New Media Reflections

I had a surprising experience on my way home from work today. As I was driving home through a wooded area I smelled something familiar yet not identifiable. It was an extremely pleasant scent, which reminded me of something from my outdoor childhood experiences. I really have no idea what it was, but it was flowery and left a very nice feeling in me. I’m not used to having such olfactory reminiscence.

I began realizing that in this technological online age, we can forget about our five-sense selves. We use our minds and our imagination alot. But think about it. If you were playing an online game and there was no sound, wouldn’t it seem lacking and more difficult to engage with? Adding sound gives it a more believable and engaging sense. We still have three senses that aren’t being used… what if you could smell things in a video game? That would bring a whole new level of believability to the experience. The more senses we engage, the more real it will become.

As I discovered today, odors not only give us a reaction as in liking it or not, but we have many memories associated with them that we don’t usually process or think about. This could be a very interesting direction for the gaming world to move in.

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I have been a “resident” of Second Life for two years now, and resident in Real Life alot longer than that. People I talk to seem to feel that the SL persona, my Avatar, Kram Sidran, is not real, not me, just a cartoon representation. But then, what am I? Am I this water sac that walks around everyday? I like to think there is more to “me” than that. It’s those other aspects of me that come through my avatar into the virtual world. When Kram interacts with other Avatars (people) he is my representation, but carries my values, sense of humor, and even emotions into this other dimension. If you meet and get to know Kram, you will get to know who Mark is. You would learn different aspects of me in RL as opposed to SL, just as you would if you talk to me on the phone (virtual), vs. communicating via email or letters. In each venue or media, different aspects of me are brought forth. But they are still me. I think that as we move toward a 3D web and virtual environments, more people will recognize that they bring their own selves into these spaces. Somehow, even being “not you” on purpose still reveals something about who you choose to be or not be in any life.

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The Black Box is a somewhat mythical creation in the world of interactive communications. The theory is that someday there will be a black box in your house that will run all the electronics for you. This, along with the universal remote for everything is a very alluring concept. How many of us have a plethora of remote controls in our homes? I have one for my TV, VCR, DVD player, Stereo, and then repeated for the other TV (I don’t watch TV, by the way). Wouldn’t it be nice if I could pick up my one remote, which these days is looking something like an iPhone and control all these devices, plus maybe integrate with my “Smart” home and turn on the home air conditioning on my way home, have the lights on and waiting for me at night, and the garage door opening as I arrive home.

Google, which is becoming ubiquitous in the connected world, is working on ANDROID, which is a mobile operating system. There is a good article on this at VentureBeat. They will be competing with iPhone, and once again we will see competing systems trying to become the dominating operating system of the future. I know, this is the free enterprise way of doing business. But look at how much time and energy gets wasted trying to sort this out. Remember how stubborn SONY was about their Beta video system. It may have been superior, but it didn’t win the popularity contest. Blu Ray DVD is another example. I wish we could all just get behind one system and let it grow. Maybe someone like Google, or Apple can share their operating system through some sort of licensing arrangement.

I’m anxious to toss all of those remote controls I have lying about my house. I hope this moves along quickly. Oh, then I’ll have to buy a new phone…

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The Mojave Experiment: Windows Vista - Launch Video

Here is Microsoft’s official release of the “Mojave” experiment. My first impression is that they used people who had never tried Vista. I’ve always said Vista is flashy and has alot of features. Unfortunately being stable and fast are not on that list. Vista USERS know what I mean. How many times have you seen the “program not responding” message, or try to open a folder and have to watch the green progress bar as it tries to populate the window with the folder contents.
On the other hand I do have to congratulate Microsoft’s marketing team for an excellent job of damage control. I’m sure alot of people will find this convincing. I also think the same type of people who criticized Vista without trying it, will now support Vista without trying it.

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Ok, this is the last one on Vista, I don’t want to be labeled a Vista-hater, oh wait, I am. Anyway, I really like XP!

I guess I’ve been a little out of touch, but apparently Apple has been running a series of these. Very Clever! And to the Point. Find them on YouTube. There’s also a cute Linux one.

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Here is the official Microsoft release of the Mojave experiment. I am under the impression that MS recruited people who were “Vista-haters”, but had never actually tried it. When MS showed off all the bells and whistles, these people were duly impressed.

I admit that Vista is a pretty interface and does some fun things, but I am curious what kind of machines these people viewed it on. Vista does quite nicely on high-end machines, but how about on the equipment most of us use everyday…not so good. I get tired of the crashes and the “program not responding” messages.

I do want to applaud the marketing department at Microsoft. I know they’ve gotten alot of bad press over this, but I think it’s a great way to try to save the reputation of an inferior product. My guess is that the same type of people who criticized Vista without trying it, will now support it and laud it, without trying it. So it will probably be a somewhat successful campaign.

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