Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Win a Tinderbox Troll - it is SPRING!

"Jamaica!" Ms. Bliss Peaceful smiled and nodded towards Ms. Orange Elegance, who disagreed. "I'd say Paris in April," she insisted, "It's Tinderbox weekend soon!" The Tinder Trolls were competing to come up with the most lovely destination for a mid April weekend getaway. "THAT WAS MY IDEA" hissed Mr. Angry Bishop, waving his note in front of Ms. Orange Elegance's nose. "YOU READ MY NOTES!" As you can imagine, TEKKA's headquarters sometimes get a little heated; today, nobody agreed on the perfect April getaway. Where is YOUR favorite April destination?

Tell us where and why, and send us a link: news@tekka.net. We'll post entries here at TEKKAlogue. If you'd like to win a troll, include your name and address!

Monday, March 28, 2005

Special Issue Call for Papers:

"Minority languages, multimedia and the Web"

For The New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, 2005 (2)

Guest Editors:

Daniel Cunliffe, University of Glamorgan, UK (djcunlif@glam.ac.uk), Susan Herring, Indiana University, USA (herring@indiana.edu)

Information and communications technology, and in particular the World Wide Web, can be a double-edged sword as regards the maintenance and revitalisation of minority languages. On the one hand, minority language communities can be active shapers of these technologies, creating their own tools, adapting existing tools to local needs, and creating culturally authentic, indigenous electronic media. On the other hand, these technologies can be seen as a force for globalisation and neo-colonisation, reinforcing the existing dominance of majority languages and breaking down geographical boundaries that in the past may have protected minority language groups.

Researching the effects of multimedia and the Web on minority languages is challenging, and it is not yet clear how best to utilise these technologies to maintain and revitalise minority languages. This special issue invites researchers and practitioners who are actively engaged in addressing these issues from practical or theoretical viewpoints to share their findings and experiences and to contribute to a platform for future research. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to:

Minority language applications:

• designing, implementing and evaluating applications
• measuring the impact of applications on language use
• promoting indigenous production and participatory design

Influence of ICTs on minority languages:

• adaptation of languages to online environments, e.g., Romanisation
• behaviour of minority language speakers in online environments

Measuring online minority languages:

• quantitative and qualitative measurement of online presence and use
• content related analysis of online presence and use

Strategic issues:

• understanding barriers to online minority language use
• integrating multimedia and the Web into language planning

Article submissions should typically be no longer than 7,000 words (excluding references) and should follow the formatting guidelines in the Instructions to Authors on the NRHM web site (www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/13614568.asp). Submissions should be sent by email to the Guest Editors, in Word, rtf or pdf format. If you have any questions concerning the scope of the call or require further information, please contact the Guest Editors. Open topic papers meeting NRHM's scope in general are also welcome (contact the Editor for further information).

Submission deadline: April 30, 2005

Acceptance notification: June 30, 2005

Final manuscripts due: August 31, 2005

NRHM Editor Douglas Tudhope - dstudhope@glam.ac.uk

Associate Editor Daniel Cunliffe - djcunlif@glam.ac.uk

NRHM is published by Taylor & Francis

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Project X Theatre

Project X Theatre + The Planetary Collegium =

digital performances machinima net art artificial life digital music & dance interactive art sound & light show video screening intelligent architecture 3D game environments virtual reality & more

Saturday, April 9, 2005 7 pm-11 pm

Southside on Lamar, 1409 Lamar #003, Dallas, 75215

Tickets, $10 Parking available.

http://www.nouspace.net/dene/media-arts-event.html

http://www.projectxtheatre.com

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Project30

From Project 30:

Please participate in the jurying process of Projekt30's April Juried Exhibition. Please stop by, it only takes a minute, and it's fun to help jury an art show!

Go to:

http://www.projekt30.com

...and follow the "jury the april exhibition" link. All work will be online for jurying until March 30th, the final results will go online on April 1st.

Who we are:

Projekt30 is an online gallery, run by artists, designed to expose artists to "brick and mortar" art galleries which may be interested in presenting their work. We are an arts organization using technology to encourage public interest in the fine arts, and help shape the art world of the twenty-first century.

What you will find:

This month (we do this every 2 months) we are hosting a juried exhibition in which the public may view the entries and help select which artists will be included in the show opening on April 1st, 2005.

Click on the "jury the april exhibition" link and cast your vote. Some of the submissions are truly beautiful; check it out!

Monday, March 21, 2005

Internships

Are you interested in learning more about hypertext publishing and hypertext tools? Eastgate is looking for superb interns to join us for periods of at least six weeks at our Boston-area offices.

Job Description

Each intern will have their own project in their primary area of interest: - hypertext editing - software design, development, and support - marketing and communication. In addition, interns help out on all facets of operations, from interface design to fulfillment. Eastgate is a fun, informal, and exciting place to work. There's always a lot happening, and you'll have terrific scope to make a real, independent contribution. And Boston is a terrific place. Internships carry a small stipend. Sound interesting? Contact Elin Sjursen at elins@eastgate.com! (For summer internships, please get in touch before April 4, 2005. Internships are also available for Fall 2005.)

Monday, March 21, 2005

Job opportunity

From Jilltxt.net:

[do you have a PhD and know XML and PHP?]

My department needs to hire a person to teach a course on web programming for the autumn semester (July 1 - December 31, 2005). It's a fulltime, six-month position as an associate professor (førstelektor), with a minimum of 25% research (of your choice), and that single course to teach - about six hours contact time a week for 12-15 weeks of the semester plus some advising. The rest of your time is yours, for your own research. Last year the course had 17 students, and we're expecting about the same next semester. Since it's a research position, we really want someone with a PhD, but might consider someone who's close to completing a PhD.

Read more at Jilltxt.

Monday, March 21, 2005

Boston CyberArts Festival

The centerpiece of Ideas in Motion is a two-day conference on April 23 and 24, the first weekend of the Festival. The conference includes a keynote address by Prof. John Mitchell of Arizona State University and two afternoons of presentations, short performances, and Q&A by an exciting, diverse cast of artists and technologists — April 23, 2-6pm, Simmons Hall at MIT, 229 Vassar Street, Cambridge; and April 24, 1-6pm, Boston University New Dance Theater, 915 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston.

Read more at BostonCyberarts.org

Monday, March 21, 2005

Flash for Cash

Deadline is nearing for the Flash for Cash competition!

The Brief:

Using the provided Netkeepers.ca imagery produce a flash based campaign that promotes the Netkeepers.ca brand and product to the community.

The Campaign:

1. The campaign must be built in flash

2. Duration to be no more than 1 minute

3. All content must be original or royalty free

4. No restrictions on file size

5. Dimentions of the campaign to be 419 x 179

How it works?

A panel judges will assess all the entries and then select the top 10. The Finalists will be promoted on the Netkeepers.ca site and open to the public/community to vote on. There will be a first second and third place based on the number of votes for each design.

What you get?

1st Place:

$1,000 CDN cool hard Cash + 1 year free hosting at Netkeepers.ca

2nd Place:

Ipod Mini + 1 year free hosting at Netkeepers.ca

3rd Place:

Ipod Shuffle + 1 year free hosting at Netkeepers.ca

Timeline:

Entries to be submitted by midnight Friday, April 1st, 2005 (EST)

Voting begins 9am Monday, April 4th, 2005 (EST)

Voting closes midnight Friday, April 8th, 2005 (EST)

The winner will be announced at FITC 05

Monday, March 21, 2005

New Spring = New Jeans

Crisis! I've been trailing the stores to track down a pair of hot looking jeans for the spring. Nothing fits - it is such a disaster. After desperately eeling into pair number 14 of my trial stack, I finally gave up. "Look, if I bend or sit down, this pair shows my underwear!" I complained to the shop assistant. "Oh, you aren't wearing a pair of hipster thongs or briefs already?" she politely smiled. I'm confused. Hipster what?

Low cut jeans should be priced down - God knows how much fabric they save on revealing people's bellies and cracks. It is a disgusting fashion. In Virginia, law makers wanted to fine the low cut riders:

The bill, which would have slapped a $50 fine on people who wear their pants so low that their underwear is visible in "a lewd or indecent manner", passed the state House on Tuesday but was killed by a Senate committee two days later in a unanimous vote.

Anyway. To avoid the embarrassment of looking horrible while trying out pants in the stores downtown, I went online to search for a better way of finding good jeans. It turns out I'm not the only one having a hard time with this:

"The average woman tries on nine pairs of jeans before finding a pair that fit..."

"For example, one study reported that the average woman in the U.S. tries on 21 pairs of jeans before making a purchase, while men try on an average of two pairs of jeans."

"The average woman tries on 15 pairs of jeans before buying"

I found a great jeans tool at the Interactive Custom Clothes Company. They'll let you design your own jeans, and afterwards, they'll apply your measurements to the model. IC3D guarantee that your pants will fit, or you may return them. Choose your shape, fabric, details.. I love this. No more tiny dressing room or bitchy assistants.

Monday, March 14, 2005

G4tv.com

Do you follow the game reviews on "Judgment day"? If you haven't, be prepared for a lot of arm gesticulating as Tommy and Victor, the hosts, wave their hands wildly and talk over each other in excitement! Their language is drenched with "basically, actually, sort of, sort of like, pretty much, definitely, kind of, cool, sucks" and other cliches. Which is why I love it, of course. Tommy and Victor have this special way of making you also want to try out the games they give bad reviews (I guess I should mention that a bad review on this show is 6.5 out of ten. Mostly, they stick with the grading 7.0 to 9.5!). They didn't give EA's FIFA Street the best grades on the show this morning, but I still can't wait to check it out!

G4tv airs some interesting programs for gamers - worth a visit!

Wednesday, March 9, 2005

Flash video

Flash video/film is becoming quite the thing to do!

There is a Flash Film Festival at the FlashForward 2005 (San Francisco, April 6-8). There are 15 categories (!) - Application, Art, Cartoon, Commerce, Educational, Experimental (exciting!), Game (I wish Madison would get her act together and submit some of her stuff), Motion Graphics, Navigation, Original Sound, Story, Technical Merit, 3D, Typography, and Video.

At first, it might seem excessive to have so many categories. But I think it is the right way to go - this way, people with excellent story telling skills have a chance to get through even if their technical skills aren't the best.

Some of my favorite finalists:

The Interactive Church Music Player, which lets you decide tempo and choose the dynamics for the choral voices while you look at the music score.

The pieces by Abnormal Behavior Child - especially Rooms. She could have toned down the flashing, though! Perhaps it was meant as a cool effect, but it does nothing but aggravate you after a while.

Osman Dinc's portfolio is amazing. I love his illustrations - and the way he lets you browse them!

Wednesday, March 9, 2005

Linkdup

linkdup , my new favorite website? A collection of guys collects a collection of links:

We've been in the business for a while, and so hope we can separate the good from the bad.

I wouldn't say that *all* these sites are "good", though... Browsing through the Digital Magazine selection at linkdup, for instance, I found that most sites make use of the flash "page flipper" for their layout.... while others skipped the flash all together but kept the pages. Original? You tell me.

I liked Fused Magazine, though. And I found submarinechannel.com's interactive tale Hotel very engaging. Give it a read!

Sometimes, you might just find some fun stuff behind a link.