A few turns back I blogged about the concept of Open Courseware and how it plans to usher in an era of social learning. As a reminder, I'm pleased to announce that in just three short days MITx will launch its first class; Circuits and Electronics. This class serves as the prototype for the MITx courseware framework that is to be rolled out in the Fall and as such, will allow students to take the final exam outside of an approved testing center. Moreover, students who pass the class will receive a certificate verifying their mastery of the topics learned in the class. Best of all, in keeping with MIT's Open Courseware philosophy, MITx offers these "extended" classes at no charge to the students who enroll.
Despite my already busy schedule, I have taken it upon myself to enroll in this pilot course and encourage anybody who reads this and has a sincere interest in Electrical Engineering and/or Computer Science to do the same. Remember, the pursuit of knowledge is not about going to class just so you can walk away with an A. No, the pursuit of knowledge is far more fundamental than such a perverse concept. Instead, embrace the Open Courseware framework, and pursue what it has to offer for the sake of expanding your own personal knowledge. With that said, click the image below to be directed to the MITx main page!
Been a hot minute since my last update, but that is to be expected when you must endure the rigors of a Computer Science program. In my last post, I nostalgically talked about my first major project. That project is long since completed, the grade recorded, and the next project issued. I will say that project two isn't nearly as fun as project one. Matter of factly, it's quite annoying. It's due Thursday, and I still have a considerable ways to go before the deadline. Yet this post isn't about that. No, this post encompasses something that's been rolling around in my brain for the past month, and as such I find it necessary for us to sit ourselves down and have a little chat.
By now, everybody should know, or at least have heard of what SOPA/PIPA are. Two bills, both seemingly generated by two different yet equally inferior schools of thought. If for some reason you've been living under a rock for the past year, watch the video below to educate yourself on these two proposals and form your own opinions:
For those of you that have kept abreast of SOPA and PIPA, you are aware that Congress has postponed a vote on both of these votes indefinitely after widespread protest. The key word here is postponed. Many people have disillusioned themselves into thinking that this means SOPA and PIPA have died. Make no mistake, they have not. Which brings me to the point of this post. There is a movement that I am taking part in next month. Whether you choose to or not is entirely up to you, and I won't think any less of you if you decide against it, but hear me out for just a brief moment of your time and then I will trouble you no further.
Who sponsored SOPA and PIPA? Your first instinct may be to blame the "liberals", or the "conservatives", depending on where you sit along the political spectrum. This is how the media has trained you, so it is only natural to cast blame on the puppets rather than the puppeteers. Yet there is a more sinister force at work behind the current, yet at the same time directly in plane sight. Every time you purchase a movie ticket, a cd, a dvd, or a video game you are helping to fund this master of deception. They call themselves the producers of the video, music, and gaming industries, but what they really are are nothing more than corporations attempting to carry out the corporate function. You see, corporations are not greedy, and/or sinister. People are greedy, and/or sinister. And corporations are NOT people, much as the corporate shareholders would like them to be. No, corporations are but a safety net to defer liability upon so that the corporate masters don't lost their asses on a bad business deal. A corporation's function is to maximize profits at all costs. The benefits to society of this function are debatable, but that debate will have to wait for another post.
Now that you know the true masterminds behind these two bills, it is time for me to unveil what is to be done about it. In 1773, America was still ruled by the British crown, and that crown functioned much like a corporation. It maximized its profits on the backs of society, stripping away the rights of the people who supported it. The difference between now and then, is that the people responded in kind. I am referring to the Boston Tea Party. And where today's society sits by complacently and does nothing as their corporate masters tick one freedom at a time from their backs with the crack of its legal whip, I choose not to. I choose to respond in kind. Not through violence, or through subversive tactics, but instead through the only power the corporate overseer understands; the power of my wallet.
March shall mark our Boston Tea Party, our stand against the corporate oppressor for those of us who believe enough is enough. If successful, March shall be a time when music cd's and dvd's shall remain on the shelves of retailers, and movie theaters shall be made to endure as seats go unfilled. Our expansive libraries of books and magazines shall cease their perpetual growth, and for thirty-one days corporations shall weep as their first quarter earnings dwindle into record losses. It is my hope that this actions will effectively kill SOPA, PIPA, and any potential future incarnation of such bills, and remind corporation and government alike that there is a people that exists beneath the rich. And we are very, VERY pissed off. Join me in this cause. Race matters not. Creed matters not. The corporate poison is far reaching, blanketing every corner of the globe. If you believe as I believe. If you feel as I feel. Then break free of the political shackles that have controlled you for so long, and make March a month that shall never, ever be forgot.
Colossal Cave Adventure is a text based adventure game developed back in the 1970's by William Crowther. To the best of my knowledge, the game was originally written in FORTRAN in 1975, and then later ported to other languages due to its wild popularity. The basic idea behind Colossal Cave Adventure is that you key in specific commands that the console understands to navigate the caves. For example, if I wanted to go south, then I would type "SOUTH" into the console and I would arrive at a different location on the map (provided South is a valid direction from that specific part of the map). The interesting thing about Crowther was one of the founders of the ARPANET, one of the corner stones of today's global Internet. The idea for Adventure was spawned from Crowther's passion for cave exploration, and in fact, Colossal Cave Adventure's map emulates parts of the maps Crowther created of Mammoth Cave for the Cave Research Foundation.
Colossal Cave Adventure was then picked up a year later by a man by the name of Don Woods, who expanded on the Crowther's work after first receiving his approval. Woods's version was still written in FORTRAN, but it wasn't until Jim Gillogly of the Rand Corporation (another co-developer of the global Internet we use today), that Collossal Cave Adventure was ported to C. It is this release that became the official release of "Adventure", and was included with the first IBM PC's. At the time, this was the single most advanced implementation of game logic, and spawned several other text based adventure games including ZORK, and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
So why all the history? I bring up the subject of Adventure Game because it is now my turn to write my own text based adventure game for my Computer Science class. The game that so changed the text based adventure genre, has now been relegated to a rudimentary assignment in an Intro to Computer Science class. I am neither saddened by this, nor am I overjoyed by the prospect. I simply find the rich history that is involved in the development of the technology we know and love today amazing. Here we have a story within a story. On one hand, we have a tale of a technology (the Internet) being developed that will change the way mankind communicates forever. On the other, just beneath the surface in fact, we have a tale of a man who was at the forefront of developing this technology, yet on the side he develops something that would captivate the mind of his users for decades to come. And why did Crowther develop such a masterpiece of its day? Was it for money? Recognition? Boredom? Try love; the love for his two daughters whom he wanted to feel more connected to. Who could have guessed that his daughters would love their father's work so much, that they would proceed to pass it around amongst their friends and in doing so, establish a whole new genre of entertainment?
And that is my point of this post. No matter what you do. No matter what your industry of expertise may be. Be sure that all that you do is out of the love and passion, and the will to right by others. A simple act of kindness can, and often does, change the world. I shall leave you now with the original Colossal Cave Adventure. Click the image above and the console will open in a new window. As this is a Java version of the game, you will need to be sure Java is enabled in your browser to play. There is a walkthrough, but try to play the game first without it, and then use the walkthrough to fill in the gaps. Half the fun of Adventure is figuring out the puzzles for yourself. Enjoy :)
The opinions expressed herein are just that, opinion. I encourage everybody who reads this to comment and share your thoughts on the subject matter. You are equally encouraged to subscribe to this blog and make your readership known. Suggestions on blogging topics are always welcome, as is the open sharing of resources. That being said, regardless of whether or not you choose to share your input, I humbly thank you for reading my work and hope you will continue to do so in the future.
Last night I finally had the opportunity to watch Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. I had the pleasure of watching the brilliant Sherlock Holmes and the brilliantly mad Professor James Moriarty do battle on the silver screen in a fashion that I haven't seen captured in a very long time. It was akin to that of two Roman gladiators matching whits in the Coliseum. Not a game of cat and mouse. Not a crucible where there must be one winner and one loser. No, this was something else entirely. The battle between Holmes and Moriarty is and has always been one of equals. It is the perfect dichotomy between protagonist and antagonist, and meets its end as only a relationship of this caliber can.
Putting all this aside; however, Holmes and Moriarty's relationship got the cogs in the inner recesses of my mind turning. And so I pose the question, what makes the "perfect" villain? Is it how he or she carries him or herself? Is it the way he or she speaks? Is it the villain's malevolent acts towards the protagonist's of the story? Is it the way he or she dresses? I would argue that it is none of these things, and that the reason why many villains come off as flat and predictable is due to the fact that the villain's character was designed with these attributes in mind.
On the contrary, it seems to me that what makes the perfect villain perfect is the relationship he or she has with the hero or heroes of the story. The perfect villain antagonizes the hero because that is what a villain is designed to do. And how does a villain go about this antagonism? But by studying its subject carefully, intimately. I speak of the character as if he or she were real, and therein lies the key. The villain, in order to be effective, must be somebody that the reader or viewer can relate to. Too often emphasis is put on the reader being able to relate to the hero, but it is the villain that should embody every dark thought and desire the reader has. The villain is the personification of every time the reader wanted to throw their boss through the sixth story window, and every time he or she felt jilted by a former lover. For every time they were ever wronged, hurt, or oppressed, the villain represents the manifestation of those feelings.
And what of the hero? How does the hero fit into the equation of the villain? The hero in turn represents the reader's desire to make atonement for these feelings. The hero represents normalcy. Few heroes that I have had the pleasure of creating were the most upstanding citizens; and they didn't need to be. Doing right by the world is not a prerequisite of the written hero. Matter of factly, the idea of a "do-gooder" rarely appeals to our human sensibilities. Sherlock Holmes is a fine example of this. He drinks. He smokes. He does drugs. He makes mistakes. Yet his defining characteristic that makes him a hero is in fact his relationship with the villain. Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty are the same in every respect, except for one key difference. While Holmes seeks to bring balance to the chaotic world that ensues when a puzzle presents itself, Moriarty seeks to unbalance the world.
How does all this create the vision of the perfect villain? Quite simply, if there is no conflict, then there is no hero. And if there is no hero, then there cannot be a villain, or at least a villain that is effective in the eyes of the reader. The two are co-dependent upon each other. They feed on the strengths and weaknesses of the other, thus creating depth, emotion, a soul. And so we come full circle and see that the perfect villain is one who reveals the imperfections of the hero.
To all the aspiring writers out there, consider this the next time you attempt to craft your antagonist. Look past his or her demeanor, attire, and actions, and instead examine the relationship he or she shares with the hero. Build your antagonist from there. Then, and only then, will your villain truly be worthy of the hero's remorse. Then, and only then, will your villain truly be "perfect".
As we begin this new year, a number of questions stir in people's minds. Most are relatively benign: What does the year hold in store for me? How can I make this year different from the last? And on, and on.
But this year is already different, isn't it? This year is special. This year has been the subject of speculation for time beyond mind. 2012 has been called the year that marks the end of the world, but it has also been called the year that marks the end of the age. So which is it? Without calling bias into the nature of this article, I would like to attempt to outline some of the eschatological theories associated with the end of the Long Count Calendar.
The Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar is a 5,125 year long calendar of unknown origin. Most scholars agree that the calendar is originally Olmec in design; however, a similar calendar was discovered in Egypt that predates the Olmecs settling Mesoamerica by about 650 years. Interestingly enough, both calendars are celestial in design and both calendars terminate in 2012. Both calendars consist of 360 day years, and both calendars are linear in design.This is counter to the popular depiction of a circular 365 day calendar that Mayanists portray, and assists in supporting the argument that the calendar does indeed have a finite termination date.
But what happens when this date is reached? Maybe nothing, and most experts would support this. Yet there is a disturbing commonality among ancient civilizations that used the stars to keep track of time; all of these calendars seem to terminate this year, and appear to be marked by some cataclysmic event that brings about the end of the world as we know it. I could stop there, but then I would fall into the trap that sensationalizes the whole concept of a 2012 Apocalypse. There is a key piece that many supporters of the 2012 phenomenon seem to omit, and that is the concept that as one world ends, a new world begins. As a matter of fact, according to the mythologies of many Native American tribes, there were three worlds prior to the one we live in now. If these legends are correct, then 2012 marks the end of the fourth world, and the beginning of the fifth. How this is brought about is anybody's guess, but many believe that this year shall be marked by a time of increased solar activity that triggers a series of natural disasters. Others speculate that an asteroid or comet will strike the Earth causing widespread damage. Perhaps most bizarre, is that some theorists speculate that the Earth will collide with an ancient celestial object (some identify this object as a planet) known as Nibiru. This is all theory, with very little evidence to back the claims. Of the two theories, the first seems slightly more realistic, as the sun is expected to reach a period of high solar activity sometime this year. Yet, civilizations far older than our own and spanning the entire world indicate 2012 with some exactitude. Here are just a few examples of what these civilizations have hailed 2012 as:
Hopi-25year period of purification, followed by End of Fourth World and beginning of the Fifth.
With so many similarities between predictions, it is possible that all of these cultures are correct to some degree. It is equally possible that none of these cultures are correct and 2012 will come and go just like any other year. There will be war, and pain, and destruction. But there will also be tenderness, hope, and perhaps even a little bit of joy. If these year is to mark our uprooting, then so be it, but let it not unhinge us. Let it not deliver us into the arms of despair. Let it instead unite us, and bring us closer to realizing what this world has seemed to have lost in the midst of all the uncertainty; its humanity. Happy New Year everybody. May it bring you blessings and prosperity beyond your wildest dreams.
The ability to read and write regardless of race, creed, or level of education is paramount in today's society. Literacy has long since replaced oracy as the acceptable societal norm in modern civilized peoples and as such a large portion of our media (including the blog you see here) requires you to be literate to take full advantage of what the Internet has to offer. That being said, the concept of being able to store entire libraries of literature on a single handheld device has had an appeal since the days of HG Wells, and Ray Bradbury. It is an exciting time that we live in where we get to see such fantasies becoming reality. Moreover, the advent of these "eReaders" as they are called, has opened new doors for break through writers in the industry of self publishing.
I am one such hobbyist, and while it would be a simple task for me to turn this blog into a "buy now" plug for my work, I would first like to take the time to plug a couple other people's works that I find compelling. The first student of the craft I would like to introduce you to, has been a friend of mine for many years and has only recently begun her journey as a professional writer. She is the author of the blog United By Books which caters to writers in the romance genre. I have had the pleasure of editing a number of her posts, and have personally bore witness to her transforming into a brilliant writer who I hope will one day expand her craft beyond the blogging community, and compose a novel of her very own. Check out her latest post where she hosts award winning author, Terry Spear. You can read her post by clicking the banner below.
***Warning Strong Sexual Content***
Another of my favorite hobbyists goes by the name "Vain Ziler". Vain is the site director, and project manager for the nerd culture site, finalsmash.com. While Vain's primary role within the site is that of a manager, he still finds time to write out some truly amazing reviews and podcasts covering the latest games, movies, manga, board games, music, and whatever else seems to be a good idea at the time. Essentially, if its nerdy or obscure, Vain probably has something to say about it. He is a truly amazing writer who has a bright future ahead of him in the industry. Check out his review of Battlefield 3: Back to Karkland for the PS3 and leave some comments HERE.
And finally, I present to you a small sampling of my work:
RJ and his friends loved to dabble in the dark arts, but when they discover that the long sought after Book of the Dead is hidden in their Sleepy Town of Star Grove, they quickly learn that some books are best left unread. After opening a gate to Hell, it is up to RJ to reverse the book's dark magic and regain his place in the world of men, lest the world be consumed by an everlasting and impenetrable darkness.
Nothing is what it seems. Scout often heard these words, but never paid them any heed, until the day they landed on Earth and destroyed everything he held sacred. John Evans in his new book, The Fallen, details the life of Scout "Striker" Carleson and his struggles against the sinister alien intelligence known as the "Fallen". However, he soon discovers that the old adage is true; nothing is as it seems. Now he must confront a far greater evil, and accept a destiny that could spell the end of not just the universe, but the infinite number of realities that surround it. The Fallen is filled with good humor, brilliant imagery, and a philosophical/religious approach that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.
When Samuel, a young Psychology major at UCLA has a horrific nightmare the night before the most important test of his life, it looks like his day is going to go from bad to worse. But when he discovers that his two best friends have been plagued by similar dreams, Samuel begins to suspect something strange in the works. That, coupled with a barrage of waking dreams, prompts Samuel and his friends to go on an adventure that will find them facing evil itself.
Reviews make the writer; be they positive or negative. If you do happen to purchase any of my works, I would appreciate you posting your honest opinion to Amazon. Your feedback helps me to improve my craft, and in doing so, allows me to continue weaving works of art throughout the pages you treasure.
As we near the end of 2011, I reflect on the fact that many high school students will soon be embarking on their journey to college. They have painstakingly worked their way through twelve years of public school for the sole purpose of receiving a piece of paper that demonstrates that they can successfully regurgitate "facts" to their school district's satisfaction. From there, many of them will choose to pursue a four year degree, and perhaps even graduate school after. Others may choose to crawl their way up from the bottom rung of the societal ladder, working minimum wage jobs until their department overseer decides that he or she has proven him or herself worthy enough to join the ranks of the corporate elite. Still others may rise above the system, and redefine it by their own terms, perpetuating their name into immortality. There are those that may embark on a path of self destruction, and those who may embark on a path of self sacrifice. Regardless of the instrument of one's path through life, one truth remains abundantly clear; scientia est potentia.
Confused? Don't be. The phrase above is a Latin phrase that simply means "knowledge is power". It is something that those that I've looked up to have always emphasized. But it begs to question: Just what is the cost of the pursuit of knowledge? The world of academia would have you pay thousands of dollars, and plunge yourself into debt and despair in the name of the pursuit of knowledge; however, we all know that knowledge and the pursuit thereof is, and always has been, free to those who seek it. Thanks to the advent of the social network, learning can be achieved in ways that our parents and grandparents could only begin to imagine.
Enter the world of the Open Courseware Consortium, a massive conglomeration of educational institutions with a single goal in mind, feeding the pursuit of knowledge free of charge. Thanks to OCWC there are now entire degree programs available from some of the most prestigious universities in the world to audit free of charge. The following is a sample list of courses that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers through OCWC:
I chose MIT because of their prestige, but also because of the fact they have helped to spearhead this new era of open courseware. The Internet has exploded with open courseware resources, and now MIT has chosen to take this to the next logical level with its announcement of MITx which will allow users to earn certificates opposed to just auditing courses. You can read more about MITx HERE
In addition to the institutional movement towards open courseware, there is also a massive social movement towards the open learning environment. A prime example of this is "Khan Academy", a website whose video library boasts more than 2,700 videos covering a broad variety of subjects that you can watch completely for free. Moreover, Khan Academy offers practice exercises, and even awards badges and achievements to registered users and yes, registration is also COMPLETELY free. Here's a sample lesson from Khan Academy explaining diffusion and osmosis:
Thanks to social networking we now spend more than six hours of our day online. Perhaps social learning will encourage us to spend at least half of that time in the pursuit of that most valuable commodity, knowledge.
