From - Wed Jan 14 11:46:20 1998 Return-Path: Received: from relay2.UU.NET by mrco.carleton.ca (4.1/SMI-4.0) id AA13471; Wed, 27 Jan 93 13:46:03 EST Received: from nyx.cs.du.edu by relay2.UU.NET with SMTP (5.61/UUNET-internet-primary) id AA02965; Wed, 27 Jan 93 13:40:45 -0500 Received: by nyx.cs.du.edu (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA15405; Wed, 27 Jan 93 11:30:34 MST From: ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu (andy) Message-Id: <9301271830.AA15405@nyx.cs.du.edu> X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University of Denver. The University has neither control over nor responsibility for the opinions or correct identity of users. Subject: FutureCulture Digest #197 To: future-digest@nyx.cs.du.edu Date: Wed, 27 Jan 93 11:30:33 MST X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11] Content-Length: 17839 X-Lines: 414 ______________________________________________________________________ |______________ / | | / | | u t u r e <___________ u l t u r e | _______________________________________________________________________| Issue #197 Wednesday, January 27th 1993 Today's Topics: --------------- AUtopia Project (Info Request) Cellular listening.. cellular phreaks Clothes culture & clothing Meme-O-Matic Quicktime/VR Re: cyberspace ?! Re: future clothing __________________________________________________________________________ Subject: AUtopia Project (Info Request) Date: Wed, 27 Jan 93 1:19:33 CST From: Jagwire X _______ A U t o p i a P r o j e c t ________ This list is dedicated to the discussion of creating an intentional high-tech community on the high seas. To join/leave or recieve info about the list, send email to: autopia-request@wixer.cactus.org To post a message to the list, send email to: autopia@wixer.cactus.org This is a semi-moderated list combined with an automated file/list server. If the first line of your message is a special command, the mailer will respond back to you. These are the commands: subscribe / add ..to join the list unsubscribe / drop ..to leave the list list ..to list the available files send [file] ..to send you the file name "FILE" help ..to send you THIS FILE (same as "send readme") For example, if your were to send the following message: To: autopia-request@wixer.cactus.org send faq You would receive a copy of the AUtopia FAQ the next day after the nightly batch file runs. Only one command per email message can be interpreted so far. Our archives are based on a Unix system, so the file listings will be Unix-style. Mailings go out as we see messages come in; we'll moderate and try to pace mailings to have a consistent daily rate. Messages are digested weekly, each Sunday night, and stored in the archives as YYMMDD.msg .. If you'd rather get a weekly digest instead of daily mailings, send email about it. [note: I am still working on getting the digest list to work] -- ___________________________________________________________________________ no because later >< AUtopia List autopia-request@wixer.cactus.org jagwire@wixer.cactus.org >< CyberSpace Institute BBS +1.512.469.0447 ___________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________ Subject: AUtopia Project (Info Request) Date: Wed, 27 Jan 93 1:19:33 CST From: Jagwire X _______ A U t o p i a P r o j e c t ________ This list is dedicated to the discussion of creating an intentional high-tech community on the high seas. To join/leave or recieve info about the list, send email to: autopia-request@wixer.cactus.org To post a message to the list, send email to: autopia@wixer.cactus.org This is a semi-moderated list combined with an automated file/list server. If the first line of your message is a special command, the mailer will respond back to you. These are the commands: subscribe / add ..to join the list unsubscribe / drop ..to leave the list list ..to list the available files send [file] ..to send you the file name "FILE" help ..to send you THIS FILE (same as "send readme") For example, if your were to send the following message: To: autopia-request@wixer.cactus.org send faq You would receive a copy of the AUtopia FAQ the next day after the nightly batch file runs. Only one command per email message can be interpreted so far. Our archives are based on a Unix system, so the file listings will be Unix-style. Mailings go out as we see messages come in; we'll moderate and try to pace mailings to have a consistent daily rate. Messages are digested weekly, each Sunday night, and stored in the archives as YYMMDD.msg .. If you'd rather get a weekly digest instead of daily mailings, send email about it. [note: I am still working on getting the digest list to work] -- ___________________________________________________________________________ no because later >< AUtopia List autopia-request@wixer.cactus.org jagwire@wixer.cactus.org >< CyberSpace Institute BBS +1.512.469.0447 ___________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________ Date: 27 Jan 1993 04:25:12 -0600 (CST) From: "free agent .rez" Subject: Re: cyberspace ?! >someone whose name i can't find listed here }tmaddox >In the vein of the discussion of "hacker" recently: >I must protest the growing use of the term "cyberspace" for the virtual >space created by large networks. }Protest ahead. It probably won't do you any good, though. in line with what tmaddox says here, it probably WON'T do much good to PROTEST. if you want the word to change, stop using the old one and use instead an existing alternate which you feel might fit better *every time you use the idea.* "VIRTUALITY" seems to be on the rise. this is how memetics works. play the game or get out and make up a new one, but don't call a half-time to argue about the rules. everyone else will just keep right on runnin' with the ball... >My dictionary defines "cybernation" as >"the automatic control of a process or operation (as in manufacturing) by >means of a computer" and "cybernetics" as " the science of communication >and control theory that is concerned esp. with the comparative study of >automatic control systems (as the nervous system and brain and >mechanical-electrical communication systems)". } People make meanings (and dictionaries). Dictionaries are at best }imperfect reflections of the meaning-making process. worse than that, they're attempts to pin down a phenomenon which changes as it needs to. IMHO paper-bound dictionaries will never be able to keep up with any but the most solidly ingrained memes in this environment. (virtuality.) i use "virtuality" because, like the anonymous Devil's Advocate, i feel that "CYBER" has lost much of the potentially beneficial memetic "oomph" which used to go along with it: a system which is self-steering, self-correcting, self-organising. it's IN there, but it's fading fast... the meme-HUSK is replicating, but not necessarily the stuff originally in there. i intend to use the terms "cyberspace" and "virtuality" interchangeably in my virtual culture project, but i'm opting to favor "virtuality" as an epistemologically useful term. i'm using the word "cyberspace" to trace a case example of a spreading meme. i should post here the little blurb Gibson writes on his in-vention of the term (from a piece in Benedikt's: "cyberspace: first steps.") everything that survives evolves. i hope even Gibson has "faith" in that. } If you want to lead a sort of French Academy charge into }Future-Culture, knock yourself out, but I doubt you'll get far. And while }you're at it, are you going to insist on a new word for "computer"? the french taunter carried more clout than the french academy ever did. ;) but actually, tmaddox, doesn't it seem that in different environments different memes have more *utility* ? there are times when The Damned Thing would best be called a "terminal;" say, when it's expressly used for net.work ... other people would gain a bit of sobriety by owning up to the fact that all they allow themselves is a simple "word processor..." }The street has its own uses for words, as it were. ...and its own use for PEOPLE. anyone who resists the flow of the street's crowds will find themselves derelict; anyone who talks only to themselves will soon want for company. .rez - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "Tell the story as if it were only of interest to the small circle of your characters, of which you may be one. There is *no other way* to breathe life into the story." (all fine and well; say i take the advice to heart. the question THEN becomes: how large is my story, how small is my circle...?) ______________________________ Date: 27 Jan 1993 05:25:34 -0600 (CST) From: "free agent .rez" Subject: Meme-O-Matic ok, technical question from someone who's actually quite ignorant as to the workability of such things, so bear with me... : i've been mulling over a way to chart the progress or regress of a meme. i have one idea; it's not perfect, it'd only chart the use of the meme's signifier. what i'd like to do, somehow, is set up a program, a 'bot, at some site, which would let random mail traffic run through it and tabulate on a daily basis the number of times certain words cross its path. for instance, if we wanted to see whether or not the "clothing" meme is still rising or is dying out, ;) we would set up the 'bot to count the number of times the word "clothing" passed through in a day, or "counter-culture clothing" or whatever. i'd keep track over a week, and that would (in theory) be a rough way to chart the evolution of memes. any takers? %^P .rez ______________________________ Date: 27 Jan 1993 06:02:06 -0600 (CST) From: "free agent .rez" Subject: culture & clothing dana: >i judge people by what they wear >sorry, but im not blind >and im not going to walk up to everyone i see >and try to get to know them to find out if they are interesting >if i see someone with a pierced something other than ear >im more likely to want to talk to them.. >its a good sign of their personality >im not saying that because you were X you must be Y >but chances are if you wear something out of the norm >its because you are and you dont care what other people think i have a feeling this is going to change (the peg-ability of people via clothing cues...) it only took me one FleshMeeting of friends from the Net whom i had never seen in the flesh before to convince me of the... er... ridiculousity... of trusting these "cues." i've never seen a more mixed up bunch of folks in my life. .rez ______________________________ Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 00:10:56 +1100 From: waite07@angis.su.oz.au (Alex Jeffries) Subject: Clothes Black, imitation Doc Marten shoes (not boots!), red socks, burnished gold, cuffed and pleated pants, plain black belt with modest brass buckle, black skivvy (is this an Australian term? Maybe long-sleeved, turtle-neck T-shirt is better?), pool-table green single-breasted sports jacket with a rectangular gold broach (gold foil melted into glass with classic floral motif) and a black and silver wrist watch (no brand name, no numbers, slightly techno feling to it) Black rimmed ovoid glasses (not really Lenonesque), hair kept short on sides except for side-burns and a a fairly prominant and slightly unruely fringe (almost a quiff). I usually carry a '60s style school 'brief-case' that has a surface like blue/green metal flakes. I probably look at home at an Acid Jazz bar. Alx Man's yesterday may ne're be like his 'morrow Nought may endure but Mutability P.B.Shelly ______________________________ From: mcarpent@ecn.purdue.edu (Matthew A Carpenter) Subject: Quicktime/VR Date: Wed, 27 Jan 93 10:29:35 EST Hello all, I'm a mac geek, and right now the market for computer animation with mac is getting better every week. WIthin the past month, three corporations have announced boards that will run 640X480 quicktime at 30fps, input and output to standard NTSC/PAL/SECAM. Most of the boards are finally using the CL550 chip that is a high-speed graphics processor that utilizes DMA chip management. The best thing about the way the hardware is going with quicktime is the possible near utilization of virtual reality. In the past, the biggest drawback was the inability for a board to handle a full screen of info with a large color or resolution selection. The new boards can handle full screen and 16.8M colors simultaneously. Unfortunately, two of the three boards are still over $4000, but the one made by RasterOps is for just under $2000. It's a daugter board that links with some of the low-line/high quality boards that already handle video; the daughterboard increases the speed, and incorporates a fast JPEG compression system that saves frames direct to disk or RAM disk. What does it all come down to? In my opinion, we could see VR running real time with more colors that a human can physically perceive by the year 2000. The only drawbacks I can see are : 1) the cost will be high to begin with ; 2) some corporations aren't willing to put in the RAD for it; 3) LCD technology needs to catch up for high resolution goggles (Oakleys would be cool) or HD resolution goggles. However, there are new advances with human interfaces, especially with macs that seems to already be pushing toward VR interfaces. The Navigator system is a voice recognition device that users can use to move through the desktop and word in word processing environments, hands free. There is increasingly more work being devoted to natural language processing systems, expert systems and basic AI comps that will be the backbone for a more advanced interface (to add to VR). And last but not least, with the soon arrival of the PowerPC's ('94) to the pc market, you will soon be able to have one hell of a powerful machine sitting on your desk that is working at near or maybe even over 100 mips. It's great to grow up in the computer age, ain't it :-) -Matt mcarpent@en.ecn.purdue.edu ______________________________ From: swisher@cs.utexas.edu (Janet M. Swisher) Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 09:53:52 -0600 Subject: cellular phreaks So Congress just outlawed cellular scanners, but every cellular phone is also a scanner. Depending on the wording of the bill, this could get interesting. Does it ban possession of scanners, or just sale? Does it specifiy "single-purpose" scanners? What if you sold a cellular "phone" in which the scanner commands these guys have accessed were accessible to the regular user (but it was also usable as a phone)? Is it illegal or not? Or what if your cellphone came with a warning that said "Don't hack on X, Y and Z, because that's an illegal modification" (the way home-beer kits used to before home-brew was legal)? Of course, we all knew that banning scanners was an idiotic was to guard privacy, but the question is how can this be dramatically demonstrated to Congress and the general public? ______________________________ From: dionf@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Francois Dion) Subject: Cellular listening.. Date: Wed, 27 Jan 93 11:11:17 EST In Canada, it is still not illegal to listen to cellular phones. But the government will be passing a law on that because it caused the Charlottetown agreement to be defeated. Maybe you have heard about that: A journalist recorded a conversation on cellular phones between the two Quebec negociators of Robert Bourassa (our prime minister) for the Charlottetown agreement. In this conversation they said that we had been (the Quebecers) had by the other provinces, that Robert Bourassa was accepting anything because he was so tired. Then one person said: how can we sell that to Quebecers? The other answered: Well, with the proper campaign and emphasis on certain point, most people wont see anything. The funny thing is that the Quebecers rejected the offer because we felt we were loosing rights, and the other provinces rejected it because they tought we were getting too much... Now what will happen now, is that we'll probably end up more powerful... Strange how a phone call can change history! Ciao, -- Francois Dion ' _ _ _ CISM (_) (_) _) FM Montreal , Canada Email: CISM@ERE.UMontreal.CA (_) / . _) 10000 Watts Telephone no: (514) 343-7511 _______________________________________________________________________________ Audio-C-DJ-Fractals-Future-Label-Multimedia-Music-Radio-Rave-Video-VR-Volvo-... ______________________________ From: "Spam@tin.supermarket.tescos" Subject: Re: future clothing Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 16:19:15 +0000 (GMT) Spam, spam, egg and Janet M. Swisher : => =>If you saw Time Trax on teevee the other night, you know that "in the =>future" the "suits" will be wearing (drumroll) Nehru jackets. => =>Oddly, women will still be wearing short skirts and high heels when =>they're not wearing diaphanous evening gowns. It's funny how the future always seems to involve women wearing mini-skirts - much the same as the film makers idea that the ideal outfit for a female adventurer in the frozen northen wastes was a chain-mail bikini! Odd eh.......... ;-< Spam. _________________________________________________________________________ | | | That's all for today! | | To send a message to the list: future@nyx.cs.du.edu | | To subscribe/unsubscribe/change format: future-request@nyx.cs.du.edu | | All other requests: future-request@nyx.cs.du.edu | | List Maintainer is: (andy [aka hawkeye]) ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu | |_________________________________________________________________________| | | | The opinions expressed in FutureCulture are those of the individual | | author only. | |_________________________________________________________________________|