual Bubblewrap

Virtual Bubblewrap: just pop it!!! Of course yuka is freaking out over it."

Posted by jason at 11:52 PM

TheFeature :: Sousveillance by Howard Rhiengold

TheFeature :: \""Inverse Surveillance\"" -- What We Should Do With All Those Phonecams Howard couldn\'t make it out to our workshop last month, so he did the next best thing... wrote it up. Thanks howard!"

Posted by jason at 08:52 PM

Open Source Conference

Today is the last of the Monday meetings for the conference. And there are a few seats left! Open Source Conference OPEN SOURCE AND FREE SOFTWARE CONCEPTS, CONTROVERSIES, AND SOLUTIONS Most Comprehensive Event of its Kind A KNOWLEDGE MEDIA DESIGN INSTITUTE CONFERENCE Sunday, May 9, to Tuesday, May 11, 2004 CONVOCATION HALL -- UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO "

Posted by jason at 01:20 PM

Open Source Conference

Today is the last of the Monday meetings for the conference. And there are a few seats left! Open Source Conference OPEN SOURCE AND FREE SOFTWARE CONCEPTS, CONTROVERSIES, AND SOLUTIONS Most Comprehensive Event of its Kind A KNOWLEDGE MEDIA DESIGN INSTITUTE CONFERENCE Sunday, May 9, to Tuesday, May 11, 2004 CONVOCATION HALL -- UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO "

Posted by jason at 01:19 PM

May 01, 2004

testing

1, 2, 3"

Posted by jason at 01:14 PM

On the long slow road to accommodation...

Yuka and I are up bright and early today so that we can go look at some new condos that are coming on the market today. Don\'t want to say more, as we\'ll jinx it, as yuka says, but one does have to share information on the basics. Oh, and we need coffee beans, and canned tuna for Nomi the cat."

Posted by jason at 01:09 PM

March 28, 2004

I\'ve really moved!!! NOT

Everything is really happening at http://stuff.jasonnolan.net now. I don\'t know if I\'ll update content here ever again. Well, that was a fun month. I\'m back here now!!!"

Posted by jason at 12:54 PM

March 10, 2004

Lost and profound

Yuka was asking if she could cut up some of my stickers to label a VHS on Catherine Parr Trail and her sister. And in that pile of stickers... all my old iMac and EmilyStrange stickers. I\'ve had a thing for stickers since grade 5.

Posted by jason at 01:21 AM

March 09, 2004

Jennifer Jensen

Jennifer\'s an ed/tech faculty at York U and she was down talking about computer games and gender in my class. It was great. I\'d not thought in advance that it was a perfect topic for International Women\'s day, but it was."

Posted by jason at 01:59 PM

March 07, 2004

Rum and Monkey: Colossal Death Robot Test

Which Colossal Death Robot Are You? Jeremy suggested it."

Posted by jason at 05:08 PM

March 05, 2004

Blooferland.com

Elizabeth Miller was over, discussing new computers and whatnot, and by the time she had left, we\'d bought a new domain for her: blooferland.com. If you don\'t know who \'the bloofer lady\' is. Reread Dracula."

Posted by jason at 07:21 PM

Cat sitting

When yuka and I were in the video store on baldwin, Norm, the owner popped by to say he was going to Europe for a while, and wouldn\'t we like to take care of his cat Nomi (the cat\'s name is really Norman too.). Yuka peaked and freaked. This is Nomi: And he is her favorite cat in town. We have him for three weeks. "

Posted by jason at 03:51 PM

March 03, 2004

"News@UofT -- Messages about email shutdown are virus, computing office says -- March 3, 2004"

News@UofT -- Messages about email shutdown are virus, computing office says -- March 3, 2004 Messages about email shutdown are virus, computing office says \'Beagle\' virus appears on campus... This comes a day after I hear that UofT is shutting off their antivirus software. Very funny."

Posted by jason at 03:55 PM

March 02, 2004

thought of the day:

I\'m just a Xenon processor on a 8088 motherboard. Thanks to KAT!"

Posted by jason at 02:07 PM

RFID Tags in New US Notes Explode When You Try to Microwave Them

RFID Tags in New US Notes Explode When You Try to Microwave Them On the Steve, Barry, Jason sousveillance front... how do we stop the watchers from watching? Microwave the hell out of them! Thanks for the URL Jeremy."

Posted by jason at 01:16 PM

March 01, 2004

Get the Facts on Windows and Linux

Get the Facts on Windows and Linux is a new Microsoft attack on Linux, open source, and alternatives to their 90% hold on the market. Note that the .Net tools are available on Linux as well as MS servers. And is free for both. Sneaky devils."

Posted by jason at 08:21 PM

Elizabeth Bay...

The bloofer lady had a give away of her special leftover \'goods\'. We all chose names from a hat, names from Dracula, and then were offered the opporunity to obtain an item from the bloofer lady\'s table. I, as Lucy, got some very interesting items: Dracula 2000 conference stickers, Glennis byron\'s editon of Dracula (with a rare interview with stoker), a repro of Bela\'s movie, and, get this, an English translation of Vlad Tepes: Prince of Walachia, 1978, by Nicholae Stoicescu. Published by Editura Academiei Rrepublichii Socialiste Romania. A rare biography of Vlad Tepes, aka Dracula. Thanks Elizabeth!"

Posted by jason at 12:00 AM

February 29, 2004

Our walking about Toronto

Yuka and I went for a walk. That is the bunny eating store. Then we went past the bunny bike parts place. which was right next to Dean\'s Britney Spears\' Cocaine Haunt. But that\'s because we took the pink door. "

Posted by jason at 09:55 PM

Birthdaysssss

Yuka and I are off to Elizabeth Miller\'s house for the irregular meeting of the Transylvannian Society of Dracula. Yuka and I joined when we were in Romania last year. It is also Elizabeth\'s 65th birthday, and we\'re also having a housewarming for her new condo."

Posted by jason at 12:23 AM

February 26, 2004

Don\'t Miss Megan

My buddy Megan will be speaking at KMDI next thursday... be there... if you can. Thursday, March 4, 2004 Time: 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. EST Room BA1200 [1st floor] Bahen Centre for Information Technology University of Toronto 40 St. George St. The Body in Cyberculture Cyberculture discourse jokes that \""On the Internet, no one knows you\'re a dog,\"" and offers the hype as claimed in the classic MCI advertisement, \""There is no race/there is no sex/there is no infirmity.\"" What are the implications of the hypes and hopes that bodies can be transcended online? How are bodies represented and imagined in computer-mediated communication (CMC)? In this presentation, I argue that cyberculture has re-packaged Descartes\' dream of mind over body into the \""new digital Cartesianism.\"" I analyze images that represent the \""hypes\"" of bodies in online spaces, and the cyberculture writings that reflects the \""hopes\"" of a gender-queer utopia online. In contrast to these hypes and hopes, I outline the \""reality\"" of how bodies and identities are invoked in CMC, and how stereotyped conceptions of sexual orientation and gender are reinscribed in online communication practices. Megan Boler Associate Professor in Theory and Policy Studies at OISE/UT. She earned her Ph.D. at the History of Consciousness Program at the University of California Santa Cruz, and has relocated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Her research and graduate courses address cyberculture studies, media literacy, feminist theory, and philosophy of technology, with specific work in the area of the representation of bodies in CMC and space and place in digital consciousness. She has recently launched a multimedia site called Critical Media Literacy in Times of War (1) that engages users in close analysis of the contradictory narratives offered by contrasting international, domestic, mainstream and independent media regarding anti-war protests and civilian casualties during the United States? invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. (1) http://www.tandl.vt.edu/Foundations/mediaproject"

Posted by jason at 04:03 PM

February 25, 2004

grammar book

grammar book is the blog of an ex-student of mine. Wow. Someone who really thinks in blogspace."

Posted by jason at 02:09 PM

Diana Pashler

My oldest/longest best friend just passed away. Diana Pashler. She was 43, I think. I\'ve known her since grade 7. Here\'s a picture of her, on the right, from my 40th birthday party. "

Posted by jason at 03:57 AM

MovieMartyr.com - Songs From the Second Floor

Tonight, yuka and I watched Songs From the Second Floor After two long years, Songs From the Second Floor, Swedish director Roy Andersson\'s apocalyptic look at the dangers inherent in modern society, finally has opened in the United States, and I think this is one instance where the delay caused by the film\'s inability to get distribution might cause serious harm to its stateside perception. Safely ensconced midway through the year 2002, any millennial tension feels like a long gone fad. Y2K seems about as relevant to our lives as the Pet Rock does, and that\'s a shame, since Andersson\'s movie would have fed off of whatever fears we still had lingering a few years back. Essentially beginning as a Brazil for contemporary times, Songs develops as it continues into a broad and scathing critique of the way we live. Andersson argues here that mankind has become so obsessed with capitalist goals that we simply can\'t be bothered to notice the divine. There\'s really only one good idea in this movie, but the director runs with it and presents it with an unforgettable visual panache."

Posted by jason at 03:36 AM

February 24, 2004

New Blog

I\'m using WordPress (WordPress is a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. What a mouthful.) as my main blogging tool now. It is Jeremy\'s fault. "

Posted by jason at 06:34 PM

February 23, 2004

Surveillance & Society

The latest issue of Surveillance & Society is (finally) out now! A special on \'Surveillance and Mobilties\', edited by Colin Bennett and Pris Regan, it features many excellent new pieces and artwork too. It\'s all at the usual place: http://www.surveillance-and-society.org/"

Posted by jason at 04:04 PM

Interested in Learning?

Please fill out my survey. Joel Weiss and I are working on a plan for an Encyclopedia of Learning with Kluwer Academic Publishers, and Kluwer has put together a survey go get some general information from folks interested in Learning. Here's the raw URL. If you could share it, blog it, mail it to your friends, I'd greatly appreciate it. http://www.zoomerang.com/recipient/survey-intro.zgi?ID=L2233PCDY3U5&PIN=8Y8GBPYDDFCT"

Posted by jason at 09:24 AM

February 21, 2004

coMOOnication theory

Aaron, on of my Ryerson students from last term, has a thing for Cowishness. He's got this list of MOOwords and is looking for additions. Contributions? This is what the internet is all about. Putting people in touch with the collective nature of inner foolishness. And can that ever be a bad thing?"

Posted by jason at 07:38 AM

February 20, 2004

Further Achievements...

It seems as if the once dead http://achieve.utoronto.ca is on its way for a comeback, revenantly speaking as my niece is wont to say. Replaced the powersupply ($45). And then realized the the Fedora Linux can be installed over RH7.2 with not much problem. That's going on now. I think I'm going to move the moos (and projectachive.net) back over to it. Just have to work out a backup schedule without a DDS3 drive... fun... wow! Oh, and the URL of the day is http://www.lares.dti.ne.jp/%7Eyugo/storage/monocrafts_ver3/03/index.html thanks to ken"

Posted by jason at 04:02 PM

February 17, 2004

Rapp Optical Fubar

I love Rapp Optical, and have always bought glasses from them. No attitude, insane glasses, and great work. Not this time. My favorite frames. Old anodized aluminum frames that I've had forever. The rivets holding the arms on came off. So I spent got Ken to drill new threadding for screws. Took him a long time to get the threadding drill too. So, I get my glasses back and they look like they've been gone over by a frigging hammer! Metal flattened. Threadding destroyed. And what looks like rivits. Some the hardware and hinges are crushed, and there's no way they'll ever get to be useable again. Yes, they didn't charge me for the dammage, but geeze. All I wanted was for them to order the correct screws! One more coffin nail on a shitty week. I'm going to make wine now. FOLLOWUP There was a message on the phone from Mel Rapp apologizing for the problem and offering me a substantial gift certificate for a future frame purchase. That's very nice. That's why I never suggested I was going to never go back. Mel's always been reasonable."

Posted by jason at 01:54 PM

February 15, 2004

"Well, if it is on sale..."

Shopping day... Got Pekka Himanen's The Hacker Ethic: and the Spirit of the Information Age, and Wiser's The Twilight Years: Paris in the 1930s. And two cool sweaters. And some sundry dry goods. Somehow everything was 50-70% off. What's with all this consumerism? Oh, the Hacker Ethic is on sale at Indigo at the Eatons Centre for $5, hardcover."

Posted by jason at 08:31 PM

February 11, 2004

KAT! Productions Presents: Hacktivista--The Movie

Full Size version of the cover..."

Posted by jason at 12:19 PM

"Microsoft Windows NT4, 2000, XP and Server 2003 critical vulnerability"

Not again... Microsoft released patches for a critical security vulnerability that affects Windows NT4, 2000, XP and 2003 and can allow remote code execution with System privileges. If you don't use Automatic Updates to take care of critical patches, then look at the following Microsoft web site that has links to the patches for each affected operating system. http://microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS04-007.asp"

Posted by jason at 10:24 AM

February 10, 2004

Chronic video conferencing...

Ken Emig and I doing video-conferencing in my apartment. We got some great audio distortion happening that ken recorded. Perhaps he'll send it along with me to post. I'm off to set up ken's new domain (emigresearch.com)."

Posted by jason at 01:05 PM

February 07, 2004

THe Mann Proof

Here's some pictures of Ken and I and others over at Steve Mann's Studio playing with a strange projector."

Posted by jason at 10:30 PM

"Too busy to breath... ah, the easy life."

Simsim, Pazuzu, JuliaD over for Za with me and Yuka on Thursday. Ken came in last night for the weekend. Arun's coming in next week to get his 17"" powerbook... Finishing off a book chapter with Rhonna. Oh, and Ken and I are over to Steve Mann's this afternoon for some strangeness... will have pictures, I think. Comments are not working, yet. Some mysql error I've not had time to look at."

Posted by jason at 10:16 AM

February 03, 2004

A new home now...

If you've checked recently, this domain has been up and down. I am retiring my iMac server that has hosted about 7 domains, and I'm moving most of them to aventurehost.com. Just about done with this one. Have a fresh new version of Moveabletype installed on a nice new MySQL database. Should be fun. And will be less work."

Posted by jason at 04:21 PM

February 01, 2004

What it is...

Where to begin. Perhaps with spending the afternoon changing the hard drive in my Powerbook. Jeremy said it was easy. And he was right. One of the easiest swaps. I took out my old 10 gig drive which is full, and replaced it with a 60 gig, that I got when I was in Japan (thanks Larry). Slight problem though. And this is why it is worthy of blogging. You see, you should always back up your data before you do things like swapping drives. And of course I did. I backed it up to the drive I was swapping IN, assuming that I'd be able to plug in the new drive and have it running. Nada. You see, internal drives are formatted like good old unix drives partitions everwhere. External drives do not. So, it took me 3 tries, of taking drives out and putting them back in, but I finally backed up my computer to Yukas, swapped the drives, reformatted the drive, and copied the data over. Server smoked again today too. Edublog.com, jasonnolan.net, yukazine.com, projectachieve.net... Same problem. The computer forgets where the ethernet connection is. So I just have to go up to the office, unplug the ethernet cable, and plug it back in. I'm so so very bored with running my own servers. As well, achieve.utoronto.ca is on its last legs. Tape drive and monitor dead. Powersupply fan grinding something nasaty. Gonna get rid of them both, and just pretend that I don't have any server related experience."

Posted by jason at 06:06 PM

January 28, 2004

Voices Without Votes 2004

Voices Without Votes 2004 Thursday, January 29 at 6:00 p.m. at the Coach House Elections are usually national affairs, with the specific leader of an arbitrary country having a limited effect on the world at large. But when the arbitrary country is the world's only superpower, the election of its president becomes a matter for world concern.? Peter Deitz, one of the McLuhan Program's research fellows has launched a site that asks people from around the world to ""write a letter to America"" to express their views on the upcoming presidential election. The thinking behind the project is that the American president has a tremendous influence on how the entire world conducts itself, both for good and for ill. Voices Without Votes 2004 (http://www.voices04.org) provides a forum whereby those who are affected by US policy but do not have a vote in the election can help to influence the opinion of those who do. The site includes a newsy weblog, plus the submitted letters and other commentary.??? Come join us on Thursday, January 29 at 6:00 p.m. at the McLuhan Program Coach House, 39A Queen's Park Crescent East, when Peter Deitz will present Voices Without Votes 2004. Directions to the Coach House can be found at: http://www.mcluhan.utoronto.ca/visitor_info.htm? Regards, Mark Federman Chief Strategist McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology University of Toronto What are we thinking today? http://www.mcluhan.utoronto.ca/blogger/"

Posted by jason at 02:54 PM

January 27, 2004

Thanks Bill Gates...

Thanks for the latest virus bill. And all of you who bought microsoft products... you're part of the problem. :) http://www.noc.utoronto.ca/net-ops/security.htm lists all the ports blocked at UofT to protect the university from Microsoft."

Posted by jason at 04:07 PM

January 26, 2004

Papers updated...

I've put up a PDF of the following paper, in my paper's section. Nothing new, but it might be of interest. Nolan, J. (In Press) úThe Influence of ASCII on the Construction of Internet-based Knowledgeî OISE-UT Papers in Technology Education. Jim Hewitt ed. Toronto: Imperial Oil Centre for Science, Mathematics and Technology Education. http://jasonnolan.net/papers/InfluenceofASCII.pdf"

Posted by jason at 10:12 AM

January 23, 2004

Bored

I think I just got tired of blogging... took me a while. I wonder where I'm going next.

Posted by jason at 10:47 PM

January 21, 2004

Van Helsing Movie...

I'm bringing this up because Elizabeth and I, and a pile of other folks were interviewed and filmed for the documentary about this movie that will go on the DVD release. The movie is Van Helsing with Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale. Here's a preview. I agreed to be interviewed provided that they either lost or ignored the footage. (pictures below) The Film Guy (note hat), Sighisoara, Romania. Film crew in Sibiu, Romania. Victoria being interviewed. Outside Sighisoara, Romania. The Documentary Director with the Baron. In Bistritza, Romania. more pictures"

Posted by jason at 08:03 AM

January 20, 2004

Even better news...

Just got an email from JJ who runs my favorite Bistro (Le Select) with a URL to an article in The Wine Spectator saying that Study Finds Red Wine Destroys Bacteria That Cause Lung Infections, Heart Disease. No wonder Yuka and I never tend to get sick in the winter."

Posted by jason at 01:40 PM

Fixed my iPod

My iPod's been broken for months. Can't play music without holding the headphone jack at a funny angle. Tried to look at it 6 weeks ago and severed the harddrive cable while opening it. Spent $75 on a new cable and then got it back to its previously broken state. This morning, I figured I'd have another look at it. NO sharp knives. Opened it with two plastic toothpicks from my swiss army knives. Turns out that the cover to the headphone jack enclosure is soldered tight. Puzzled and proded inside with bits of plastic, and realized that all the solders are bad, but one specifically was a problem. Used a tiny screwdriver for fixing eyeglasses, and realized this connection is for the ground. Wheeeee... Went through a couple of boxes until I found some old wire, stripped it of it's plastic cover, and then poked it in and around bits of the iPod, and twisted it tight, and voila. Fixed. Nothing you can't do with a bit of wire and a couple of hours without distractions. Tune time!"

Posted by jason at 01:11 PM

Montgomery heirs win Anne lawsuit

Globe and Mail and a number of other rags have articles about the ongoing foolishness of Kevin Sullivan. An Ontario Superior Court judge yesterday tossed out a $55-million libel action launched by Sullivan Entertainment Group Inc. against the heirs of Anne of Green Gables author Lucy Maud Montgomery, signalling the end of the first round of a bitter, 15-year battle. She called Sullivan's accounting of the wildly successful Anne of Green GablesTV movies of 1984 and 1985 ""a joke."" (Sullivan claimed it has never recouped its production costs for the programs, the highest-rated in Canadian history). The judge also wrote in her decision that Sullivan's bookkeeping ""is creative accounting at its very best and very worst -- depending on your perspective."" In her decision, Judge MacFarland wrote that Kevin Sullivan, who with his wife, Trudy Grant, owns the company, was ""one of the most evasive witnesses I have encountered. When cross-examined, he could not answer a question directly. The most simple of questions elicited a long, complex and essentially evasive response in many, many instances."""

Posted by jason at 08:57 AM

Net Author is Recruiting!

Message: 1
DATE: Mon, 19 Jan 2004 23:51:52 +0100 From: ""Rhonna J. Robbins-Sponaas"" Subject: Net Author is Recruiting! Or, in other words . . . . . .HELP! :-) Hei, folks! As always whenever we need help, we're starting with our list membership. And right now we definitely need help. As much as possible, Net Author uses a blind review process for submissions sent to the journal, *E2K*. For those of you who aren't familiar with the process, it means that the readers don't know who actually wrote the work, and therefore cannot be influenced by name or credentials. The problem, however, is that we've recently had one of those periods of attrition every organization has; we've lost folks to illness or professional moves as they step out into new challenges. And that means that we're searching for new readers for fiction, creative nonfiction, and writing-related nonfiction. Historically, our reviewers have often moved into associate editor or editor at large positions, and submission reading is one of the requirements for that status. Likewise, it's part of any training program we offer toward editorial status, and while we don't have one open at the moment, any current reader activity would be applied to that training program. In other words, we're looking for folks who are willing to work with us as readers. It's a purely volunteer function--as are all our positions--so there's no money involved. We average some 17 fiction and nonfiction submissions per month, but not all submissions need reviewing, so neither are we talking about huge amounts of time. The difficulty is that we need a handful of experienced writers/readers; it would be difficult for novice writers to evaluate the works with the level of discernment and sophistication we need, and at the moment, we're so short staffed that we don't have time for training. At a later time we can certainly open that possibility up for some of the younger troops, but right now we need folks who can go right to work with only a basic orientation. What you'd do . . . Basically, this is the easy part. As I receive the submissions, I'strip all identifying info from them and forward them to the reviewers. Those reviewers then read the work and send a short (less than 200 words) response back to me, following the guidelines and format I'd give you, and those reviews would then be used toward making a final decision on the work and responding to the writer. And there you have it. We need readers. Wanna help? If you think you're up for it, PLEASE check in with me. Just send me a mail with a statement of interest and a brief summary of your own experience and credentials so we can get a sense of your background, and we'll go from there. Rhonna (crossing her fingers and waiting with bated breath) *********************************************************** Rhonna J. Robbins-Sponaas Editor in Chief, Net Author http://www.netauthor.org ***********************************************************"

Posted by jason at 08:36 AM

January 16, 2004

Terry Talks

[It was one of Terry's books that first helped me understand critical theory back in the 1980s. He's great.] Terry Eagleton will be here, in Toronto, in 2 weeks time. He is speaking at U. of Toronto the week of January 26 -29 on a series of lectures concerning the Art of Terror. Below is the blurb: Jan. 26-29, The Alexander Lectures presents cultural theorist Terry Eagleton, regis professor, University of Oxfod, England on the ART of Terror. The series includes ""Terror and Modernity"" (Jan. 26); ""The Art of Terror"" (Jan. 27); ""The Metaphysics of Terror"" (Jan. 28); and ""Beyond Terror"" (Jan. 29). All lectures take place at University College, room 140, 15 Kings College Circle at 4:30 pm. (416) 978-7516 or sue.underhill@utoronto.ca"

Posted by jason at 05:21 PM

January 15, 2004

NetAuthor's January E2K is up!

E2K is a journal for people who write professionally online. It is non-profit, pays very well for online journalism, and has been rated as one of the top places to get published online. I've been working with them for a couple of years, as editor in some fashion and as member of the board. Check it out."

Posted by jason at 08:26 AM

January 14, 2004

NO music banditry... aw...

puretracks.ca is some corporate attempt to stop people from illegially sharing music. Their TV add shows people going to http://musicbandit.ca/ and mistakenly downloading porn, virii, various bad things. OF course I went to http://musicbandit.ca/ to see what was up... wink wink... and http://musicbandit.ca/ doesn't exist. So much for another example of corporate scare tactics."

Posted by jason at 09:47 AM

January 13, 2004

Ken @ NRC

My friend Ken Emig who has almost no internet presence, got an award at the NRC. Prizes for anyone who can figure out what the award is for."

Posted by jason at 11:27 PM

San Bromista Cat Ranch

I'm helping yuka do research on victorian cat clothes for her regular column in NekoShinbun (a national japanese newspaper about cats). And I found this site about San Bromista Cat Ranch which raises cats for the European Catfur market."

Posted by jason at 11:59 AM

Chemicals in the Body...

Yuka sent this to me, from Wired. Your Body, Your Superfund Site talks about how many toxins you're storing up in your body."

Posted by jason at 09:56 AM

January 12, 2004

Finding your grade 4 teacher...

Saw Mr Baxter, my grade four teacher from 1972. I remember him very well, he taught us swahili, if I remember it correctly, having moved over from Kenya in 1968. He was an inspirational teacher, one of the few I remember as being supportive when my other teachers, such as my grade 5 teacher, told my parents I was a brick or two short of a full load. Well. Saw him on the news tonight, as Elvis Priestly. Some faces you never forget. I'll scan some pictures tomorrow."

Posted by jason at 12:46 AM

January 11, 2004

Jeremy's Diversion

"

Posted by jason at 03:36 PM

January 08, 2004

Updating MoveableType

I'm taking my moveable type server off line for a while to fix it up. If you have an edublog blog, it may be unavailable for the next while. I'll modify this comment with updates as they happen. The moveabletype database is busted. I can leave it alone, meaning I can't add new blogs, or I can start an new one, which means I have to back up everyone's blog and rebuild them. Nothing's lost either way, but I'm not sure how much time I want to put into it at the moment. Thinking."

Posted by jason at 02:33 PM

January 06, 2004

The Mota Insanity...

I took these pictures (click below) while KAT! was cooking dinner for the three of us over the weekend. The last one is my favourite.



"

Posted by jason at 05:51 PM

January 05, 2004

The Harrow 'zine

Just a reminder, if you haven't had time to vote yet, to go and vote for The Harrow at http://www.critters.org/predpoll/fictionzine.shtml. Bring the kids along. I've been, variously, a reviewer and poetry editor for years. Our humble zine is currently in the Top Ten category, and we should hope to keep it that way."

Posted by jason at 08:40 AM

January 04, 2004

BlogSpam will die... and other stories...

Just about to install anti-blogspam scode to see how it works. But on a better note, it has be a culinary feast over the past few days... starting with dinner this week at KAT!'s pad, after we saw LotR: RotK. Fresh fried calamari and shrimp, and veggies steamed in paper. And of course Mota, the cat who left us to live with KAT! and Muddy, was there and still appreciated us. Pictures to follow. Next night it was dinner at Le Select bistro. We let J-J who 'pretends' to own the place, but apparently really just plays in the wine cellar, choose an amazing wine that we could afford. The wine's unavailable in Toronto, but when it comes in next J-J said he'd email me. And that's tough since they are reputed to have the best cellar in Toronto with wines up to $2500 a bottle. Dinner was compliments of my sister Kelly as a christmas present. And last night Arun was in town so we could price out a computer for him. We were just going to have leftovers at home, but since I'd defrosted some of the dough I made up last week, I thought we'd have a small pizza along side the odds and sods. It was amazing! Dumb luck, but the dough worked perfectly, transfirred from the wooden tray to the hot tile in the oven... covered with tomato sauce, tomatos, green onions, greek olives, ground beef, black pepper, orange peppers, goat cheddar and goat feta. Drooool. Preparing for kmd2003 tomorrow night. Looking forward to it."

Posted by jason at 06:54 PM

January 02, 2004

Dracula in Pakistan...

Yes, it was made into a movie. I'm told that it was the only pakistani movie ever to get an X rating. And I have a copy here."

Posted by jason at 11:18 AM

MP3 Request...

Anyone got an MP3 for ""Gimme that O'l Time Religion"" by perhaps Phil Harris. I need a copy for a special reason."

Posted by jason at 10:07 AM

December 30, 2003

Jason De Man

Jeremy IMed me to check out the link on his blog to the following Quizilla, and it was oh, so accurate for both of us: This is the result it gave me. The wig and dress are optional I hope.
You are a Deconstructionist Weirdo. Although
ostensibly originating with Derrida, the
theories of your particular school have long
since passed beyond intellegibillity; half the
time you don't even understand what you're
saying anymore. That's okay, though. You're a
lot more fun to party with than a bunch of
stodgy new historicists.

What kind of postmodernist are you!?
brought to you by Quizilla"

Posted by jason at 10:38 AM

December 29, 2003

Sympatico Speed Bump

According to this article: Bell to double download speed for High-Speed Internet - Improve upload performance by five times, we're getting a speed bump in January or so."

Posted by jason at 02:57 PM

Yuka made me... buy it.

A 3/4 size Ovation 2003-vn."

Posted by jason at 02:52 PM

December 26, 2003

Hacktivista Broadcast

Ron Deibert's new documentary series Hacktivista, co-produced with Mike Downie, will air on TVOntario December 26th, 29th, and 30th at 8 pm. It features CitizenLab and KAT!."

Posted by jason at 10:46 AM

December 25, 2003

ProjectAchieve on the MOOve...

For those of you that know and use ProjectAchieve collaborative virtual learning environment (or MOOktiMOO or EdenMOO for that matter), the MOO is on the move. The hardware that has hosted these servers since 1998 is kaput. Tape backup dead. Fan for the powersupply dead. Monitor dead. And it is only a Pentium II 350 anyway. Time to die. I'm moving everything over to my old iMac DV (G3 450). This is the machine that hosts edublog.com, jasonnolan.net and virtuallearninghandbook.net, and some others. Note that http://projectachieve.net will be the correct address. The other two older addresses http://achieve.kmdi.utoronto.ca and http://achieve.utoronto.ca will work again soon enough, but they're not the ones you should be using anyway. That's all... oh, except for the twiki. It will probably be down for a bit. or up only as an archive."

Posted by jason at 05:55 PM

December 24, 2003

Steve Mann

From:

Posted by jason at 06:40 PM

Holiday Edition of the Ugly Building Cam

steve's on his way over to scope out the view from my building... and he asked if the cam was running, so I thought I'd bring you... the return of the OCAD Ugly Building Cam: Hit refresh to see if the images changes (it probably won't) or go to the cam page.

---

I put up some of the pictures we took, but they're full size, and a short movie."

Posted by jason at 04:42 PM

December 23, 2003

2 big surveillance issues.

NY Times has two good articles on surveillance: Lost? Hiding? Your cell phone is keeping tabs and Court Leaves the Door Open for Safety System Wiretaps, both of which speak to how your personal information tools are probably watching you as much as you're using them to watch the world. (Registration required, but you must be pretty crazy not to be registered for NYT)."

Posted by jason at 07:54 AM

December 22, 2003

MOO and LJ

Spent the afternoon trying to compile MOO on OS X. Not much luck, but I'm half way there. First had to get a GCC compiler installed on my laptop, then everything went fine, until the 'make' died. Waiting for instructions. Also Katie and I met about how we're going to get Livejournal.utoronto.ca spruced up this term. May be fun. I wasn't going to do it alone."

Posted by jason at 06:35 PM

December 21, 2003

Happy Winter Solstice

And a cool Yule. Not being someone who practices any of the major world religions, even the newest one of crass commercialism, I don't really go for celebrating christmas. I didn't like it much as a kid either. Too many potentials for letdown and despair.December 25 is usually just a wonderfully quiet day for Yuka and me. We usually walk about downtown, find the odd restaurant open, see a movie, just spend time quietly together. Nice, quiet and peaceful. Well, I guess we're celebrating it the way Christians should, which would be great if it were. That said, we both love presents. Giving them more than getting. I'll meet sMom Cheryl my little sisters Cats and Emmers when they're back from christmas in Florida with my dad. And I usually celebrate my mom's birthday in February with her, rather than anything this month. But today is Winter Solistice... which is the day I chose for me, to celebrate the season. It is the only day that really makes any sense to me. Always has. But it has the added importance now of being my nephew's birthday. Going to go and pester him with presents. Luckily he's too young to read this blog, or he'd know that I got him a wooden sword, among other things. And we'll take up all our holiday gifts to big sister and family, and get her to take some off to mom and sDad Larz. So, to recount: buying presents is fun. Giving them whenever you have them is great. And today is the only day I celebrate. Best wishes to all."

Posted by jason at 08:17 AM

December 20, 2003

Surveillance and the Undead

Saw this and had to send it to Steve Mann and Berry Wellman... as we wrote a surveillance paper together. Hampton Court Palace, which I think was King Henry the 8th's, has been picking up strange events on security cams. A door opening on its own, then a hazy figure in medieval robes reaches out and closes them. Check it out. Happy Winter Solistice!!!"

Posted by jason at 08:00 AM

December 19, 2003

As ken says...

Go to google and type: miserable failure Then click on the ""I'm Feeling Lucky"" button. As see where it goes."

Posted by jason at 01:35 PM

December 18, 2003

Thanks Fabio!

Just went down to the UofT computer shop and Fab swapped out my old broken keyboard from my laptop and popped in another one... turn around time for repair? 30seconds. Now that's service. I love my new keyboard... it is so clean.

Posted by jason at 04:40 PM

December 16, 2003

Senior Fellow

I was just formally invited to join the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology as a 'Senior McLuhan Fellow'. It has been in the works for a while, and I've had it noted on my .signature for email. But now, it is real. Nice holiday present. Thanks Derrick, Mark and all the exec."

Posted by jason at 09:29 AM

Powerpoint Makes You Dumb

Both Ken and Alan sent me this New York Times article: Powerpoint Makes You Dumb yesterday. And no, this is not a joke. I hate PPT. The worst paper I saw from students this fall was the only one done in powerpoint. And yes, I'm going to get the Edward Tufte pamphlet. ""In August, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board at NASA released Volume 1 of its report on why the space shuttle crashed. As expected, the ship's foam insulation was the main cause of the disaster. But the board also fingered another unusual culprit: PowerPoint, Microsoft's well-known ''slideware'' program."""

Posted by jason at 09:20 AM

December 15, 2003

Not dead yet...

I just wish I'd read something interesting, or important. But with all the marking, it just hasn't happened. Time to make coffee for yuka."

Posted by jason at 08:24 PM

December 14, 2003

KMD1002 & 2003 Syllabi

I've put up the bare bones of the KMD1002 and 2003 courses at http://jasonnolan.net/kmd1002/ http://jasonnolan.net/kmd2003/ Just the basics, while I finish marking. There is still room in both courses for any UofT graduate students. But just some. Thanks for sharing it about."

Posted by jason at 05:22 PM

December 12, 2003

Thanks Wallah!

I just got my 2004 Crayon Shinchan calendar. I've been collecting Shinchan 'stuff' for over a decade, and Wallah's been one of my best collection supporters."

Posted by jason at 10:34 AM

December 11, 2003

Wanna see what students can do with Wikis?

Check out the final wiki page for Joanne from my Ryerson Early Childhood Education course. The interesting thing was that I didn't teach how to use wiki, but expected them to flail and play. Of course people pick things up from different places now, and people have developed a sense of design from all the exposure to various online spaces. But few have fun with it."

Posted by jason at 05:54 PM

Fixing things up...

Spent some time tracking down a problem in the CGI scripts we use to submit poems and fiction at The Harrow, and was thinking about doing some work on Livejournal @ UofT when Jeremy informed me that LJ is giving up the use of codes and everyone gets free accounts now. I'll have to think of how that works out for us."

Posted by jason at 03:03 PM

December 09, 2003

Yuka has been demanding...

That I blog elgoog and hugeurl I was roused from my stupor of writing job application letters by a myriad of screams that could not have come from anything but an entire gaggle of post-modernist philosophers on 'shrooms. But it was none other than yuka typing in her web site address http://yukazine.com to http://www.hugeurl.com/. Calamity ensued."

Posted by jason at 12:59 PM

December 08, 2003

Out and about today...

Job applications and CV revisions this morning. I got a great suggestion for a CV model (Nick Burbules') from a friend who will not be mentioned by name. And letter revision suggestions from Julia et al. Then Ryerson to collect assignments. I'm going to be visiting Ron Baecker's KMD1001 course today, to try and entice students to take either of my KMD1002 and KMD2003 courses this evening. One of those days that make you feel like a teacher."

Posted by jason at 08:29 AM

December 07, 2003

Maple Collon... new therapy for what ails you?

You too can have your own Maple Collon. Sounds like Maple Colon. Collon Cookies? But it is probably an error for ""Maple Collection"". We hope. We particularly thought that Alan might like this one. According to the OED, however, collon is a variant of colon."

Posted by jason at 10:48 AM

Sunny Sunday...

Had a great dinner last night. JuliaD, BernieHogan, Hossein and his wife (Hossien how do you spell her name? My apologies.), and Chika-chan joined Yuka and I for 'za and whatnot. It was really nice and relaxing, so I can't remember what we were talking about at all. Found a great new beer from Unibrew called ""Terrible"". It was a somewhat dry russian imperial stout type @ about 10.5%. Everyone liked it. Which is strange, when it comes to a strong beer. And then there was Julia's tasty collapsing dessert... what was it though? Finally yuka was falling asleep and it was just Julia and I jawing... Today... job applications."

Posted by jason at 10:14 AM

December 05, 2003

Content and Busy...

Having a strange fit of calm activity... sending out a number of job applications, and putting the finishing touches on my two KMD courses for next term."

Posted by jason at 12:04 PM

December 03, 2003

Cyborg Barbies

That's Megan with Barbie... Her student Pia had everyone cyborgizing barbie as part of their response to Donna Haraway. Check out the photoshow"

Posted by jason at 10:50 AM

Ah... lecturing at OISE. Sweet.

I was a guest in Megan Boler's course ""Technology in Education: Philosophical Issues"" in Theory and Policy Studies @ OISE. She's a new prof here, and a friend of Jeremy H from Virginia Tech. It was great. Not only did they let me rant and wax philosophic, but I got challenged, and in at least one situation stumped. Then off for a pint and more talking at the Bedford Ballroom. I really miss OISE students."

Posted by jason at 07:48 AM

Donna Haraway... audio

Megan gave me this link: http://www.women.it/cyberarchive/files/haraway.html to Donna J. Haraway / Alpha Bitches Online: the Dog Genome for the Next Genderation Presented at the IV European Feminist Research Conference ""Body Gender Subjectivity. Crossing borders of disciplines and institutions"" (..go..), that took place in Bologna - Italy from September 28th to October 1st, 2000."

Posted by jason at 07:44 AM

Soviet+Canuckistan

Michel the Fox posted this on ProjectAchieve: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Soviet+Canuckistan"

Posted by jason at 07:32 AM

December 02, 2003

iPod

My iPod is working! Got the part mailed from Michigan. Put it in, put the pod back together, and voila! Don't let anyone tell you you can't get your iPod apart and back together. Just don't do it with sharp toys."

Posted by jason at 10:51 AM

December 01, 2003

Access Grid

Many Ayromlou let me use his Access Grid set up at Ryerson to talk with Ken at the NRC this afternoon. Actually, it was largely Ken and Many getting to know each other, and what their respective locations are doing with the AG. Now we're hoping we can pull together an interesting project using AG. More later."

Posted by jason at 01:51 PM

November 30, 2003

Tequila Vampire Matinee at the Theatre Passe Muraille

Ya, THAT was funny. Very funny. Go see it. My review: Tom Waits, without the deeper and terminal strangeness. That's Tequila Vampire Matinee. The songs are in Wait's TexMex-whorehouse meets Brechtian ""Black Rider"" if you know Waits' music. Of course Waits never had any vampires, though he did have silver bullets and plaid Renfield in Coppola's version. But since there's no chance in hell that you can spend a sunday afternoon with Tom, check out Tequila Vampire Matinee at the Theatre Passe Muraille, and dream on. It is sort of ""Black Rider"" meets Charlottetown festival. I'm no theatre person, as I've said, and I don't get the idea of workshopping performances or the idea of singing as if you're someday going to be in a broadway musical (or a Mervish production), but that's just me. But there was not a moment when I wasn't engaged, and that is the highest praise possible for an ADD afficcinado. Then we three went to Amados for pasta. And all was hell with the world."

Posted by jason at 06:47 PM

"Ok, what really happened"

Thursday - Updated the http://edublog.com server to OS X 10.3, in anticipation of moving all the services from the http://projectachieve.net sever over to the iMac. Only one machine to maintain and whatnot. Easy beans. I hope. Also had lunch with Megan Boler, a new OISE prof and friend of Jeremy's from VT. As a side comment while talking about other things, she mentioned that Donna Haraway was her supervisor. I freaked out quietly. Friday - As noted in the KMDI Diary about 30 of us went for a retreat to discuss the past and future of KMDI. It was much more dynamic and interesting than I thought it might be. Luckily KAT! was there. As was Brian Cantwell Smith, the new dean of FIS. He seems like a d00d I'd like to work for. Saturday - Started the morning by marking 40 really interesting bookmarks assignments recently done by the ECE folks at Ryerson. - But Saturday WAS fun. I met my sister Kelly, and her kids Duncan (aka Charley) and Siobhan, for coffee and mess (provided by Duncan). Kelly took Duncan off to the Eaton's Centre, and Siobhan and went west, shopping. For her birthday. Mostly we just walked in and out of stores on our way to the Japanese Paper Place. Which she wanted to see. I got a nice fountain pen. We did a turn through Garrison Creek park, then back along queen. I 'forced' Siobhan to buy some CDs she wanted, the sound track to Brazil, a NIN CD, and something else I know not what. - And before dinner, Yuka and I went to the video store so she could pester Normy the big orange cat. Today - Yuka and I are going to see Tequila Vampire Matinee at the Theatre Passe Muraille with Elizabeth Miller... of course we're going to the Sunday Matinee. Until then, I'm going to my office to fix the FTPd so that yuka can update her journal."

Posted by jason at 09:18 AM

November 29, 2003

"Oh, ya. I'm still... doing something..."

But what :)

Posted by jason at 11:35 PM

November 27, 2003

Server outages today...

I'm upgrading my server today, so access to the following domains will be hit and miss: jasonnolan.net edublog.com yukazine.com roomofbensown.net News Update Server update is successful. Let me know if you notice any problems."

Posted by jason at 11:43 AM

Vote Hoder

Hoder's running for parliment, in Iran. If you can vote for him, do it. Hoder's Mr. UofTWeblogs, and an all around nice guy.."

Posted by jason at 08:10 AM

Ohhh... noooooo....

I'm reading Jeremy's Blog and I see a somewhat less than royally stupid Quiz... at least HE got to be deleuze and guattari.
You are Jacques Lacan! Arguably the most important
psychoanalyst since Freud, you never wrote
anything down, and the only works of yours are
transcriptions of your lectures. You are
notoriously difficult to understand, but at
least you didn't talk about the penis as much
as other psychoanalysts. You died in 1981.

What 20th Century Theorist are you?
brought to you by Quizilla And if you're Foucault... it must mean you clicked on that S&M option, right?"

Posted by jason at 08:06 AM

November 26, 2003

Email issues at UofT

Just so you know, certain parts of the UofT email network is down. I don't know why, cause I didn't bother to read the email sent out to all system admins about it. But I can't send or receive email at the moment. Sweet."

Posted by jason at 11:15 PM

Zooo

I was out at the Toronto Zoo today for the quarterly meeting of the Educational Advisory Committee... The big topic for me was the Pandas, but we were really there to talk about the Educational plan for the Zoo. I stayed on topic, mostly. There were some interesting discussions on Wifi which really perked me up. Joel, who is also my drive, had to stay for another meeting, so I spent some time visiting the Children's Zoo, which is under construction. Made it about 50m inside before I was forced to go and get a hardhat. I took lots of pictures, some of which I'll get up soon. It is really going to be great... for those with kids."

Posted by jason at 07:57 PM

November 25, 2003

Barry on NPR tonight.

In a late breaking development, I am doing to spend much of an hour being interviewed tonight on US National Public Radio (NPR). The show is called On Point. My time slot is 8-9PM EST, but the show may be shifted by your local station to another time slot. The starting point for the discussion is the new US legislation that permits a person to have the same cellphone and wired phone number. In essence, there is seamless communication (we hope), whichever phone is being used. I am going to talk about the social implications of this -- including my favorite concepts of ""networked individualism"", groups => networks, and ""glocalization"". And of course flog our _The Internet in Everyday Life_ book. The show is usually broadcast live, so it will be especially interesting to avoid flubs, etc. If you can't get NPR live, you can still listen if you want. Try either of: www.onpointradio.org or www.bur.org and look for the Listen Live link. On the first site, you may have to hit the Quick Links menu. If you do have a chance to listen, I'd appreciate some feedback. Barry"

Posted by jason at 05:17 PM

Tell Paul Martin NO to missile defense

http://www.paulmartintimes.ca/ is paul martin's new blog space, and he's got a poll asking about our participation in Bush's missile defense program. Why not fill out the poll? And save our country."

Posted by jason at 02:15 PM

November 24, 2003

Today...

something happened today. it happened a lot. but I was far to busy to notice, and then it was time to take a bath and go to bed. a lot happened today. but no one is quite sure what. just let's all hope that that much doesn't happen again soon."

Posted by jason at 11:07 PM

November 23, 2003

A quiet manic day...

Spent the day putting the finishing touches on a major project proposal that has to get sent off by courier before 7:30 pm tomorrow to the other ends of the globe. The nice thing is that it required a lot of walking around town today, in the nice weather and all that. After tomorrow, I seek a return to normalcy. You?"

Posted by jason at 10:25 PM

November 21, 2003

Thanks to James and the folks at

Thanks to James and the folks at iKIT, I have a digital version of my presentation at RCAT's The Significance of 'Communities of Scholars' in the Academic Environment: Blogging and Community of Scholars. It is an 'off the top of my head' presentation, so forgive my slight slipups and whatnot. Click below to see the whole hour...