Macbook

Recently I purchased a macbook, and so far I havn't been let down. The reason I purchased it is because Apple have finally attached a 'reasonable' price tag to their lower end product range of notebooks, that and the overall perceived reliability of the Mac OSX.

The 13-inch notebook is fairly lightweight at 2.31kgs, and features a powerful 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. My main use for the laptop is to run Dj audio software running in real-time via USB, which requires a quick processor and plenty of ram (1 gig).

After 3 weeks of using the Macbook, I have not received any USB audio dropouts which I had problems with before when using a windows-based notebook.

The transition from Windows to the Mac operating system has been easier than I first thought, with the only minor critisism being that there is no right-click function. However, simply attach an external mouse and you can right-click.

The Airport wireless device is high-speed and reliable, and I have only been disconnected on one or two seperate occasions.

Macbook have gone crazy with the magnets, featuring a 60W MagSafe power adaptor, and instead of a locking latch when you close the notebook, it is held firmly in place by the power of magnets.

So if your looking to buy a new notebook, I would seriously consider you looking at the new Macbook range from Apple, as the price is competitive and the features are practicle yet powerful.




*Specifications sourced from www.apple.com/macbook

Gooooooooooooooooooooooooogle

Apparently the word Google is a the number '1' with 100 zeros behind it, and after reading the online article, 'The age of permanent net revolution' by John Naughton, I can see why it is an appropriate name for the search engine.

The internet is estimated to contain over 3,000 billion websites, and is growing at a rate of 25,000 webpages per hour!

The process of new technologies taking over old ones known as 'endism', is becoming a reality especially in the case of broadcast TV. Internet Protocol TV (IPtv) is fragmenting the television viewing market, and why wouldn't it be!? Youtube for example, allows users to view the specific content they want to see, free from bias and censorship, witch is laced through commercial TV, and view it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 20 years ago, a successful tv show would attract 20 million viewers, but in another 5 years time a TV broacaster will be considered lucky if they recieve 200,000 ratings.

The lack of censorship on the internet has led to the success of blogging, with a new blog being posted every second. Some blogs are pure vanity, but many are well researched (such as mine haha) and of a high merit.


Personally I cant see 'endism' causing the death of free-to-air TV, just as TV didn't lead to the death of radio when it was produced. Why? Because sometimes it is good being told what to do, and this is what the push-media provides.


From the website: http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,1723622,00.html

Myspace

I remember just over a year ago now, my friend hassled me to join the internet social networking giant, Myspace.

After being hassled numerous times, I reluctantly joined but rarely logged on to see god knows which 'friend' had added or messaged me.

But 1 year later, I must admit I am addicted, not because of the fact I can keep in touch with my friends (I would much rather send them an SMS or call them), but it has been a good oportunity to get some of my music production noticed.

However I have a few issues with Myspace. 1. Unreliability, 2. Spam and 3. Hackers.

1. More often than not Myspace is 'experiencing technical difficulties' or 'being repaired'. I realise it is a relatively new service but it is a big pitfall. In my time using Myspace, similar sites such as Facebook and Japans Mixi have never been down.

A major problem with Myspace is that it allows the user to virtually edit the entire page to their liking. They can include any html, java or flash script which is not compatible with all computers and adds to the problem. Facebook offers limited options on content personalisation and Mixi offers none what so ever. Not a down fall in my opinion.

2. & 3. I can join Spam and Hackers together because they are two of the same. Myspace is incredibly easy to hack, with hackers simply posting a link to a phoney Myspace log in page, with the unsuspecting user happily entering their e-mail and password and sending it to the hacker. The hacker can now simply send spam from these accounts, polluting Myspace. But the user simply has to change their password and then the spam will stop.

Here is A video of how hackers go about their business on Myspace.

What is a weblog anyway?

Experts define weblogs as "frequently modified web pages in which dated entries are listed in reverse chronological sequence" (Herring, Scheidt, Bonus & Wright, 2004). Weblogs differentiate themselves from other websites because they are usually updated more regularly, often on a daily basis. Although many websites are also updated on a regular basis, Weblogs are usually solely dedicated for peoples personal opinions, thoughts and general happenings in and around their life.

Many people probably don't even realise that they are 'bloggers', as the rise of social networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook has integrated weblog-like features into their sites.


I personally believe that the rise of such social networking sites may lead to the death of Weblog specific sites, and these social sites add further dynamics to what blogging has offered, with more interaction from other users.


Below is a video showing you how to create a blog.










REFERENCE

Herring, S, Scheidt, L.A, Bonus, S & Wright, E 2004, Bridging the Gap: A Genre Analysis of Weblogs, Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=1265271, viewed 17 July 2007.

Free-to-air TV, dissapearing into thin air.

The article titled, 'Young embrace digital entertainment, ditch TV' published on 'The Australian' website, 9 July 07 by Michael Bodey, discusses the recent findings from the market research company GfK Australia on digital entertainment. It is week 2 at SAIBT and we have been asked to research media/publishing issues, which is the reason I chose to summarise this article.

According to a national survey carried out by GfK, younger males and females responded they spend less time watching free-to-air TV, this is a fall of 11 points. This correlates with the rising popularity of browsing the Internet, up by 43 points and sites like MySpace and YouTube were up 22 points.

There were more than $650 million growth in LCD TV sales, and over $175 million in notebooks. However, this digital entertainment trend has not yet made as big a convergence to the family living room as TV networks anticipated, with less than 10 per cent of households having the Internet or a computer connected to their TV.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,22039391-7582,00.html

Introduction

Welcome to Mular's SAIBT DDP Blog!

So who is mulldaddy?

That would be me, I am studying Document Design and Publication at SAIBT. Without getting to personal or specific, I'm a Male in my early 20's, and a dj who likes to spin funk, hip hop, r'n'b, reggae and whatever else sounds hot! In my spare time (outside of Uni), I am either working, playing music or hanging out with some of the coolest cats in Adelaide, my mates.

My other major interest is Japanese language and culture. Last Christmas and New Years I spent in Japan travelling around the island for 6 weeks. Next year I'm interested in studying Public Relations at UniSA, with a sub-major in Japanese or something?

Throughout the next 12 weeks, new blogs will be posted related to DDP; professional commentary on current publishing issues from reputable media sources.

Please sit back, read and enjoy!