Blogging about digital media blogs

2009-12-15T06:46:00.000-08:00

Student: (Lakshika Serasinhe 09004322)
Chosen blog: (empireonline www.empireonline.com)

The blog I have enjoyed following for this assignment is the empire magazine blog. Empire is based on the movie magazine of the same name. The blog deals with up 2 date information, gossip and past film stories from the film industry

Topics used in the Blog are very random when it comes to film related topic. For example one post is strictly deals with a preview of a forthcoming movie named 2012 and another would be something as “100 sexiest 2009: what have we learned” which was a voting form that was available on the website earlier on in the year.

The frequencies of posts are not in any order or system. A new post is uploaded if there is a good point to be discussed. I assume this when I checked upon all the posts been made in the last 3 months of posts, there was no pattern at all. I did notice there is an average of 2 posts per week on random days.

There are some variations over time as there was a post dedicated to the late Patrick Swayze due to his recent death by cancer, to hounor him they discussed his greatest moments on the Big Screen.

The target audience would be film lovers as myself as most of these post would be very uninteresting to many people about film tech etc are not for everyone as I noticed not many people leave comments on average only about ten comments per new post. So a very minor target audience

The language used is very formal as the blog is based on a renowned worldwide magazine they keep up to standards of the magazine

The graphics used are very simple black writing and there is always one big picture before the post itself, all the links to the websites are always posted if they are talking about something on the internet the names of the people mentioned are normally highlighted in a darker shade of colour.

There are some interactions as people leave their own views on the subject matter and ask questions to others not in an aggressive as on a YouTube thread.

My favourite blog post is “2012 our reaction”. This is my favourite post as imp very interested in the film industry and the new technology. And 2012 is a prime example of Hollywood’s big budget disaster movies with colourful scenery being blown up, this blog is a preview of the first section of the movie and the magazines reaction on the ludicrous plot.
My comments on blogs:

http://www.empireonline.com/empireblogs/london-film-festival-2009/post/p694 http://www.gamespot.com/news/6238423.html?tag=siteblogs;title;1

2009-10-30T18:26:00.000-07:00

Student: John O'Donoghue 09006899
Chosen blog:
Chosen post: beatles-rock-band/

The blog has been in operation since September 2007.The blog is targeting people who have an interest in music technology and the newest advances in music technology and there affect on the music industry and how people perceive music. It target professionals in the industry as well as people who have only an interest in the topic. The blog is updated normally about once a week and is written by a number of authors. The author of the blogs is Daniel Foley. He is a musician, producer and writer and runs number of websites as well as pod complex. The website has a very simple layout and is very easy to navigate through and find post you are interested in. The blog doesn’t allow you to leave comments which is what I found to be one of the major faults on the blog.

The blog discusses many areas of music technology and it is broken down in to five sections DAW(Digital Audio Workshop), Digital Music, Live Performance, Music Technology and Sales and Promotion. The blog is very varied and most people with an interest in music would not have trouble finding a post that they would find interesting. The post I found most interesting was ‘Will The Beatle Rockband be good for music?’. The post deals with the release of the rock band series and its affect on music in general. It questions weather the game will pull people away from playing real instruments and change the perception of how we listen and view music. The blog goes on the say that it also adds a new aspect to music to people who would never have played an instrument. It goes on to describe how they went about developing the Beatle rock band game and how they acquired the master tapes for the game which I found very interesting.

The language used in the posts tend to be very easy to read which make it very easy to follow if you are trying to learn about the subjects involved in the blog. The posts seem to very objective which is refreshing when reading blogs since some blog writers now take money off companies to write favourable reviews about there product. In all I find this a very informative blog that’s has interest opinions on all topics in the music industry.
The other blogs I followed were
http://www.modernbeats.com/hit-talk/feed

http://themusicproducerblog.blogspot.com/

2009-10-30T16:02:00.001-07:00

Student: Adam McDermott 09005951
Chosen blog: www.Gigaom.com
Chosen post: Can Speech Recognition Find Its Voice in Computing?

My comments on blogs:
Gigaom is a weblog dedicated to giving the reader an up-to-date insight into what is going on right now in the world of digital media, with detailed reports that are both intriguing and entertaining.

It has twelve dedicated bloggers so the reader is constantly being given new information and news that is just been made available. The staff is headed by the Editor-in-Chief Sebastian Rupley.

The topics that are posted about are incredibly varied which prevents the weblog from growing stale. You'll get a post on the world of mobile phones with posts like "Nokia Kills N-Gage. Again", other posts like "Get Congress Out of the Net Neutrality Debate, Please" which challenge the reader to thing about the future of digital media, and other posts like "Verizon: Our Network Can Handle the Droid".
These post occur very regularly, on average the reader will get twelve to eighteen posts a day thanks to the tireless staff.

The target audiance is broad catering to anyone who has a sleight interest in the digital world and is curious about what is happening right now as well as people who are very knowledgeable about the digital world and are just looking for an update.

The language used is vey formal unless the blogger is arguing a point of theirs then they present their argument in a factual tone basing their arguemnt on facts instead of assumptions.

Favourite post: Can Speech Recognition Find Its Voice in Computing?
http://gigaom.com/2009/10/29/can-speech-recognition-find-its-voice-in- computing/#comment-981442

This is my favourite post because after reading that Microsoft had said on their site that “talking to a computer may soon be as natural as using a mouse” in the first few lines.The blogger then lets us know how "The mouse has nearly become an extra appendage for many of us, touchpads and touchscreens are simple and intuitive; and larger screens minimize the need to drill down through menus". Which made me realise how inevitable the next step was and how I didn’t even see the change in computer interface occurring right in my hand, on my iPod. I find the idea of voice-regognition software fascinating and the idea of it becoming part of our every-day lives captivates me. The blogger does have his doubts about just about seeing theis software at the level it needs to be at in the near future "When it comes to usage on desktops and laptops, though, any real uptake is a long way off — if it happens at all". However he does point to how far it has come in the last few years as phones become more sophisticated so does the voice-regognition software.

My Comments:

1 , 2, 3, 4

2009-10-30T15:56:00.000-07:00

Student: Niall Duddy (09005896)

Chosen Blog: CrunchGear

Chosen Post: Chart: How the Nook stacks up in the e-reader race

The blog that I found myself following a lot was “CrunchGear” and “TechCrunch”. They are two related blogs one focusing on hardware and the other more on technology. Both cover varied subjects and overlap a bit. Subjects would include software and it release dates, the development of it, what companies and parties are related to it. They will compare against rival and previous software too. They also do the same with the related hardware and so.

The post, or few posts that I followed were that of eReader competition and development. An example of one of the posts:

here

The majority of eReader related posts were written by a Mr. John Biggs. He began (from when I started following his posts) with Amazons Kindle and its development and what services Amazon provided for it and such. Then he introduced specifications and price differences.

Then after a few days he caught wind of Barnes And Nobles Nook eReader, something to rival the Kindle. He compared the Nook and Kindle in every way, covering the pros and cons of the devices.

I found that his blogs were very informative and satisfying, as I have a keen interest in the development of technology in relation to its software and how tactile it physically is. He presented images of the devices were words were not needed, allowing for a faster and clearer intake of what the devices actually looked like. He also provides video when he wants to give a clearer understanding of how the eReaders are actually used.

I find that his target audience are those with a bit of knowledge in technology, whom want or need updates on what type of new technology is being presented to the world and where it stands in light of what is actually already out there.

His postings were regular but he doesn’t send a lot of feedback. People who make comments on his discuss with each other or make a statement.

My four comments are found via these four links separately:

here1

here2

here3

here4

2009-10-30T15:50:00.000-07:00

Student: Kathryn Conway – 09006094
Chosen blog: www.createdigitalmusic.com
Chosen post: ToneSynthDS: Promising New Nintendo DS Synth + Sequencer Homebrew

The author of the blogs is Peter Kirn. Peter Kirn is a musician, media artist and technology writer based in New York. He publishes and edits sites Create Digital Music and Create Digital Motion. He also writes for MAKE, Macworld, Keyboard, Computer Music (UK) and others. He is the author of Real World Digital Audio, a book on making music with computers and is currently a PhD candidate at the City University of New York Graduate Center.

His main topics cover music and technology. Many posts discuss newest pieces of technology for creating music through and the new methods used by others when creating music with technology such as Nintendo Wii. The frequency of posts usually is two posts every one or two days without fail. The target audience is anybody who has an interest in music and creating digital music and anybody who likes to be creative with technology.

The author uses a very upbeat and conversational tone and the language is quite easy to understand. In some of his posts he speaks through the first person making it very easy and enjoyable to read. He makes his posts accessible to anybody, even those who would not have a huge interest in the subject.

The layout is similar to usual articles with a heading at the top giving an indication as to what the posts is about. There is often a variety of pictures of what is being talked about and even YouTube videos which demonstrate the topic throughout the post.

Readers of the post often comment with a tone of excitement and interest in the new information. Readers can also “like” the post and share it through social networking sites. One can also subscribe to the mailing list on the page of the post and to trackbacks if they wish. Peter Kirn himself gets in on the discussion to by commenting answering questions and updating the news on the topic.

My chosen blog (listed above) deals with the idea of creating a synthesizer using a gaming device, the Nintendo DS. I liked this blog because it provided a lot of in depth information and YouTube videos to show us what this new music creation is like how it works. I also liked the fact that the author has such a light conversational tone and also warns the reader that if they already have a Nintendo DS that they have to make some adjustments for it. This gives us the full picture of the item which is a plus side to any reader.

Comment 1
Comment 2

Blogging on digital media

2009-10-30T15:48:00.000-07:00

Student: Evan Murphy 09004764
Chosen blog: Technabob
Chosen post: FaceiD : Open locked doors with your face.

The blog that I found most appealing would have to be the "technabob" blog.
The main topics discussed by Technabob are Media, Computing, Technology, and Science.

Because the blog covers many different topics, updates are very frequent. On average, the blog is updated 40 times a week.
The technabob blog is way too large to specify a particular target audience. The target audience is whoever has an interest from the topics that are covered.
The language used is very informal. It appeals to the average Joe, it dosn't go into much detail and just sticks with the interesting aspects if the topic.
The blog is highly visually orientated. Each post contains pictures and most contain videos.
The interaction is very user friendly.
You can follow the blog in several ways :
- Subscribe via a Reader
- Subscribe via E-mail
- Follow it on Twiiter
- And there is even a Facebook fanpage
Comments can be made very easily and no subscription is neccesary to either view or make comments on posts.

Picking my favourite post was difficult as I find the majority of the posts interesting. But the one that was particularly appealing to me was a post discussing the future of facial recognition.
link : 3http://technabob.com/blog/2009/10/30/faceid-facial-recognition-security-system/
It discusses that recently, a facial identification system has been developed which will, hopefully in the near future, replace the need for keys, keycards, IDs etc.
The layout of the post, like all the others, is straight-forward and easy to understand. The pictures and video add to your knowledge of the topic.
And of course like the other posts, when it comes to the text there is very little detail, however, the little detail summarises the topic well, skipping any technical jargin.

My comments on blogs:

Technabob
1, 2, 3, 4

Addicted to Digital Media

1, 2, 3

40fakes

1 , 2, 3, 4

2009-10-30T15:47:00.003-07:00

Student: Adrian Whyte (0814504)
Chosen blog: http://www.podcomplex.com/blog/hands-on-music/#more-472
Chosen post: Getting Your Hands On The Music
Build Your Own Touch Screen Interface
Touch Screen Technology With Knobs On
The Author:
This Music Technology blog posts was published on Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 at 12:57 pm ,Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 12:01 pm, Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 at 4:34pm in the DAW category.

Main topics:
This is a music blog which are short and specific information about new technologies in the music industry.
Getting your hands on the music is the heading of the blog describing touch screen technology, it had a link to Build your own touch screen interface showed that more people are using touch screen device e.g. phone so this blog talks about a drum touch screen “ DEAF Drummer Touch, using it for the live performance sequencing and synthesis, computers now serve as a replacement for vast racks of hardware that used to fill recording studios, and interacting with such complex production equipment is not best done with a mouse.”
Each of the blogs give demo from youtube demonstrating it’s use.
Touch Screen Technology With Knobs was the next linked page and was a continuation of the previous page it talk about “Touch screens are gaining widespread traction, and it seems that the boundaries between display and interface are converging. Devices such as JazzMutant’s Dexter brought a new level of interaction to DAW controllers, but now Girton Labs have devised a way of sticking physical knobs onto a computer screen…” Due to the technology being some far away of performer getting use to touch screen technology they felt that creating a magnet knob interface to give a more physical feel e.g SenseSurface

- The frequency of posts and its variation over time,
The blogs are very space out May 26th, 2009, October 28th, 2008 and August 6th, 2008.
- The target audience,
Musicians, Sound engineers and people in the technology development.
- The language used,
Simple, straight to the point, technology based.
- The page layout(graphics)
Heading on top, Links with the heading, ads on the side of the screen with
links to music and music technologies.
- Embedded artefacts (pictures, videos, audio files),
Icons, youtube, pictures on the topic.
- The interaction taking place (comments, trackbacks, subscribing
to mailing lists)
The only down side was you couldn’t leave a comment on the page.

Pick up your favourite post on that blog, link to it and explain why you liked it:
I couldn’t pick a favourite out of the three, i thought the website has a whole linked very well as a whole but I really like the sensesurface with the interaction interface of using knobs on the screen, I could see it’s usefulness in a live music setting!

http://www.podcomplex.com/blog/touch-screen-technology/

Comment 1
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/30/dont-be-a-featured-loser-facebook-helps-out-the-unpopular/trackback/

Comment 2
http://disqus.com/forums/ubergizmo/regen_reverb_solar_powered_ipod_dock/
Comment 3
http://patphelan.net/igap-an-excellent-oppourtunity-for-irish-start-ups/#comment-514005

Comment 4
http://digg.com/business_finance/The_best_podcast_radio_show_of_all_time i added a digg it.

2009-10-30T15:47:00.000-07:00

Student: Sinead Curley 09007053
Chosen blog: CNET- http://www.cnet.com
Chosen post: Music search is Google’s newest tune- http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10385755-93.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=News-DigitalMedia

My comments on blogs:

The blog I have chosen is CNET.com which, in their own words, “shows you the exciting possibilities of how technology can enhance and enrich your life”. The site is great when looking for reviews and information on today’s latest technology. Whether looking to but a new phone or simply a programme for your computer, CNET is sure to have the latest news and information you are looking for.

CNET.com is a collaborative effort where by different authors can post their opinions, news and technical information so people all over the world can keep up to date with the ever changing technology of today. The main topics on CNET.com is information and unbiased reviews on new products, programmes etc. Users can also find instruction videos on the site, giving the viewer a 3D glimpse, demystifying today’s technology. The target audience is the person who wants the latest gadget and the latest system. From i-pods to search engines CNET.com has the information you need. The language used is very informative and reflects the interest of the everyday consumer, it is not complex and only the basic technical terms are used. Each blog entry comes with one or more graphic images. These images are there to show the product or programme at their best. The blog posts on this site are very frequent and sometimes up to 20 new posts a day. The user gets the chance to comment on each post and express their opinions of that post.

The post I have chosen which has stood out most to me is “Music search is Google’s newest tune” by Caroline McCarthy. The post tells the story of how Google have teamed up with MySpace to allow Google users listen to music straight from the search engine itself. This post was appealing to me as an avid music fan because it almost cuts out the middle man when looking up music. When I wanted to listen to music I would first type YouTube into Google and from there proceed to listen to my music on the YouTube website. Now at the click of the ‘play’ button on my Google search I will be able to listen to my favourite music.

2009-10-30T15:39:00.000-07:00

Student: (Mark Butler - 09006121)
Chosen blog: (Subcycle Labs - http://www.bannister-design.nu/blog/)
Chosen post: (Multi-touch the sound storm)

The blog that I have chosen is that of Christian Bannister who juggles an amalgamated career of a musician and a developer and designer. Christians’ main topics are of his interactive digital instrument/ synthesizer which is still in its developmental stages. The device uses a touch screen as the main input device and the user uses their hands to manipulate the onscreen medium. The date that he began his project is unclear as his first post seems to be made several steps into the completion of the project but what is clear is that it could have great potential.

Currently there are only four posts made on his blog that give updates to the digital instrument which span three months from August to September. Each of these posts contains info about the digital instruments including video examples and pictures of it in motion. Of course the target audience is the digital music fans, of any age, who want a follow-up to the progression of the digital instrument and are interested in the interactive video – music hybrid. The posts themselves would mean little to the unfamiliar fan of the technology but there is plenty for anyone who has a basic understanding of music. At regular intervals, Christian does explain some of his “techno babble” for the average reader.

The majority of the comments are positive and supportive of the author. The 30+ comments consist of the views of the audience and the author/admin. The interaction of Christian to the comments are few and far between but he does vow to have a news feed available in the coming weeks.

The overall design of the blog is a simple two column layout with the usual links to one side approach. The posts appear in their entirety, minus the comments. Each post has examples of the digital instrument in use or the graphics. The videos that are used show the device in its early stages of development but show a great deal of user interaction from Christian and new upgrades from previous video posts. In the end, the blog gives an insight into a possible new technology in the digital media area and leaves most readers waiting for the latest instalment from Christian, but judging by the frequency of the posts… they might be waiting a bit longer.

My favourite comment is by Sasze on the “Touch Loop Navigator” blog because his comment, along with many others, shows that people are indeed interested in this technology. It gives an insight as to what people think of this merger of music and electronics. The comment also shows that there very well could be a market for the interactive device.

My posted comments: (Waiting to be authorised)
Subcycle Labs
http://www.bannister-design.nu/blog/?p=107
Pat Phelan
http://patphelan.net/how-to-twitter-no-charge/#comment-513229
Bobby Badfingerz
http://dj808.blogspot.com/2009/08/interactive-led-wall.html

2009-10-30T15:32:00.001-07:00

Student: (name and number) David Nelligan (09006679)
Chosen blog: (title and URL)www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog
Chosen post: (title and URL)Scene and heard: The new wave of new age

The blog I chose to follow was on www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog.
Here musicians and music enthusiasts can share their opinions on
issues currently affecting the music industry.My Favorite post on the
site was "Scene and heard: The new wave of new age", whose main
argument was,"Forget music so diluted it could double up as a homeopathic
remedy, the current wave of new age artists are exploring strange new
sonic landscapes." Owing to my keen interest in music this entry
immediately caught my eye. The Author of the piece (Louis Pattison),
gave an insight into the music of the past and of today, and described
them both as "medidtative and spiritual".
In this blog the Author is definitely appealing to those with an interest
in the genre, and in my opinion the authors language adds greatly to the
piece. There is a simple lay out to the blog, and it contains an image
of a band called Emerald", who are mentioned in the text. Most comments
in regard to this post were in agreement with the premise, and their
was little argument against the Author as is usually expected. Instead
those who commented recomminding more artists.

Other Blogs Followed: 1: http://createdigitalmusic.com
2: http://musicproductionblog.com

2009-10-30T15:31:00.000-07:00

Student: John Duignan (0874418)
Chosen blog: I Watch Stuff (http://www.iwatchstuff.com/)
Chosen post: Avatar Theatrical Trailer (http://www.iwatchstuff.com/2009/10/avatar_theatrical_trailer_offi.php)

The blog that I have chosen for this assignment is 'I Watch Stuff'. I Watch Stuff is an entertainment blog covering the latest in movie news, clips, and trailers. I Watch Stuff was launched in October of 2005 and is part of the Anticlown Media network. According to its website it has a single writer Mark who has written for I Watch Stuff since January 2006. This blog also has guest authors and writers who contribute if Mark allows them to!

This blog has regular updates, news and blogs for readers to enjoy. It is well laid out and uses buzzwords, jargon and colloquial language in its posts. Its three main pages are called celebrity, entertainment and technology but it also has sections on advertising, the sites FAQ, and contact details. All the links are well laid out and the site has a nice background and colour scheme.

The posts may have thumbnail pictures and videos embedded in them which can really immerse the reader and capture their attention. Its target audience are those interested in entertainment, cinema, tv, celebrities and visual technology. It does it job and manages to have high bandwith of traffic so is highly popular.

My favorite post:
http://www.iwatchstuff.com/2009/10/avatar_theatrical_trailer_offi.php

It shows the release of James Camerons film Avatar's new trailer. This is one of the most anticipated films of all time. James Cameron has released all hugely successful popular films such as Aliens, The Terminator, Titanic massive Oscar winning and hugely grossing films.

Other Blogs followed and their comments:

My comments on blogs:
http://kotaku.com/5392421/nintendo-announces-big-screen-dsi

http://thetvaddict.com/2009/10/28/good-news-bad-news-lost-family-guy-modern-family/

http://www.iwatchstuff.com/2009/10/avatar_theatrical_trailer_offi.php

2009-10-30T15:30:00.000-07:00

Student: Gahan Raj (09005169)
Chosen blog: Hardware Insider: http://www.gamespot.com/hardware/blogs/hardware-insider/909185655/index.html?tag=siteblogs;blog_title;6
Chosen post: History of Shrinking Consoles: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6233679.html

This blog is mainly about gaming and consists of new leaps in gaming hardware and software. The poster ‘Sarju S’ posts consistently twice every month. He/ she mainly posts topics related to current gaming news and new hardware for example the latest post was about the introduction of Facebook and Twitter on Xbox Live. This topic also discussed Live TV and radio streaming straight to the Xbox. I thought that this was a new leap forward for the gaming industry.
I think the target audience for this blog is gamers such as myself and for people who are interested in technology in general. Over time this blog has evolved with the gaming industry, if you look at the first post you will see that it was about a new controller fo the PC and from there the author moved on to Cordless keyboards, Intercooling fans, updates for current consoles, Graphics cards, motion-sensing controllers .etc. The author uses many images and sometimes videos to help the reader understand the topic. These images are very helpful and the videos are also interactive.

My favourite topic by ‘Sarju S’ is The History of Shrinking Games Consoles. I found this topic interesting as it discussed how a console is modified from it’s original version. Since parts for computers are constantly shrinking it is possible to makes consoles smaller and smaller. I thought it was fascinating how everything could be madder much smaller and cheaper in only a few months, another reminder that technology is moving at a very fast pace.

My comments on blogs:
1. http://www.gamespot.com/news/6233564.html
2. http://www.gamespot.com/news/6233679.html
3. http://gizmodo.com/5393584/windows-xp-phone-a-first-look-at-its-touchscreen-interface
4. http://www.whattheyplay.com/blog/2008/09/30/new-wii-due-by-2011/

Student: David Walley (09004726)

2009-10-30T15:28:00.000-07:00

Student: David Walley (09004726)
Chosen blog: Web Design Blog http://free-web-design.co.cc/
Chosen post: Movie-Like Sunset in Photoshop Tutorial (http://free-web-design.co.cc/movie-like-sunset-in-photoshop-tutorial.html_

My comments on blogs:
http://free-web-design.co.cc/how-to-make-a-vintage-retro-picture-tutorial.html#comment-765
http://free-web-design.co.cc/movie-like-sunset-in-photoshop-tutorial.html#comment-762http://free-web-design.co.cc/ultimate-list-of-photoshop-tutorials-to-design-a-website.html#comment-763
http://free-web-design.co.cc/breathtaking-dreamy-vintage-photoshop-tutorial.html#comment-766

This blog is run by a Romanian graphic and web designer named Roman Alexandru. He gives little personal information about himself, describing himself as a “design dude, freelance superhero, and blog magician.”

Each topic is in some way related to Photoshop and graphic design. A list of most popular tags can be found the right hand side of the page. These tags include “photo editing”, “istock”, “illustration”, and “freebies.”

This website is updated sporadically. It has been updated three times since September 30. The majority of site updates are links to resources to help enhance graphics or they contain images to give the user ideas for their next graphic. Recently the blog owner has been posting many tutorials to show users how to achieve certain effects.

This blog’s target audience are graphic designers and those who want to learn how to go about creating eye-catching and impressive images on Photoshop.

The language used on this blog is relatively straight forward as it aims to be understood by advanced Photoshop users as well as beginners. As each blog post contains a large amount of graphics, the graphics featured in the layout are kept to a minimum. The layout of the page is very clean and easy to navigate. A thumbnail representing the latest updates are shown in the left hand column, while a blog roll and links are found in the center and right hand column.

There is a large amount of communication on the blog between readers and the author. The author responds to questions about where to find certain resources and often thanks people for pointing certain mistakes in the tutorials.

I chose this post because I was greatly impressed by the finished result and wanted to learn how to go about achieving this for myself.

This tutorial is very straight forward and easy to understand. The author goes through the process in step by step detail, using a Print Screen of each step to make things even simpler for the user.

Ciaran Smith (0742392)

2009-10-30T15:15:00.000-07:00

Student: Ciaran Smith (0742392)
Chosen blog: Engadget (http://www.engadget.com/)

Engadget is a blog reporting news and reviews on various gadget including cameras, gaming consoles and multimedia phones. Authors on this blog include Laura June, Nilay Patel, Joseph L. Flatley, Darren Murph, Donald Melanson and others. The blog is updated very often with new posts being added usually as often as every 30 mins.

The target audience of this blog is those interested in gadgets and modern technology. The blog keeps the reader up to date on the latest technology innovations and the gadgets of the future to reviews of the latest digital cameras and smartphones.

The language used in posts on this blog is relatively informal, while still being very informative. The bloggers come across as sharing interest in the gadgets with the reader and informing them in a casual way.

The layout of the site is quite simple with a white background and plain design. Each post has a large heading, a picture and the first paragraph of the post on the main page, with a link to the entire post at the bottom. There is a baner ad on top and more ads on the right hand side of the site. Also on the right hand side is links to news stories, featured posts, sections of the site and other similiar blogs also on the AOL network. There are more external links at the bottom of the site.
There is usually 1 to 2 pictures to accompany each post and sometimes an embedded video.

Each post has a comment section. You have to sign up to the site to be allowed to share your comments. This is a relatively easy process which invloves just entering your email address. Posts can also be shared on sites such as digg, facebook, twitter, reddit and stumbleupon.

Chosen post: Burger King selling a Windows 7 Whopper in Japan (http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/22/burger-king-selling-a-windows-7-whopper-in-japan/)

The post I have chosen is a post about Burger King in Japan selling a limited edition Whopper burger in conjunction with Microsoft to promote their new operating system, Windows 7. The Windows 7 whopper has seven burgers between two buns. It was being sold for ¥777 for seven days only. I liked this post because Japan is one of my favourite countries, despite never having been there, and this post shows why. The country is insane! Seevn burgers in one sandwich is just ridiculous and you would only find something like this in Japan. The post also shows the crazy marketing campaigns that large companies like Microsoft are employing.

My comments on blogs:

Networkworld
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/46563#comment-221474

Engadget

http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/22/burger-king-selling-a-windows-7-whopper-in-japan/3#c22514056

Gizmodo
http://gizmodo.com/5388737/happy-birthday-ipod-youre-doomed#c16247846

Kotaku
http://kotaku.com/5389035/insomniac-took-fan-reaction-to-resistance-2-pretty-hard#c16247948

Kevin Hosey (09003993)

2009-10-30T15:13:00.000-07:00

Student: Kevin Hosey 09003993
Chosen blog: Electronic Musician
Chosen post: Propellerhead Software Record 1 (Mac/Win) Review

The blog that I have chosen for this assignment is Electronic Musician. This blog is the official blog for the magazine Electronic Musician. Electronic Musician focuses on music-production technology and techniques for musicians and recording engineers. This blog includes reviews and news of recording and live performance equipment, electronic musical instruments, and music production hardware and software. There are no defined authors for this blog so I would presume it is maintained by the people who write the magazine. However this blog has many guest authors who post reviews on products and give their opinions.

This blog has new posts every couple of days so there is no shortage of articles to read. Some days may have a one or two posts and others have many posts so the posts seem to be very constant.

The target audience for this blog is musicians who record and produce in a home or personal studio and obviously sound engineers. Therefore the language used in many of the post and reviews is fairly complex and alot of technological terms and even musical terms are used. So if you have any sort of interest in recording or producing you will be inticed by this blog just like i was.

The layout of this blog is very accessible as the menu bar along the top helps you navigate to where you want to go. The posts contain pictures and vidoes of the topics and there are also links to tutorial vidoes on many of the software posts. On the left hand side of the blog there are polls which you can participate in and there are also likns to follow this blog on Twitter and Facebook.

From what i saw there wasn’t alot of interaction between the audience and the authors. Many of the posts didn’t have any comments and it was easy to see which ones were most popular as they had alot of commets. I recall seeing one post with 13 comments, each one longer than the next.

My favourite post from this blog was “Propellerhead Software Record 1 (Mac/Win) Review”. This post was a review of the new recording software from a company called Propellerhead. Many of Propellerhead’s previous products have proven to be very popular in home studios and this new addition seems to be getting more attention than any previous product. The reason why I enjoyed this post was because I currently use software called Reason, which is Propellerheads most popular software. I think that this review was very detailed and it gave me a very clear idea of what to expect from this new package.

Other blogs followed:
http://mustech.net/
http://www.ubergizmo.com/

My comments on blogs:
1.http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2009/10/apples_new_imac_is_here.html?dsq=20792575#comment-20792575

2.http://www.ubergizmo.com/zoom.php?dir=2009/10/bose-quiet-comfort-15/&page=0

3.http://emusician.com/daw/propellerhead-software-record-macwin-1109/?dsq=21273274#comment-21273274

4.http://mustech.net/2009/10/23/microsoft-7-the-upgrade-play-by-play?dsq=21274208#comment-21274208

Kathryn Connelly (09005968)

2009-10-30T14:57:00.000-07:00

Student: Kathryn Connelly (09005968)
Chosen blog: Ubergizmo

The blog I chose to work from is Ubergizmo.

Ubergizmo is basically a blog that posts the latest gadgets and softwares etc.Ubergizmo decribes itself as an “edgy consumer electronics site.”

The founder of Ubergizmo is Hubert Nguyen. He is , as expected, obsessed with new gadgets and games. He is a retired NUIDIA engineer who programmed special-effects demos such as “Nalu”. Although Hubert is the founder there is a whole team at Ubergizmo.Eliane Fiolet is the co-founder and editor of Ubergizmo.com where she writes about web applications, design and usability. She owns a Corporate ID design business that helps companies create great brands. Prior to opening her own agency, Eliane worked for a top design firm, Minale Tattersfield Design Strategy, where she created identities for Fortune 500 companies. She also worked in the video game industry as a designer for an award-winning adventure game. Eliane holds a master degree in visual communication from the "Art Decoratifs" college. Edwin key is the associate producer He loves dabbling with new technology and gaming. After this there are two contributing editors Karsten Lemm and Ravit Lichteaberg. Ubergizmo also has an international team, as it is a successful blog across the globe. You can read Ubergizmo in six languages and is read in two hundred and twenty two countries.
Ubergizmo was voted one of the top one hundred blogs by PC Magazine.

The main topics that Ubergizmo focuses on are gadgets, new software and conferences. Within these topics they list the user interface practicality, design, pricing and competition. Also Ubergizmo post coverage from conferences like CES, CTIA, DEMO and GDC. The team describe themselves as gadget “geeks” therefore there are a lot of interesting and fun products posted up daily.

There was around 50-70 posts a day. Some short some long. It was quite difficult to read them all so I might have scrolled past a few to save time but most of the posts were quite interesting an short anyway so they were enjoyable to read.

The target audience is definitely men and women in the tech world, people who crave the latest gadgets, games and software’s and also business owners could benefit from reading this blog. The age profile would vary immensely. The page is laid out as a list page and the reader can simply scroll through the embedded artifacts like the pictures, links, videos and articles.

Unfortunately there were not that many comments on these pages. I reckon its because the readers have no question as Ubergizmo is very informative.

My favourite post is “Acousticom Sound Egg chair for CES 2010” .This post is about an Egg chair that has built in surround sound that was designed to isolate sound inside and out like wearing headphones. I thought it was very interesting and just plain fun.

These are my comments, all of witch posted on Ubergizmo:

read comment 1

read comment 2

read comment 3

read comment 4

Séadna Mcgillycuddy (09002065)

2009-10-30T14:39:00.000-07:00

Student:
Séadna Mcgillycuddy

ID Number:
09002065

Blog Followed:
http://www.podcomplex.com/blog/

Target Audience:
Musicians who use technology.

Author:
This blog is run by a Musician, Producer, Writer, Designer and Webmaster from County Offaly named Dan Foley. Dan also runs Nantiloop Recording Studios in Dublin, and produces music under the name “Canabrism”. He is joined by regular contributors.

The Podcomplex blog is a showcase for independent, high-quality, original music, video and multimedia and also provides guides to making music. The blog is regularly updated with music technology news, observations on the music industry, promotion strategies for independent artists and audio tips for beginners and veterans alike, focusing particularly on modern advancements in the digital music world. All posts are archived into easily accessible sections such as:
• DAW – Technical tips for Digital Audio Workstation users
• Live performance – Observations on live music implementations and related tips.
• Music Technology – New technologies that underpin modern music.
• Sales & Promotion – Tips for getting your music heard.
• Digital Music – How the advancements in media and technology effect the production and consumption of music.

The blog is laid out very well with links leading to the different categories down the left of the page. Below these are links to the archive, glossary and external sites. The main body of the blog is located in the centre of the page. Each post has a thumbnail picture to identify which category it belongs to which makes it easy for people to instantly find what is relevant to them rather than trawling through thousands of posts looking for something that takes their interest. Also a nice feature is a Twitter widget which allows you to see the author’s most recent “tweets” and a link allowing you to follow him on Twitter. Unlike many blogs, podcomplex is free from advertisements leading to a very appealing, simple and clutter free environment.

In the posts themselves, the language used is intelligent but not overly technical. As I said, because of it’s content, I feel that the blog is aimed at people who already have an understanding of some aspect of music technology but the author simplifies a lot of things, probably to make the ideas more accessible to people with little knowledge of the subject.

Favourite Post:
Synaesthesia Comes To Life
http://www.podcomplex.com/blog/synaesthesia-comes-to-life/

This post caught my eye because it’s a subject that I have been interested in for a long time. How can you not be interested seeing a headline like:
“For some people, the boundaries between senses can overlap – they see sounds as colours, or tastes and words intermingle. This condition is known
as synaesthesia…”
Synaesthesia is a condition whereby two or more senses are confused. People with this rare condition often perceive letters as having a particular colour, or can experience music not only as sound but also as texture and colour. However, according to the post, researchers are now using what they have learned about synaesthesia to devise ways of letting blind people see. This new method involves using a video camera to translate the immediate environment into sound waves which can be interpreted by the blind person, similar to the way that bats transverse their environment. I really like this post because the concepts involved tie in exactly with the areas I am interested in: audio technology, media technology and human/computer interaction. Science fiction becoming reality.

Other Blogs Followed:
http://createdigitalmusic.com
http://gizmodo.com

Comments Posted:
1. http://createdigitalmusic.com/2009/10/26/make-noise-with-circuits-handmade-music-austin-video-freebie-kit-more/#comments
2. http://createdigitalmusic.com/2009/10/19/the-sonic-manipulator-bizarre-wearable-musical-inventions-stolen-from-space-aliens/comment-page-1/#comment-987164
3. http://createdigitalmusic.com/2009/07/21/take-it-to-the-stage-reflections-on-live-laptop-music-from-artists/comment-page-1/#comment-987167
4. http://createdigitalmusic.com/2009/09/20/the-finger-reaktorkore-sampling-madness-from-tim-exile-but-more-than-that/comment-page-1/#comment-987169

Sitric Ó Cinnéide (09004873)

2009-10-30T12:51:00.001-07:00

Student: Sitric Ó Cinnéide (09004873)
Chosen blog: http://www.hometracked.com/
Chosen post: Auto-Tune Abuse in Pop Music - 10 Examples

Hometracked is a weblog with a clear purpose. That purpose is to serve the worlds independent musicians, who record and produce their own work, with factual, uncluttered and useful information about home recording and producing.

The blog is maintained by Des McKinne, an experienced recording engineer and producer in Toronto, Canada. All posts I have read were written by McKinne. It's safe to say then that this blog must take up an awful lot of his time, especially since he posts new fact-filled entries about 3 times every week. He is certainly the right man for the job as he is extremely dedicated and every single post is like a miniature article concerning an aspect of recording or producing.

The target audience is definitely "anyone" who wants to record or produce a piece of music, and the site layout makes it very easy for anyone to understand. The site is certainly not limited to the young folk messing around with their gadgets. It is sensible advice from trained and experienced producers open to all people.

The blog entries tend to focus on the "Tips and Techniques" that are most useful to the everyday home-recorder. Things such as normalizing, using delays for a better sound and tips on EQing vocals.

My favorite entry is: Auto-Tune Abuse in Pop Music - 10 Examples. I chose it because when i saw the title, i already agreed with the post before i read it. I think we have all experienced this overuse of auto-tune while listening to to the radio at some stage. It turns a useful production tool into a cheesy pop gimmick. The great thing about this and other posts is that in addition to the text, the author also puts up audio examples of the things he is explaining. It lets the reader understand the authors point much more clearly.

My Comments:
1. http://www.hometracked.com/2008/02/05/auto-tune-abuse-in-pop-music-10-examples/#comment-81739
2. http://stereogum.com/archives/animal_collective_love_animals_096601.html#comment-5643891
3. http://jamesfrankel.musiced.net/2009/10/28/my-new-role-with-atmi/#comment-53121
4. http://www.hometracked.com/2008/04/20/10-myths-about-normalization/#comment-81812

2009-10-30T12:49:00.000-07:00

Student: Donnchadh Ó Foghlú(09004352)
Chosen blog: The Official Google Blog(http://googleblog.blogspot.com/)
Chosen post: Went Walkabout. Brought back Google Wave(http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/went-walkabout-brought-back-google-wave.html)

The blog i have chosen for this assignment is googleblog.blogspot.(http://googleblog.blogspot.com/)

The main purpose of this site is to give insight to google users into products,tecnology and google culture.
The blog authors are generally google engineers and designers but there is no specific aouthor. All of the topics are related to google apps,tecnology ect. The most recent posts are based on the the latest applications such as google wave and google music search. The blog is regularly updated with new posts. There seems to be posts added every 2-3 days.

The blog is very well layed out and is easy to use with every post sorted by a label. There are also links on the sidebar to the most recent and popular posts. Each post contains several links but there is no option for commenting on any of the blogs.

The target audience for the blog would be all google users who would be interested in new and upcoming ideas,applications and technologies.

My favourite post : Went Walkabout. Brought back Google Wave(http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/went-walkabout-brought-back-google-wave.html)
It was posted by Lars Rasmussen, a Software Engineering Manager and one of the creators of the idea.

Google Wave is "a personal communication and collaboration tool" announced by Google at the Google I/O conference on May 27, 2009. It is a web-based service, computing platform, and communications protocol designed to merge e-mail, instant messaging, wikis, and social networking. It has a strong collaborative and real-time focus supported by extensions that can provide, for example, spelling/grammar checking, automated translation among 40 languages, and numerous other extensions.

I chose this post because i have a keen interest in this new product. It is highly talke about and although it has not yet been released it is said that it is goig to be the next big thing and a new direction for technology and the internet. I personally think it will have a huge affect on how internet communication evolves in the future.

2009-10-30T12:36:00.001-07:00

Student: (name and number) Alison Griffiths 09005088
Chosen blog: (title and URL)PodComplex Music Technology-http://www.blogcatalog.com/blog/podcomplex-music-technology
Chosen post: (title and URL)http://www.podcomplex.com/blog/vinyl-pressing/

The blog I chose to write about for this assignment was a music technology blog by PodComplex. I found it very interesting as it covered many aspects of music that i wouldn’t have nescessarily considered before. They’re topics ranged from Plagiarism, Electric Picnic, The new methods of releasing music, Ipods to The highest and lowest frequencies of the human voice. Their posts were very frequent even for the most commited blogger it can be hard to find time to blog more than weekly, but PodComplex certainly maintained that if not more. Subjects varied considerably as music technology news changed. They often had posts about the latest software available, recording news and recent gigs. Having said that there was always the dedicated theme of Music apparent in every post.
In my opinion the target audience of this blog would be people similar to myself. Music technology students, music fanatics or people in the industry. Their blog really does cover an immense amount of information relavent to all those with an interest in the Irish music scene and technology alike. Whether you were looking for a review on a recent gig or looking to upgrade your Ipod PodComplex seems to cover it all!
The language is clear and technical as would be aspected from a blog of this genre. It states the facts needed to be known yet isn’t laced with the descriptive language that some blogs of other subjects may be. They balance the lack of description by including images of the hardware and software respectively . Therefore the language and the graphics combined give the reader a clear view of whatever subject is covered. For example in their blog of “Electric Picnic” there wasn’t a huge amount of text that would be expected in a review of this kind but the atmosphere and experience of the festival was clearly conveyed graphically in the quantity of photographs.
In relation to the embedded artefacts there was no lack of video applications displaying how the newest of technology works. I found this very effective, once again they didn’t go overboard on the text explanations but through “You Tube” etc they made it very clear how, for example the new “appleton controller” works or how to make music on a touchscreen interface based program.
Interaction with this blog is a major disadvantage, it is possible to comment on the blog in general but when I went to do so it was very unclear how to retrieve what you had said. I couldn’t understand how to access other peoples opinions of the differnet posts and even when there was a chance to comment about the blog as a whole it wasn’t possible to locate what others had said.
My favourite post by PodComplex was they’re thoughts about how vinyl is making a comeback to the music industry. The first video showed footage from the early days of vinyl explaining what a miracle it was to the generation. It explained exactly how the technical process took place and gave samples of the earliest recordings. They talked about one of the last vinyl pressing factories in the world, it’s based in Nashville where they produce thousands of records every 8 hours! They then included another video which explained how the factory in Nashville now produce vinyl for DJs , the more modern use for it. This really interested me because in my personal opinion vinyl is making a comeback. Consumers are tired of buying music online and not recieving hardcopies of their purchase. There are no leaflets of song lyrics to look through, no photographs of the band and most of all that old record smell that can only be found on vinyl is well and truely lost to the consumers of 2009! This has caused an increase in vinyl sales and many bands are beginning to release they’re albums on record aswell as online.
In summary I find PodComplex’s blog to be very informative and useful to a music technology student such as myself. As well as an interesting read for the general public.

My comments on blogs:
http://www.blogcatalog.com/blogs/podcomplex-music-technology.html#comment_706123

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=58854586&blogId=50599286

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=70699583&blogId=510872665

http://www.futuremusic.co.uk/page/futuremusic?entry=fm220_in_the_studio

2009-10-30T12:36:00.000-07:00

Student: Chris O' Grady (09006061)
Chosen blog: (CrunchGear http://www.crunchgear.com/)
Chosen post: (http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/10/27/rock-music-is-dead-and-all-the-rock-band-in-the-world-wont-save-it/#comment-1124241)

- The blog I have chosen was founded by Michael Arrington. The blog covers many things such as the latest gadgets and computer hardware. I was impressed by the regularity of posts, with many new blogs being posted everyday. Of course, not all the blogs generate a huge response, but for the most part a lot of activity takes place here. With many different people contributing, there's always something new to read up on.
- In my opinion, the target audience is anyone with an interest in the latest news in technology (computer games, phones, gadgets etc.) Perhaps a slightly more mature audience though, as the majority of comments are from people with a lot of knowledge in the field.
- The language used isn't complicated, and I love that. Everything is said in simple terms, which makes it very easy to get involved. It's impossible to find something interesting if it's all nonsense and jargon to you, which is why I really enjoyed the blogs that are posted here. The atmosphere is generally good, and people can voice their opinions without having to worry about sounding stupid.
- The layout was also very accessible. The titles of all the latest posts are listed, usually accompanied with a picture and an interesting caption. It's also very easy to find the previous blogs you visited again. I have no complaints about it.
- My favourite post was "Rock music is dead, and all the Rock Band in the world won't save it". Although I strongly disagree with that statement, I still found this blog to be my favourite read. I understand what point the author Nicholas Deleon was trying to make, but I don't think he argued his case that well. I'm a gamer myself, and Rock Band is something I quite enjoy, so I found it nice to see how many others felt he was wrong too. This blog also generated quite a response in comparison to many of the other ones. This blog combined my interest in music, games and gadgets which is why I enjoyed reading it and taking part in the discussion.

My comments on blogs:
Comment 1

Comment 2

Comment 3

Comment 4

David O Brien 09005620

2009-10-30T12:18:00.001-07:00

David O Brien 09005620

The blog I chose for the assignment is this one:

Link Here

This blog, 'thestereobus' is a blog written and moderated by producer Dan Conner. Dan keeps busy, updating the blog once daily. The blog offers tips and techniques to the world of Digital Audio Recording/Mixing/Mastering. The blog does not become repetitive as the topics approached are broad. One topic could be on compressing acoustic guitars and a following post could be about placing speakers in your mixing room. Dan's posts are consistently good, without too much material to stir skepticism, and for argument to take place, he has facilitated us with a comments section at the end of each topic. The comments section is a good source of a few more audio enthusiast's take on the topic posted and makes for good reading.

The blog is written half and half technical jargon and easily understood simple text. Much like an episode of BBC's 'Top Gear' both the motoring enthusiast and the casual joe soap can enjoy watching the programme.

My chosen topic is from this blog, where the focus is on Spectum and Phase Analysis using Plugins in your DAW.

I like the author's approach here, he begins by introducing these tools with a word of caution, not use them unless you can hear a problem already, as you might not see what you expect. I like the line:
"The people who buy your track are going to do an awful lot more listening to it than looking at it!"
The topic appealed to me because I often use these tools myself and having read that post I feel next time I crack out the spectrum analyzer I'll have a more comfortable time using it to bring out the best in a mix.

The topic can be found:
Here

Links to my 4 posts. (3 of which are waiting moderation...as I wait impatiently!)

Link1

Link2

Link3

Link4

(0883018 James O Keeffe)

2009-10-30T11:34:00.000-07:00

Student: (James O Keeffe)
Chosen blog: (Irish current politics and affairs http://www.irishelection.com/)
Chosen post: (Murder Rate and http://www.irishelection.com/2009/10/murder-rate/#comment-123658)
I choose the blog called IRISH ELECTION I like this blog because
i see article's that i am really passionate about reading which up to a few years ago i didn't care about i never voted or anything like that until the day the Irish people
Were made vote again on the Nice treaty in 2002 it felt like i was living in Cuba
after hearing the government say that the No the Irish people had just voted was not
Good enough we had to vote again,it drove me mad but also opened my eyes and from
time to time i liked the odd rant at our commie government...this looked like a good place to read and chat about up to date politics in the country...
their were various authors on the blog and had about 22 post a week and about 32 subscribers..........
The post i choose is titled Murder Rate and to be honest i didn't find what i was reading that shocking as the media constantly talk about it to scare people if we didn't have to live in fear their be a lot less crime and when i say Fear i don't mean Fear for your life i mean Fear for your Job
Fear for your health etc..This post also outlines the harsh reality of life in Ireland is
"One hardly ever wakes up these days without RTE reporting from some part of the country about somebody being murdered, killed or the subject of manslaughter " comment from TD Joan Bruton in the Dail.

This is life in Ireland and even with such a high Murder Rate we live here and not in A Poverty Stricken country or even a country ravaged by war , imagine the Murder Rate in Iraq on both sides of the war we should count ourselves lucky!

My comments on blogs:
Wouldn't it make Bertie sick
http://www.irishelection.com/2009/10/wouldnt-it-make-bertie-sick-if/#comment-123655
Are you afraid yet
http://www.irishelection.com/2009/07/are-you-afraid-yet/#comment-123656
Rural Urban Divide
http://www.irishelection.com/2009/10/rural-urban-divide/#comment-123657
Murder Rate
http://www.irishelection.com/2009/10/murder-rate/#comment-123658

2009-10-30T10:50:00.000-07:00

Student: (daniel bride)
Chosen blog: ( Ubergizmo http://www.ubergizmo.com)
Chosen post: (WXHMD http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2009/10/wxhmd_is_linux-powered.html)

My comments on blogs:
The blog I have chosen to follow is called UberGizmo. It appears to collect articles from various authors depending on the posts such as John Maushammer.
The main topics are news posts relating to audio, computers, gaming, new digital concepts and new gadgets that are available or coming soon to the consumer markets.
The posts are quite frequent with about 20-30 posts a day.I think that this is due to the fact that it gets its posts from many different users.
I believe the target audience to be anyone who is interested in finding out about new gagets and concepts relating to the digital media sector.
The language used in these posts is somewhat journalistic but also informal enough to some personality. It reminds me of the gaget review pages in mens magazines such as FHM etc.
The page layout is quite easy to view, with a main headline at the head of the page. This is usually followed by an embedded Image/picture relating to the posts subject matter. Then there is the post which is usually less than 200 words, it then usually has a permalink to the original blog.
The main drawback is the amount of space given to advertisments. The ads can sometime take up as much space as the post itself and can become disruptive as they are usually place between the main body and the comments button.
My favourite post on this blog is
http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2009/10/wxhmd_is_linux-powered.html
It describes a new computer that is so small that it is worn on the face like sun glasses. It runs on Linux and it seems that it is also 3d capable.
COMMENT 1: http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2009/10/apple_wireless_headset_patent.htm
COMMENT 2:http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2009/10/vstone810_robot.html?dsq=21345075#comment-21345075
COMMENT 3:http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2009/10/nokia_storyplay_targets_kids.html?
COMMENT 4:http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2009/10/guitar_hero_played_without_guitars.html?dsq=21347101#comment-21347101

Myles O'Callaghan (09004044)

2009-10-30T10:24:00.000-07:00

Student: Myles O’Callaghan (09004044)
Chosen blog: Music Production Tips & Techniques
Chosen post: Stereo Spread - Timbaland Style

This blog can be found at:
www.modernbeats.com

- The blog I have chosen was started by Peter Kirn. It aims to keep people up to date with advances in technology with respect, in particular, to music technology and music production. It is a reasonably busy blog, with on average, a blog a day as there are currently many other contributors to it.
- It seems to me that the target audience for this blog is home producers and people producing semi-professionally.

- The blog itself doesn‘t seem to have any strict form or layout but there are regularly hardware and software reviews, production tips, interviews with well known producers and discussions between amateur home producers. The “News” and “Features” sections are most active.
- The thing I liked most about this blog is that it is very easy to read. The vast majority of the posts are written in layman’s terms meaning that even those who are not that familiar with some of the more high-spec production programs can understand the idea or concept behind the post. Many of the posts are also accompanied by a link, youtube video or picture which gives a greater insight into the topic being discussed.

- My favourite post in this blog was probably the post on Timbaland’s stereo spread. The post was made by a member of the Hit Talk staff and breaks down the process behind the panning in many of Timbaland’s produced tracks such as “Bounce”. It explains how he uses the Ensoniq ASR-10 which allows him to work with two copies of one sample. They are panned left and right respectively and then a stereo image is created by delaying one in respect to the other. I have never been a fan of the genre on music typically produced by Timbaland, however it was very interesting to get an insight into how he works in studio and to test the techniques he uses when, in this case, he creates a stereo spread for his tracks.

My comments on blogs:
Comment 1: Mastering Sound (Awaiting Moderation)
Comment 2: Essential Hip Hop Rhythms
Comment 3: Propellerhead Software Record

2009-10-30T08:42:00.000-07:00

Student: (Sean McKennedy 09005189)
Chosen blog: (Gaming Blog:Game On http://www.gamingblog.org/)

This blog was written by, as far as i can see, an anonymous blogger.
I do not see why he would want to keep his identity secret because there is no harmfull content in this blog.

the topics on this blog do not vary that much, the main ones being release notes on video games, but one or two posts are about general technology.My favourite one being about the new "Robo-cop visors for the modern police man".

Unfortunately the blog has stopped being updated since june of this year, but before that it was very regularly updated, having maybe 3 or 4 posts per day.

the target audience of this blog was obviously a more advanced gamer.The language used in the posts we're very technical and the terms would only be understood by a young adult or adult. Therefore this is not a childrens game blog!

Almost every post had a video trailer for the game it was reviewing embedded.
a few of the posts we're about footage "Leaks" so these videos would not play.
but otherwise it was kept very well informed with back up information by videos.

there were very few comments on the posts, mostly one or two if any at all.
the comments were generally saying thank you for the information.

My comments on blogs:

Harold Miller (09001662)

2009-10-30T08:03:00.000-07:00

Student: Harold Miller (09001662)
Chosen blog: Digital Media Minute
Chosen post: Good GUI Design

The blog that I chose is called Digital Media Minute. The author of the blog remains mostly anonymous for unknown reasons, possibly to avoid too much backlash from any controversial statements made. The only hint of who the authors are come from the comments where only their first names appear such as “Tom.” I assume that there are also multiple authors working on this because the writing style does seem to differ often and also because the blog is updated often; usually once a day.

The topics are varied, but mostly cover web and software development. They provide tips and programming guides on such things as HTML, JavaScript, Ruby, and MySQL. They also cover how these technologies influence the individual user and society as a whole.

The audience that the blog is trying to attract is obviously the software and web developers and to an extent the general user. The reason why I would say that it is targeted more towards professionals is that some of the language used can be technical at times, and I doubt most of the general populace would want a link to a PHP programming guide. However there are many posts that cater towards the average person. There are many reviews on certain products such as iPhone apps.

The comments sections of the blogs are pretty barren. For most of the posts there are no comments, but on a few there are one or two. A couple of them seem to come from other bloggers and on occasion one of the authors will comment back.
The page layout is pretty standard. Up top they have the links to the other parts of the site such as Home and the Archive. Also there are a couple graphics but nothing too fancy. Then below that is where the posts are and after each post there is the comments section.

My favorite post is the Good GUI Design post. I liked this post the most because it deals in a subject that I am very interested in. It talks about the group 10GUI and their approach to the next generation of desktop interaction. It deals with how they are working to move past the traditional mouse design and move into a multi-touch design. It also moves on to how the software is affected by this. They talk about con10uum which is how they see the way application windows on a desktop should be arranged. There is also a video embedded that details their work. It is a very interesting video and I can’t wait until I get my chance to test out this new technology.

My comments on blogs:
http://www.digitalmediaminute.com/article/4833/tim-oreilly-on-the-future-of-books/comment-page-1#comment-647837
http://insidedigitalmedia.com/what-if-all-video-were-on-the-internet/comment-page-1/#comment-5360
http://www.digitalmediaminute.com/article/4901/mozilla-raindrop/comment-page-1#comment-647838
http://www.digitalmediaminute.com/article/4875/free-programming-related-ebooks/comment-page-1#comment-647839

2009-10-30T07:22:00.000-07:00

Student: Niamh Corkery(09004131)
Chosen blog: (Create Digital Music)
Chosen post: (Going Mobile:Nintendo DS-10 Comes to North America)

Essay:
Over the course of the last 3 weeks we were give the task to follow 3 Blogs that were of interest to me and in the final week i had to pick the one Blog i liked the most.
The three blogs I followed were;
1. www.createdigitalmusic.com
2. www.musictech.net
3. www.techcrunch.com
All of these Blogs were interesting to follow however I never really understood the word Blogs and the purpose for them therefore I had to pay particular attention to them and the comments of the public. At first this was hard to do and I began to lose interest however over the course of the three weeks there was one that stood out the most and that was the one that I chose to write about.
1.www.createdigitalmusic.com

Peter Kirn who is a composer/musician, media artist, and educator and technology journalist and is the creator of this Blog. Set up in 2005, the aim of this blog was to inform musicians of all the latest in Music and Games Technology.
While being displayed as a Blog, this is also seen as an online magazine, which was published the same year as when the Blog, 2005.
This magazine is only for sale in America
(“Creating Digital Music”)
The magazine helps people make the most of Digital Music on Apple Mac and Window’s.

This Blogs talks about the technical devices of the 21st Century e.g.; “Apple I-Phone”, “Software Synthesizers”, “Drum Machines”, “Camera’s” and the list goes on. This is of benefit to the modern musicians because it keeps them informed of new devices on the market and the opinions of professionals are also available!
This Blog is updated on a daily basis with almost 3 topics a day to talk about.
Most of the topics vary from day to day from talking about the “Visionsonic Festival Streaming Live” to “ Drum Machines have no soul”.

The target audience is clearly towards Musicians and those who have an interest in Music Technology, Digital Music and modern equipment.

This blog is also very likeable because the language contained within it is very much so simple apart from the few technical words that not all music people would understand e.g.; “hacks”, “mods”,”nano”.
Another likeable feature of this blog is the layout.

Each topic is firstly dated in red; they each contain a heading in bold writing and my favourite feature is that each topic will either contain pictures of the subject being discussed or else a youtube video is linked to the topic to watch. One video that I liked was “Kassen” this is a 2-minute clip on a Dj displaying some of his work through turntables and his idea to reverse one of the turntables to create a new sound, it is very interesting.
One of the main features with blogs is the interaction between the creator of the blog and his/her audience. This is created through comments to which the viewer follows the topics being displayed by the creator in this case Peter Kirn and they leave their views to Peter would does respond to his audience. Here is a sample of a typical conversation.

Comment by a viewer.

I agree that Instrumentalism, or even instrumentism, seems to get towards a distinction that’s useful; it has to do with identifying a particular mode of approaching a device. It doesn’t say anything about how that device works, directly. Maybe the value of ‘controllerism’, although I’m not very keen on the term, is to draw attention to those things that make a controller quite a different proposition than an ‘instrument’ in the traditional sense; with a controller you’re dealing with layers of abstraction that are absent with an Instrument (capital I). It’s arguable that this difference is significant enough to justify having a dedicated term for describing the kind of interaction that happens when you use devices like joysticks for music.

Peter’s response
Yes, it’s one of those cases in which I’m not fond of the term but also don’t have a good alternative. (Doh.) “Electronic music” isn’t a terribly descriptive term, either. “Live PA” always makes me imagine a big speaker, sitting alone onstage in a spotlight and people waiting for it to do something. I guess the question I have about controllerism is whether it’s possible to have live digital music without using some sort of controller to moderate what’s happening. Okay, we know it’s “possible” because we’ve seen people do the “push play” style of performance — but then, maybe there’s something more that we can say beyond people using controllers? And for that matter, I have some people use the laptop – yes, even the qwerty keyboard and trackpad – deftly and creatively. It’s a failure of terminology, but rather an interesting one, at least.

Niamh Corkery 1st Year MMPT (09004131)

2009-10-30T07:15:00.000-07:00

Student: Sean Mc Keown (09005138)
Chosen Blog: Synthtopia
Chosen Post: "New Novation Launchpad - The $199 Ableton Live Controller"

Synthtopia is a music technology blog published by, web analyst, James Lewin. This is a blog devoted to electronic music, which unlike other blogs which focus on one particular sub-genre, Synthopia covers a wide range of music, all of which falls under "Electronic Music". This Blog covers: articles, artists, free music, news and reviews (of both music and equipment). This blog is also available to follow through RSS news feeds.

The blog is posted to quite regularly with an average of 13 daily, or about 93 posts weekly. These posts generally feature some form of media such as images, audio and/or video which is vital for this type of blog, focusing on music. Posting to the blog varies over time as it is published by only one blogger.
As we can see, in the post graph (left), posting is marked in blue and reading is marked in orange. Posting peaks at approx. 4 AM (GMT) as Lewis is situated in America. This suggests he generally posts in the evenings, after work.

Synthtopia has quite a large target audience as it focuses on all aspects of electronic music, and is not specific to any particular sub-genre. This tends to be an audience of quite advanced musicians due to the language used and technical qualities of the posts. This is clearly seen as Google Reader, a subscription based news reader shows 1,897 subscribed, whereas the internationally renowned music magazine DJMag blog has a mere 105 subscribers.

The language used in these posts is generally quite sophisticated and technical, frequently using abbreviations such as "VST", meaning Virtual Studio Technology,
DAW, meaning Digital Audio Workststion, MIDI, meaning Musical Instrument Digital Interface and using terms associated with music production such as "Synthesis" and "Oscillation". While this is not the most complicated language we might see, it is certanly not aimed at the novice musican but a more advanced audience as stated earlier.

The page layout of posts is quite simple. At the top of the page, we see the website logo, blog title and date, followed by the main body of the post, any relevant links, related posts and comments. There is also a short section for subscribing, sending a post to a friend etc. The main body of the post consists of any relevant audio, video and images followed by a description and any hyperlinks relevant to the post. Next is the related posts section and a space containing post tags, for easier searching and archiving. This is followed by a share section, allowing users to tweet the blog entry, post to facebook etc. Along the sides of the page we see a topics, popular tags, search and recent activity section, All in all this is a simple blog layout but contains all the information, links etc. a viewer could want in a very user friendly manner.

The system used for posting comments and recieving feedback on this site is simply the easiest and most informative system on the web. Registered users can login using their IntenseDebate, Twitter or OpenID account, allowing them to personalise their account and keep track of comments, replies and blogs. Unregistered users can also comment as a guest, and by enetring their e-mail address also recieve feedback on comments and replies. When commenting readers can also embed videos and links.

Chosen Post: Novation Launchpad

Instantly my attention was grabbed by this post due to the title "New Novation LaunchPad – The $199 Ableton Live Controller". Ableton Live is a innovative industry standard software DAW, to record music, mix tracks, DJ and use VST instruments to create MIDI music tracks. Yet doing so much on a computer with just a mouse and keyboard is extremely tedious if not impossible. The Novation LaunchPad enables the user to physically trigger clips and adjust parameters in real-time, creating a physical link between software and end-user, and providing feedback through the lit up clip matrix. The LaunchPad can also be used to input notes and create clips. This post features several videos and a detailed description of the LaunchPad effortlessly providing an in-depth, concise, informative review of something so advanced.

Blog Comments:

Please note all comments are submitted under the username "smck99"

1. Synthtopia.com - New Novation LaunchPad – The $199 Ableton Live Controller
2. Synthtopia.com - Free Mellotron Software Synthesizer For PCs
3. CreateDigitalMusic.com - ToneSynth DS
4. Synthtopia.com - The Autonomous Bassline Generator

Thanks for reading... Subscribe!

2009-10-30T05:13:00.000-07:00

Student: Harry van Haaren (09005201)
Chosen blog: Create Digital Music
Chosen post: Wherein the Wii Waggle is Wanted

The blog I chose for this assignment is the blog found at
http://www.createdigitalmusic.com

The blog was setup by Peter Kirn to inform people of the technological advances made in relation to music technology and digital art. At present many co-authors contribute to the blog, this makes it quite a busy blog, where there are about 2 posts made each day.

The topics covered by the author are quite varied, however they all relate in some way to creating digital music or technologies that can be applied to making sounds.

The main focus of this blog is to bring the newest technologies to the attention of the casual digital artist, presenting them with new innovative products and interesting interviews.

The blog is split into many parts, some dedicated to Hardware Reviews, others to Software,
some even to a discussion forum. The main parts are the News and Feature sections.

The blog is written in such a style that everybody with a slight interest in digital music or media will understand the article. Most posts include at least on photograph of the articles attention, and most have a youtube video embedded which provides a live example of the item in the article.

Each blog post has a comments section, and most technology/innovation based posts have at least 20 or so comments. This discussion after the article often provides as interesting a read as the article itself, as it voices the views of many different people and their perspective usually provides new food for thought.

My favorite post in this blog would have to be this post because I have used a WiiMote controller with music programs, and I find the connection between a physical device, ie: "Instrument" and the sonic effect of it quite interesting. The fact that a controller and its effect is totally undefined means that one (with some creativity) can patch any sound to any input, and thus create a unique and preveiously non-existent link between action and sound. Another reason for my choosing this particular post is that it has inspired a lot of discussion, to which I contributed my own thoughts. In this discussion, many people offered thier opinion on the links between live performance, controllers & controller-ism, and instrumentism, from which I took new insight to what is possible with controllers these days!

My comments on blogs:
Comment 1: Create Digital Music, Conrtollers
Comment 2: Twitter & Google Wave
Comment 3: Google groups is Dead
Comment 4: Guitarix

Turlough O'Shea (09004486)

2009-10-30T04:45:00.000-07:00

Student: Turlough O'Shea (09004486)
Chosen Blog: himynameisMARK

The blog that I have chosen to review is himynameisMARK. himynameisMARK is a blog by Mark Hoppus. Mark Hoppus is an artist and producer and also has a great interest in music technology. He is very experienced, and often utilises some music technology in his live performances. He is known best for playing bass in the American bands Blink 182 and +44, but has also produced for a number of bands including New Found Glory and Motion City Soundtrack. He is always striving to please his fans, and design, or come up with new devices.

Some of his posts include pictures from Blink 182's tour, remixes of songs, mash ups of songs, new music technology and interesting news in general. Most of his post would be of photos, or tour news, however, there are many video and technology posts. Some posts include ideas he's had for new equipment, and new equipment he's just acquired.

himynameisMARK's post's aren't the most frequent. He could go about a week without a post, and then have a few in the one day. looking back at his archived posts, I've discovered that the volume of his posts vary. Sometimes there could be posts every day for a few weeks, and then suddenly no posts for a week. I have received 12 posts from himynameisMARK. This was many more posts than Music Technology | News, Multimedia Production and Computer Music Guide, I have received 5 posts in my google reader from Music Technology | News, Multimedia Production and Computer Music Guide. I received these posts every few days.

I would think the chosen audience would range from about 12 to 30 year old. IO think the desired audience would be Blink 182 fans, +44 fans, people interested in music technology and anyone looking for something interesting. The language used is quite simple. There wasn't anything that i wasn't able to understand, with the exception of a few new terms. The design of this blog was quite interesting. There were many embedded videos, pictures and links in some of the posts. To select archived posts, you clicked on the month of the post you wanted. There are many interesting graphics along the sides and on the header of the page. There is also an external Twitter embedded in the side of the page. There is a blog roll of all other similar blogs along the side of the page.

Chosen Post: the Octopus Ears

My favourite post from the blog himynameisMARK is called "the Octopus Ears". The post is about in ear monitors. these in ear monitors are quite good, and have octopus logo's on them. Mark talks about comparing them to his old in ear monitors. He also compares them to his studio headphones. Unfortunately I do not think that Mark posted the results of his comparisons.

My Comments on Blogs:

Octopus flash drives

In ear monitors

+44 docking stations

How Twitter started

2009-10-30T04:28:00.000-07:00

Student: Stephen Savage (09004492)
Chosen blog: Gizmodo.
Chosen post: Ten Really Dumb Old Inventions and Their Really Dumb Modern Counterparts
http://gizmodo.com/5387273/ten-really-dumb-old-inventions-and-their-really-dumb-modern-counterparts

It is a collective blog and therefore has many authors such as Brian Lam, Jason Chen, Wilson Rothman and Jesus Diaz.
Anything and everything to do with gadgets. iPhone apps, Nintendo’s dropping profits, Windows 7, a couple who blogged while capturing pirates, pointless add-ons to pointless gaming systems, there is a very wide array of topics being talked about.

The blog is updated very frequently anywhere from 40 to 50 posts daily. I think that this is simply too much. It’s hard to find the time to read that many posts in a day so you have to just scan over the headings and the pictures and you could miss out on something really interesting because you’re not paying enough attention. Its also very off putting if you don’t get to check your reader for a few days and when you do it has upwards of 100 new posts from one blog alone.

The target audience is anyone with an interest in gaming, cool new gadgets or computing.

In every post there is either a picture or video. The layout of the site is simple. The picture or video is displayed to the left of the writing and if you click on this you get the full post. The side bar on the left has the name and email address of every author making it easy to get in contact with the authors.

I like this post the most because we seem to think now a days that we are somehow smarter than previous generations. That because we are more advanced technologically, we are smarter than previous generations. We forget that without previous generations work and research, we would still be where they were. Also it points out how many pointless things are made each year, but without these eccentrics we would have no progress.

My comments on blogs:
http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2009/10/wink_glasses_to_keep_those_eyeballs_well_lubricated.html#comments
http://www.skinnermike.com/beatstevie/2009/09/polish-queuing.html
I could not comment on my chosen blog as an audition process is in effect.

Student: (Kenneth Baker and 0732281)

2009-10-30T03:13:00.000-07:00

Student: (Kenneth Baker and 0732281)
Chosen blog: (Web Designer Depot and http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/)

I have chosen this blog because it blogs about topics that interest me. The blog is a joint effort and collaboration between leading designers around the world which contribute a wealth of expertise on all fields of design, such as coding, typography, Photoshop tutorials and more for web & graphic design. The main author seem to be anonymous but can be contacted by e-mail. There is a new post every 1-2 days. The target audience seems to be web & graphic designers or people interested in design. The blog itself is very pleasing on the eyes. It is a popular blog, on a post that was a day old, there was already 11 posts.

My favorite post is "To School or Not to School" It is a post that I can relate to and shows the advantages and disadvantages but overall it favored "to school". I left a comment on this post http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/10/to-school-or-not-to-school/#comment-555178

Another post is about Systematizing the Graphic Design Process. It gives good advice on a method to carry out graphic design http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/10/systematizing-the-graphic-design-process/#comment-555179 Again I commented on this post.

Other comments

3) http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2008/12/100-websites-with-outstanding-artistic-design/#comment-555217

4) http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/10/the-dazzling-digital-art-of-archan-nair/#comment-555216

Other blogs, that I have followed have included Laughing Lion Design, (http://laughingliondesign.net/blog/) which is an Irish Graphic Design Company from Westmeath, It is a very entraining blog with interesting post about funny images of graphic design like the tube map in london being design using sony earphones.

Another Chosen blog: (Web Designer Blog and http://www.webdesignermag.co.uk/) comes from my favorite magazine, Web Designer.

2009-10-29T17:26:00.000-07:00

Student: (Sofia Engdahl 09002763)
Chosen blog: (Hypebot.com)
Chosen post: (Advice For Musicians In 140 Characters Or Less)

The main author seem to be anonymous, but is reachable through email. It is a team of people who are making the blog. There are also several different guest authors.

The topics are as its title says about music, technology and the new music business. For example it takes up news about Spotify, Myspace, Twitter, Facebook and Google Music. There seem to be an ongoing discussion, especially among the guest authors who often are practicing musicians or music workers, about the future of the music industry. They talk about how the new forms of distribution of music effect the people who has made it. Examples of topics are: ”Is Google Music Search A Game Changer?", "5 New Tech Trends You Can't Afford To Ignore"
and "MySpace Music Gets A Major Upgrade".

The blog publishes about 5 to 10 posts per day. With that frequency, the blog is capable of covering most of the things that happens around the world in this field.

The target audience is anyone interested in news about these topics; the music industry with main focus on the digital distribution of it.

The language used is English and it has a journalistic tone, it's not personal but at the same time not completely academic. The main pages posts try to appear objective, while the guest authors posts are definitely not, they are more like chronicles, written from a personal view. The posts are usually pretty short and easily read.

The page layout looks sterile. There are not many adverts and the coloures and fonts are consequent and simple which makes it stylistically pure. The graphic doesn't take the focus from the text. There are a few images, and if there is a connection to the topic there is sometimes videos published.

There are are a couple of comments, and you can easily find the most recent ones in a list on the top of the main page. This also makes it easy to see answers to your own comments or directly go to a specific comment, instead of first finding a post. This is good as the frequent flow of new posts makes it easy to loose track of older ones further down on the page.

My favourite post, or one that I find most interesting is this called ”Advice For Musicians In 140 Characters Or Less”.
Before, they have asked the blogs twitter-followers to give their best advise to musicians, just as the title suggests. Using Twitoaster, ”a free online utility that threads and archives twitter conversations, bringing context and adding stats to your Twitter communications”, they summoned the result and showes some of the comments in the blog. Also, people have made new additions by commenting the blog. Its interesting how they make their readers interact, both in the blog itslf but also using twitter, and they respond by publishing the result. There is a spiral of communication going on, they show that they are interested in communicating with their readers.

My comments on blogs:
1. http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2009/10/facebook-and-myspace-in-talks-to-connect.html#comment-6a00d83451b36c69e20120a632fb10970b
2. http://justanother24hours.com/media/readers-should-fund-online-media-and-that-includes-journalism-and-blogs/comment-page-1/#comment-9993
3. http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2009/10/the-unoffical-hypebot-reading-list.html#comment-6a00d83451b36c69e20120a6907875970c
4. one of my comments have still to be accepted by the moderator.

2009-10-29T15:55:00.000-07:00

Student: Joanne Tobin (09001473)
Blogs Followed: Open Eye Photography Blog http://open-eye-photography.blogspot.com/ Kanye’s Blog http://www.kanyeuniversecity.com/blog/
Before Blogs There Was Graffiti http://www.onlivingbylearning.com/2009/03/07/before-blogs-there-was-graffiti/

Chosen Blog: Ethan Meleg Nature Photography http://ethanmeleg.blogspot.com/
Chosen Post: Point Pelee National Park & Holiday Beach Conservation Area http://www.ethanmeleg.blogspot.com/2009/10/point-pelee-national-park-holiday-beach.html

Author:
Ethan Meleg is a freelance outdoor photographer from Ontario, Canada. This blog is his photos and adventures from a road trip around North America in a camper van…very brave! It also gives link to his website which is how I found it – www.EthanMeleg.com

Target Audience: The target audience seems to be anyone with an interest in outdoor photography and or him as an artist.

Language Used: The language used throughout is very straightforward conversational, quite casual with some humour as it is his blog about a road trip. There is always an informative caption, usually regarding the location, under each shot which is a gem.

Interaction: Generally they are just his posts roughly every 2/3 days however it does run to a week in parts if he has been busy either uploading/ backing up his ever growing amazing catalogue. Then there are comments from like minded or maybe aspiring photographers or even just his own followers which is quite varied. The fact that each shot has the tech explanation underneath means that he has answered any possible questions regarding how it was achieved before you even ask, very handy.

Chosen Post and Why? I chose the Point Pelee National Park & Holiday Beach Conservation Area as it was almost the end of a journey before his next adventure. He was visiting his mom still took some great shots in her yard! He goes through storing all of his photos and most importantly how he manipulated the image to produce one of my all time favourite shots. These tips are invaluable to anyone who actually wants to further their skill and also the listing equipment and settings means that if you were to attempt to recreate any such effects the trial and error time consuming factor is greatly reduced so nothing is missed.

Comments Left:
Link to comments: http://ethanmeleg.blogspot.com/2009/10/full-year-on-road.html?showComment=1256850796248#c6118639016594222658

http://ethanmeleg.blogspot.com/2009/10/point-pelee-national-park-holiday-beach.html?showComment=1256851570636#c5406659482393764011

Other Blog: http://www.onlivingbylearning.com/2009/03/07/before-blogs-there-was-graffiti/
Comment: http://www.onlivingbylearning.com/2009/03/07/before-blogs-there-was-graffiti/comment-page-1/#comment-2247

2009-10-29T15:35:00.000-07:00

Student: Hanna Arfvelin 09002099 (Erasmus student)
Chosen blog: New Art - http://new-art.blogspot.com/
Chosen post: 'Audience' - http://new-art.blogspot.com/2009/10/its-all-about-you.html

I have been following three digital media blogs with their mainly focus on digital art. Although, the one I found mostly interesting and which gave me a big insight of the world of digital art is http://new-art.blogspot.com/. It’s created by VV01, a guy who lives in Warsaw, Poland. In his profile it’s says that he works with art and he also tells the reader about his interests etc. He has been on blogger.com since 2005 and he has about 19 000 profile views so far. His main categories are digital art, music, design, photo and painting. His visual presentations are mostly as photographs, digital and non digital art and music videos and painted images. This graphics are combined with text descriptions. He writes about well-known artiest such as painters and digital media creators and he publish posts about their latest projects and videos etc. But he also seems to be very interested in to lift up unknown people that have created digital pieces.

In his posts, VV01 ask questions to his readers and I assume it’s because he wants to start discussion threads. His use of language in his posts is often on a philosophical level, sometimes they actually can be mistaken for poems, I have also noticed that the readers comment in the same philosophical way. But he does not only publish videos or pictures that he is just impressed of, he also often have a critical discussion about the subject, what it does for the audience and sometimes he compares the present time with the historical days.

It seems like VV01 posts pictures and videos regularly about 2-4 times a week. Although, sometimes he publish many posts on the same day and then he wait a couple of days to post something. Overall, most of the people who are making comments about his posts are people who seem to be very interested in exploring the art world. They are people who have a lot of opinions, tell their views and frequently ask questions to VV01. I have a feeling that these people have a strong passion for art and digital art and they highly appreciate that VV01 posts original videos and pictures of today’s newsfeed of (digital) art and music. The majority have their own blogs linked to their comments.

One of my favorite posts about digital media was published the 7th of October. It’s a video showing a digital installation. The objects change and move their heads to give different characteristics of human behavior Comparing to VV01’s other posts this one hasn’t any description, although he posted a link to one. But I find the video itself extremely interesting because truthfully I haven’t seen anything like it before. It is named ‘Audience’ and was conceived by rAndom International. The use of this digital technology is, to me, a very original concept. It combines digital - and visual art with technological media. I posted a comment about this and asked VV01 if he has seen it for himself. He answered me; “Unfortunately it's yet another case of virtual hearsay...It's quite curious, though, how the things we read about/see videos of have this ambiguous ontological status - they are quasi-real”.

My comments on blogs:

url: http://www.linesandcolors.com/2008/12/10/genetic-programming-evolution-of-mona-lisa/#comment-826547
url: http://www.linesandcolors.com/2008/12/10/genetic-programming-evolution-of-mona-lisa/#comment-826547
url: http://www.ronnestam.com/2009/05/12/tweet-and-we-shall-follow-you-anywhereanyhow/#comments
url: http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=11074051&postID=1227373457434688087

(2 of my other comments have not yet been approved by the writers)

Sean Pardue 09005574

2009-10-29T14:21:00.000-07:00

Student: Sean Pardue 09005574
Chosen blog: Audio Tuts Pro www.audio.tutsplus.com

I have chosen Audio Tuts Pro as the blog in which to write a description of out of the three I have been following. Audio Tuts + Discusses new releases in the digital music software world and gives tutorials in implementing and explaining different tools and methods involved in the industry

Authors:

Joel Falconer - full time author/editor

The site also encourages users to submit their own articles and is comprised mainly of user generated blogs and tutorials.

Joel’s main categories/topics:

Joel mainly discussed different elements involved within the Logic Pro and Pro Tools music software packages. He explained how to achieve different tasks such as How to group tracks in Pro Tools http://audio.tutsplus.com/tutorials/pro-tools/how-to-group-tracks-in-pro-tools-8/ and How to use Logic Pro 9’s drum replacement tool http://audio.tutsplus.com/tutorials/production/how-to-use-logic-pro-9s-drum-replacer/ Joel presents his posts in a clear and simple manner, providing a very useful help source for the readers.

Main Categories/Topics in general:

As the site is composed primarily of tutorials in the audio world a lot of the posts refer to different things that you can achieve using high end music software and hardware. There are also reviews of new products and topical debates about getting things done and different styles in the music industry.

Frequency of Posts:

The frequency of posts varies from 1-4 or more a day. Article submitters whose articles are published receive $150 so this must contribute to the lower number of accepted posts as there is a very high standard expected.
The posts don’t really vary that much over time and stay firmly focused on their music production roots.

Target Audience:

The target audience is specifically aimed at people with knowledge of using music software and who want to learn new things within the software or improve on certain skills or aspects. The blogs also tend to those interested in reading reviews of new products that are released in the area of music production and reviews of new and current products.

Language Used:

The language used is quite technical as the author expects their readers to have some degree of knowledge in the field but very complex or complicated parts are usually explained in simpler terms so as always remaining helpful to people at all ends of the spectrum.

Graphics:

The site uses has quite a plain and functional appearance. The blog titles are sided by pictures relating to the content, the site is very easy to navigate and find exactly what you are looking for.

Interaction:

The interaction that takes place usually involves users discussing with each other their views on the post and other interaction that would take place would be users asking the authors more in-depth questions or asking them about stuff maybe they didn’t really cover in great detail.

Chosen post: How to Use Logic Pro 9’s Drum Replacer
http://audio.tutsplus.com/tutorials/production/how-to-use-logic-pro-9s-drum-replacer/

I found this to be my favourite post as we are currently using logic pro in one of our modules and I had heard of this tool but wasn’t sure if we would actually cover it in class and was very intrigued by it. The tutorial blog was done in step by step format, easily enabling me to follow along and instantly try out using it. This post also appealed to me as it shows very broad editing possibilities that I had been previously unaware of. When recording it can be very hard to get all the mics placed properly and achieve the sound you want. Although the drum replacement tool would not be a first choice when producing , when left with no other option it is perfect for the job! A good majority of the posts relate to products or software which I don’t have the choice to use or am completely unfamiliar with so when I saw this post I knew I could instantly avail of the information within and got excited at the opportunity to try this out!

My comments on blogs:

The four comments I made are here as follows;

http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2009/10/29/live-u2-concert-youtube-serves-10-million-streams#comment-23959

http://gizmodo.com/ccs?id=16362776&cs=b9b71a70ca7b42b6d23ee1d6a08c93b2

http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2009/10/28/google-introduces-%2526quot%3Bsocial-search%2526quot%3B-feature#comment-23960

http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2009/10/27/nih-grants-help-develop-%2526quot%3Bfacebook-scientists%2526quot%3B#comment-23961

IMPORTANT NOTE: My account has not yet been verified on any of these sites and as a result the posts will not show.

Jenni Murtagh 09006351

2009-10-29T13:54:00.000-07:00

Student: Jenni Murtagh (09006351)
Chosen blog: Future Of Music - www.futureofmusicbook.com
Chosen post: 8 Key Trends For The Next 5 Years - http://www.futureofmusicbook.com/2009/05/8-key-trends-for-the-next-5-years/

Author: The blog i have chosen to follow for my assignment is The Future Of Music by David Kusek. Kusek was a co-developer of the revolutionary Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), co-inventor of the first electronic drums at Synare, and founder of Passport Designs, the first music software company. He also runs a consulting business Digital Cowboys providing advice and services to Nokia, Pepsi, AOL, BMG, EMI, A&M Records, Boston Acoustics, Roland, Yamaha, Intel, IBM, Island Music, Nettwerk, Ovation Guitars and others. He is currently Vice-President of the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Topics: The blog seems to centre around the mass-market music industry, with there also being a strong discussion of music formats, publishing, marketing, copyright and creation.

Interaction: The blog was created in March 2005. There has been a steady flow of posts, with at least 10 per month since it's inception.

Target Audience: It's target audience appears to be those heavily involved or interested in the music industry. There are many references to things like companies or formats that would not generally be understood by the mass public. Nevertheless, the blog is written in a very user-friendly way, and i found it enjoyable to read despite my lack of involvement in the music industry.

Layout/Embedded Artifacts: The layout of his page is very well categorized and easy to navigate. The blog often contains videos and pictures, and has a list of links to other blogs of the same interest.

Favourite Post: The post i have chosen is a very interesting post called 8 Key Trends For The Next Five Years. The post is actually based on the ideas of a colleague of Kusek's called Gerd Leonhard. In the post, Kusek and Leonhard discuss 8 predictions for the next 5 years in the area of digital media, explaining and discussing each. While the majority of the trends are a positive step forward, there were two that stood out as a little worrying - the decline of most forms of physical media, and paying for privacy. I don't believe physical media will be abandoned within the next 7-10 years, as suggested by the blog, as i think there is still a generation out there that aren't as comfortable with the digital age as my generation. As for paying for privacy, i can see this happening, and it worries me.

My comments on this blog: http://www.futureofmusicbook.com/2009/05/8-key-trends-for-the-next-5-years/

Twitter: www.twitter.com/jenzerr

2009-10-29T13:18:00.000-07:00

Student: (Ronan Goodwin (09007923))
Chosen blog: (www.techcrunch.com)
Chosen post: (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/28/live-from-hollywood-googles-music-onebox-debuts-powered-by-myspace-and-lala/#comment-3065027)

The blog i have chosen was posted by Jason Kincaid on the techcrunch site. The topic is about a new google app called google's music onebox. Basically you can type the lyric's of a song and the results will give you the Artists name,song and album where you can listen to it or purchase the song or album.

The blog has only been up sense the 28th of oct and sense then it has had about 27 comments. The time differance of each post varies from minutes to a couple of hours.

The targeted audience seems to be the average music lover. The language used is pretty basic and it also has screen shots and a video which takes you through the app step by step.

This is my favourite blog because i think it's a really cool app. I cant wait for it to launch full because there has been many a time i have heard a song and been driven crazy trying to figure out who it was. Now i can just log onto the net on my phone and just type in some of the lyrics and not only find out who sings it but also have the option to buy the song or the full album.

My other comments
www.kotaku.com
http://kotaku.com/5392289/this-enormous-dsi-lens-is-not-necessary#commentform
www.gizmodo.com
http://gizmodo.com/5392667/ericssons-spider-pc-concept-projects-the-keyboard-and-screen
www.techcrunch.com
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/28/its-almost-here-exclusive-video-of-lalas-upcoming-iphone-app/#comment-3065006

Alan Massey (09001982) chosen blog: modulate this!

2009-10-29T13:08:00.000-07:00

Student: (Alan Massey 09001982)
Chosen blog : Modulate this here
Chosen post : Soniccharge synplant here

The blog I have chosen to follow for my assignment is modulate this. This blog was created by Mark Mosher a part time professional electronic musician, composer and sound designer . Based in Louisville Colorado, he has twenty years experience working with midi, synthesizers, samplers, drum programming and sequencing.

The content of his blog reflects his area of expertise. There are numerous articles on virtual instruments, musical hardware and everything in between. I like the fact that as well as reviews he posts tutorials on how to use music software live abelton live. In one post he goes through a track he made in abelton step by step.
The posts on this blog are fairly infrequent compared to the other blogs I followed, two to three posts a month at most.

The target audience for this blog would be people who are interested in music technology and its applications, for example someone who composes electronic music.

The language used for the most part is clear, concise and easy to understand. When dealing with the technical side
of things he keeps the technical jargon to a bare minimum.

The graphics and images for the most part are contained within the articles themselves. On the right hand side of the page there are links to products reviewed or discussed in the main articles, there are also links to other blogs of interest. Links are also to be found in the main articles these vary from audio samples to information pertaining to the article.

Chosen post :

My favourite post on this blog was about a soft synth called the synplant. Differing from other soft synths it offers a novel way of synthesizing sounds. Instead of creating patches the traditional way, turning knobs and dials. Synplant lets you make sounds in an organic way by planting seeds and watching them grow into synth patches. Having never heard of this synth I was intrigued by its uniqueness and exited to get my hands on one, to see what unexpected creative avenues it led me down.

Comments:

comment 1

comment 2

comment 3

comment 4

Aaron Lipsett 09006894

2009-10-29T13:05:00.000-07:00

Student: (Aaron Lipsett 09006894)
Chosen blog: (Audiolemon http://audiolemon.blogspot.com/
Chosen post: "Talking Piano" http://audiolemon.blogspot.com/

The authors: There are two posters on this blogspot. There names are 2bit and audiolemon and they are from belfast and dublin respectivly. Unfortunatly i could'nt find there real names.They are both djs and obviously have a deep knowledge of what they are posting in the blog so this helps.

The topics posted are all music related and there are also some interactive electronic products on view. The posts generally consist of a youtube video and a small piece of writing.Some posts contain no writing as the videos speak for themselves.In certain posts links are given where the viewer can interact with the product themselves.

The post frequency is generally every 2 to 4 days although this can vary immensly as there are only two authors. As there arent much posts it is possible that you wont miss any unlike other blogs where there are 20 bloggers and new posts hourly

This blog would be very useful to people interested in electonic music, particularly djs hoping to broaden their musical knowledge with the latest instruments. Some of the posts however are easy going with the odd funny video or universally interesting product that non music fanatics could watch or learn.

The commenters are generally other musicians, usually djs and they mainly ask questions about the product eg price, where to purchase etc. The authors are very helpful with the comments and will reply to any questions asked straight away. There dosent appear to be any "cliques" posting so its very approachable and a high level of musical knowledge is not needed to ask questions.

The layout of the blogspot is very simple and easy to find what your looking for. On the top left are links to the authors myspace pages so you can converse direclty with them that way if you prefer. A very helpful and my favourite part of the blogspot was on the right of the screen where there are plently of links to free software and other helpful websites. the main area ie. the middle of the screen, is where the posts are and they are generally quite short. The language may be quite tough for people that dont have a clue what the authors are talking about, but again this comes with the territory.

I had many favourite posts but the one i found most intersting was a post about a speaking piano , posted on october 10th 09. It features a video of a moterised piano that sounds like it is speaking.The piano is hooked up to lots of little motors that push the keys down in sync until it sounds like words. This video depicts the piano saying the Proclamation of the European Environmental Criminal Court at World Venice Forum 2009

Luke Lacey (Create digital music)

2009-10-29T11:18:00.000-07:00

Student:
(Luke Lacey 09005785)

Chosen blog:
Create digital music (http://createdigitalmusic.com/)

Chosen post:
Subcycle: Multitouch sound crunching with gestures, 3D waveforms (http://createdigitalmusic.com/2009/10/15/subcycle-multitouch-sound-crunching-with-gestures-3d-waveforms/)

The blog I have chosen for my assignment is create digital music. This blog is based solely on everything and anything to do with digital and experimental music the blog was made by Peter Kirn.

Peter Kirn is a composer/musician, media artist, educator, and technology writer based in New York City who is currently a PHD student at the City University in New York graduate centre. He is the author of real world digital audio from peechpit press, a comprehensive book on producing music with computers and digital technology. His own music and digital art has been displayed in many places such as the U.S., Korea, Canada, France, and Bulgaria. He often collaborates with dance and other media art forms, including working with famous choreographer Christopher Williams on the Bessie Award-winning Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins. As well as this he writes for popular magazines like Macworld, Make, Keyboard.

I really enjoyed following this blog as there was constantly new interesting and fun digital instruments and technologies being posted on the blog and there was a great variety of topics and discussions. Some of the categories peter had on his blog were:

News :
Where he would talk about all the latest news to do with all aspects of digital media.

Reviews:
Where peter would review the latest releases of digital instruments and software so that buyers can first weigh up the pro’s and con’s of the item buy veiwing the review.

Hardware:
Where he takes a hands on look at all the newest hardware from keyboards to sound cards that are on the market.

Software :where the latest software is announced and reviewed

In general there are about 2 to 3 posts per day on the blog and all of them are very interesting and enjoyable to read.
The target audience was mainly people who have strong interest in digital music but also digital art and other art forms. The user does not have to be too familiar with blogs as the blog has a very user friendly interface and is laid out very well.The language used on the blog was generals very casual and again very user friendly

My chosen post is the Subcycle: Multitouch sound crunching with gestures, 3D waveforms it is simply amazing technology it isa touch screen that gives you the capability to twist and morph waveforms from a track. Three-dimensional forms morph and vibrate using visuals programmed in Processing, making shapes and spaces that really begin to “look” like sound. The post features a video demo of the instrument being played which makes this post all the more enjoyable and the feedback from viewers was great. This post was heavily discussed and admired by viewers and was in my opinion the most ground breaking post i came across in my time of following this blog.
http://createdigitalmusic.com/index.php?s=Subcycle

The layout of the page is excellent the ads, website links and subscription icons were in a confined space alone the right hand side of the page , the top of the page is taking up by images and links to different pages of the blog while the newest posts were all down the middle and left of the page with embedded images and video’s accompanying them. The video’s are a great idea with this blog as almost every post has a video of the instrument or technology with it so you can see the item in action.

My comments:

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2009/10/21/going-mobile-velocity-sensitive-touch-pads-on-an-iphone-igog-says-yes/comment-page-1/#comment-986609

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2009/10/28/performing-audiovisualists-visionsonic-festival-france-streaming-live-29th-31st-october/comment-page-1/#comment-986607

http://kotaku.com/5391734/new-star-trek-online-screens-fresh-off-the-replicator/gallery/

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2009/10/19/the-sonic-manipulator-bizarre-wearable-musical-inventions-stolen-from-space-aliens/

2009-10-29T11:05:00.000-07:00

Student: Paul O' Byrne (09006483)
Chosen blog: Kotaku
Chosen post: Candles? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Candles

The author: The blog is maintained by a team of ten writers from around the globe so as to keep updates frequent and steady throughout the day. The blog’s Editor-in-Chief Brian Crecente is aided by two Deputy Editors four Contributing editors a Correspondent and two Columnists . They are spread around the globe with most of them in America, with others in places such as Australia and Japan.

Main Topics: The main topics of the updates on this blog are all related to video games in some way and can easily identified by the grey box that accompanies each update. The topics range from game reviews to console previews to development news to rumours. Many updates are simply video or pictures with minimal writing that the blogger has found on a different site and wish for his reader to see (Example) while others, mostly the game reviews, are in-depth pieces with many pictures and screenshots and a much higher wordcount.

Post Frequency: Updates are posted every twenty minutes to hour, this frequency I expect would be much higher during large events such as ComicCon or e3. One downside to this high frequency of posting is that it almost becomes a chore to look through every one. If I missed a day checking the site I could have anywhere up to 100 posts to check the next day and I’d prefer not to miss any news when all I have to do is scroll down to see it.

Target Audience: The target audience is people who like to play video games and who like to keep up to date with current development news or people who just want another opinion before they buy a game.

Language, Graphics, Embedded Artifacts: The language is quite casual and friendly. This makes it much less intimidating to comment on updates as there is no apparent difference between the language of the bloggers and the language of the commenters, it much more conversational, or at least as conversational as text can be.
The graphic design is simple and effective with four areas on the main page that are easily distinguishable:
The days ‘headlines’ on the top of the page, each with their own picture and title
A more mysterious bar containing a comment bar, presumably to comment on the site itself rather than specific updates or perhaps to let the team know of a piece of news they may have missed
Then on the left under this is a description to the blogging team complete with e-mail addresses and twitter pages
And finally the piece which takes up the largest part of the screen, the updates themselves each distinguishable from the others by their title and grey box containing a hash tag.
Embedded on the page there is usually at least one picture or video (youtube.com etc.) for each update. These are usually screenshots from a game or photographs of upcoming technology. A popular feature is the side by side comparison videos between different platforms running the same game allowing people to argue about which they feel is better (usually the one they own).

Interaction: Comments can be found on every update and as it is required that you audition to be able to comment the quality and relevance to the topic is always very good. On many updates you can see that conversations start between commenters as they reply to each others comments. This creates an almost forum-like feel to the comments section of the blog. I have a bad habit of not actually reading who posts the comments and so am unable to say how much the bloggers themselves reply to the comments on the blog.

Favourite post: My Favourite post is this post regarding the carving of pumpkins into famous videogame characters, namely Pac-Man and his ghosts. Wakka Wakka
It shows very well the humour of the blog and it target audience

2009-10-29T10:27:00.000-07:00

Student: (simon harper 09001971)
Chosen blog: (Zoriah-photojournalist
Chosen post: (war photography )

Ive chosen to cover the blog of freelance photojournalist Zoriah Miller (who goes by just his first name Zoriah).He has an incredible CV
and travels the world where he specialises in covering natural disasters, conflict and humanitarian crises.
His blog is a mixture of his photo work and personal descriptions (in English)of what he has witnessed.He tends to put up new posts of various sizes about once a week-sometimes he will post a large number of his photos, others just a few lines about what hes doing or where hes off to next. His blog often feature a collection of photos from a country, while they may also be shown as a collection with a similar theme-ie army tattoos, wall graffiti, portraits ,Cuban workers etc. Certain photos will also have a technical note attached explaining camera settings, equipment used etc. his blog is layed out in a long page format-where the viewer scrolls down through posts and photos along with their descriptions if included. the target audience would be quite varied-as he writes about his own thoughts on where hes been so anyone who's looking for a eyewitnesses account of events in Iraq or Lebanon may find his blog of interest, photographers of course would be interested in seeing work from rather unconventional, even hostile places..he also has quite an anti war, anti poverty stance which would include an extra demographic for this blog to be aimed at.
Many of his post contain comments and its very well set up site with plenty of links to other sites as well as easy navigation through his many collections.

Thisis one of my favourite posts and one that initially attracted me to his blog, the striking photo-which upon initial viewing left me with my own thoughts as to what was happening-then when reading on i got a totally different series of events..aside form the great photo i also liked how he talked about the days events, not putting a strong anti war tilt on things but emphasing the chaos of war.

My comments on blogs:
brilliant Halloween photo shopped images
Bush toilet graffiti
Obama
Cuba condoms

2009-10-29T09:59:00.000-07:00

Student:
Niall Bromell (09003996)

Chosen Blog:
Just Another iPhone Blog

Other Blogs Followed:
TechCrunch, Sony EU PlayStation Blog

Number of Posts a Day:
5-10

Authors:
The blog is written by a number of authors.
Patrick Jordan
Josh Gard
“Thomas”
Diego Petrucci

Target Audience:
Users of the iPhone (and to a lesser extend, iPod Touch).

Language Used:
The language is mainly casual and simple. Humour is often used, and in one particular post, reviewing the “CameraReporter PRO” app, the article is less a review than the author mocking the poorly worded description of the application given by the developers, for example;

This camera app, which timestamps all of your pictures as you take them, gives you all the tools to “show them you was really there”, “show them how high you was”, and best of all…”shock your friends that you something really did”. I often have a lot of trouble shocking my friends and proving that I something really did (why don’t they me believe?!), so I think this app could be a real life-saver for me.

Layout & Embedded Artifacts:
The design of the page is for the most part, clear. The articles are kept on the left hand side of the page, with the vast majority of the advertisements taking up a smaller space on the right of the page. It can be difficult to go through older articles however, as they are bunched together at the bottom of pages. The blog doesn’t generally seem to embed any videos, though they do provide pictures of the various apps they are reviewing.

Interaction:
There is a good amount of interaction taking place on the blog between the authors and the readers. Though they do not reply to every comment, they do reply to most of them, although some posts require the reader to be registered, and all posts require validation by the authors.

Chosen Post & Why I liked It:
“LogMeIn Ignition – Remote Access To All Your PCs, Macs, & Servers From Your iPhone – And It Works!”

I chose the post because of all the apps reviewed by the blog, this one interested me the most. Despite the high price of the app (listed by the blog as $29.99) I think that it may be one of the most useful apps to come out for the iPhone. The app allows the user to log into their own computer (as well as any other computer that has authorised your account) and use its programs, features, and correct any possible problems that the computer may be experiencing.

For example, the author of the post , Josh Gard, explained how he managed to log into his mothers computer from his iPhone while suck in a traffic jam in order to fix a problem that he had been unable to talk her through over the phone. He said “What would have taken me 20 minutes or more to walk her through verbally, I was able to accomplish in under five minutes with LogMeIn on my iPhone.”. He also used a second example - where he was able to solve a problem with his company’s database while waiting in line for coffee, using his iPhone, and was able to get the faulty application back online as he waited for his coffee, which shows the power of the app. He also mentions that while it is expensive, it is worth every penny.

Comments Left:
Camera ReporterPRO

Wordpress 2.0

Reel Director Video Editor

D-Day For Facebook App Developers

2009-10-29T09:26:00.000-07:00

Student: Davis Gould-Duff
Student id: 09007494
Blog: In Bloom On The Double: [http://www.podcomplex.com/blog/in-bloom-on-the-double/ ]

The blog that i have chosen to review is "In Bloom On The Double" by Podcomplex. Podcomplex is a web site edited and managed by Dan Foley. Dan Foley is a musician, producer, writer, designer and webmaster from county Offaly Ireland. he is currently working as a search marketing consultant for a multinational internet company in Dublin, and he runs Nantiploop recording studios. he has a masters degree in multimedia systems from TCD and a primary degree in communications studies from DCU. He produces music as Canabrism, and manages a number or websites in addition to podcomplex. he is also an author of his own book called "Antistar".

The web site podcomplex is dedicated to preaching the latest news about music technology, production and handy tips for getting the most out of your studio as well as the latest in music software and hardware. There are a lot of different techniques covered on the blogs that are used in production, Some of these techniques covered are mic set-up and positioning, doubling, and how to release the songs in the end. With everything covered from mp3 files to chocolate records!! no your not going mad, i said CHOCOLATE records!!

The web site releases roughly 10 posts a week in the "music technology" part with more being released in the "digital arts workshop"," digital music", "live performance" and the "sales and promotion" sections of the website. I only followed the music technology side of podcomplex because i have a higher interest in this section than any of the others on podcomplex. I think that the website is aimed at people over twenty years old who have a good music background and/or a high interest in music and music theory. it also has a very user friendly layout and easy to understand language with plenty off videos and pictures.

The blog that i picked is about a production technique that Butch Vig used when he produced the Nevermind album by Nirvana. The production technique that Butch used is called "doubling".
Doubling is where the singer sings one track of there song and then they record a second track of the same some. when it is done correctly and the to tracks have similar timing, then both tracks are played at the same time with one being paned hard left and the other hard right. A bit of delay can be added to create more of an effect. This naturally adds a lot of depth, width and texture to the song.

The most famous example of doubling with the singers voice would be in the song "In Bloom" by Nirvana, in this song both Kurt Cobain's and Dave Grohl's voices have been doubled. But doubling is not restricted to singers voices, in fact it can be used on any instrument, there are many examples of this shown on the blog just from the Nevermind album. Doubling is now a very popular technique used in pop vocals and many other areas of music.

my comments:

Gizmodo:
for some reason my 3 comments on gizmodo where never posted because they haven't been auditioned yet.

2009-10-29T08:11:00.000-07:00

Student:Andy Connolly - 09001950
Chosen blog: Future Music - http://futuremusic.com/blog
Chosen post: http://futuremusic.com/blog/2009/09/25/richie-hawtin-releases-twitter-dj-for-traktor-pro/

The blog I have chosen to write about is Future Music (futuremusic.com/blog), a blog dedicated to advances in the world of electronic music creation. The author(s) have chosen to remain anonymous, presumably to facilitate honest and unbiased opinion. Given the nature of the blog it is quite possible that the authors work within the industry and do not wish to compromise their future/current job prospects with negative reviews/controversial opinions.

I also followed Mashable! (a general technology based blog, focussing more on social networking media and advertising) and Pipomixes(a resource for hip hop culture, posting out of print music and videos relating to DJ/Producer culture, including occasional posts relating to digital media relevant to DJs/producers). I found Mashable! interesting but of little personal relevance and Pipomixes of huge personal relevance but of less interest in relation to digital media.

Topics on Future Music vary from a new model of headphones to software updates to new digital interfaces for music creation. It is a huge area of interest and I feel that the blog covers many bases with very little "filler" content. The language used is rarely overly "techy", i.e. anyone with a basic knowledge of digital music creation should be able to understand the posts. It is definitely aimed at the electronic music producer and DJs although the readership is hard to quantify as commenting is not available. This is the only negative aspect of the site in my opinion.

The topic I most enjoyed was news of the development of Ritchie Hawtin's (legendary electronic producer/DJ, records under the names Plastikman and F.U.S.E, owner of the Minus and M - Nus record labels) Twitter application that runs in conjunction with popular DJ software interface Traktor. The app allows for publishing the names of tracks the DJ is playing on to his Twitter account, which can in turn be broadcast on screens in realtime. As a gimmick, this is mildly interesting. As a cataloguing device however, the app has the potential to revolutionise the paying of royalties to artists.

All venues that play music pay an annual fee to their national licensing agency (IMRO in Ireland), in theory this revenue is distributed among the artists whose music was played. In reality however, venues do not catalogue the music DJs play and the money is split up between the top selling artists in the country (slight variations exist from country to country but this is the general situation worldwide). The Twitter/Traktor app, which could be modified to run with any digital DJ program, would allow for clear and easy cataloguing of music played in theatres, clubs and pubs thus ensuring the artists get their dues.

The site is quite basic in design, possibly created from a standard blog template. This does ensure the blog is easy to navigate and read but might frustrate those who like their blog experience to be visually stimulating. Pictures and links to videos are included in the vast majority of posts to further illustrate the topic in question.

Comments - As mentioned above, Future Music would not let me comment, nor could I find evidence of any other comments. Links to my comments on Pipomixes and Mashable! located below.

Mashable!
http://mashable.com/2009/10/28/droid-phone/?dsq=21202122#comment-21202122
http://mashable.com/2009/10/27/dj-hero/?dsq=21204949#comment-21204949
http://mashable.com/2009/10/27/myspace-music-msn/?dsq=21205716#comment-21205716
http://mashable.com/2009/10/27/lawfirms-icoyote/?dsq=21206841#comment-21206841

Pipomixes
http://pipomixes.blogspot.com/2009/10/dj-nuts-mini-set-and-studio-footage.html
http://pipomixes.blogspot.com/2009/10/mobys-drum-machine-collection.html
http://pipomixes.blogspot.com/2009/10/edan-rapping-and-mixing.html

Gizmodo (Conor Keane 09003855)

2009-10-29T08:07:00.000-07:00

Student: Conor Keane (09003855)

Chosen blog: Gizmodo

Authors
Gizmodo is a community blog with many contributing authors including:
Editorial Director: Brian Lam
Editor: Jason Chen
Features Editor: Wilson Rothman
Senior Contributing Editor: Jesus Diaz, Mark Wilson (Reviews)
Contributing Editors:
Matt Buchannan
Adam Frucci
Sean Fallon
Jack Loftus
John Herrman
Dan Nosowitz
Chris Mascari
Danny Allen
Columnist: Brendan Koerner

Target audience:
Gizmodo targets all fans of technology, from the layman to the über-geek.

Topics
Tech news including new products, policies and concepts.

Language, graphics, and embedded artifacts:
The language on the site varies with the topic of the posts, most of which can be understood by the common user. Most, if not all, of the posts utilize pictures to showcase the subject matter and many involve embedded video from popular video-sharing sites such as YouTube or Vimeo

Frequency of posts:
50 - 80 a day

Chosen post:
Still don’t know what Google Wave is all about? This two minute animation might help.

This is by far my favorite post out of the three weeks I was following Gizmodo.
I have been hearing about Google Wave for a while now and the videos Google had produced were too long and technical for even the most technical layman like myself to understand just exactly what it is…
So a simplified explanation of the basics was presented in this post via a YouTube video and it really made sense to me after I watched it…
I now understand Google Wave to be Google’s re-invention of the e-mail, utilizing “cloud” computing to share documents, files, and emails with a number of users in one centralized location instead of a plethora of forwarded and replied-to emails to sort through…
I look forward to being able to utilize this new tool in my daily life.

My comments (All Gizmodo):
There was one problem with making comments on Gizmodo:
They make you audition your account before they will approve your comments.
I started making comments 3 weeks ago and I am still waiting for my account to be approved on the site, which is why you will not see my comments until they change my status.

Comment 1
Comment 2
Comment 3
Comment 4

I also followed these blogs:

UberGizmo
-Very similar to Gizmodo but with less writers and posts.

iPhoneSavior
-Mainly iPhone products, apps, and some quirky Mac related links too.

I am looking forward to my continued subscription to these blogs…

2009-10-29T07:24:00.000-07:00

Student: Anett Michael (09002155)
Chosen blog: Pixel Publishing Ireland

I have chosen to review the blog Pixel Publishing Ireland (also headlined SabrinaDent.Com: Sunshine and Lollipops since 1996) by Sabrina Dent. On the cover page of her blog Sabrina Dent labels herself as a freelance web designer, internet marketer and sometime journalist. Further information about her and her work can be found on the subpages of the weblog titled About, Portfolio, CV, Disclosures and Contact.

The categories used on the blog are Activism, Advertising, Boot Camp, Cork, Crankypants, Design, Domesticities, Events, Interpipes, Ireland, Marketing, Politics, Portfolio, Second Life, Social Networks, Sunday Style and Technology. For almost every entry there are more specific tags listed underneath the particular posts. Sabrina Dent mainly blogs about web design and other internet related topics. During my three weeks of following the blog she especially wrote about site launches she did (filed under the category Portfolio). She also wrote about an event she visited and about personal experiences she gained in connection with it.

When Sabrina Dent writes about her work she does not get bogged down in details about what she changed on the websites using too difficult specialist terms etc., but just tells about the highlights. The entries about site launches are usually not longer than two or three paragraphs. Blog entries about her personal experiences or opinions and advices about internet and web design related topics are often longer and more detailed. Interesting anecdotes and her often ironic, sometimes even cynical writing style make the posts quite amusing to read. Her journalistic writing skills might help her to make her ideas understandable and attractive to a broad public. However, the main target audience might contain people with interests in web design and internet issues. I think the blog shall also address possible future employers and clients as it contains a portfolio of her previous work, a considerable CV and contact information on its subpages.

In recent times, the author is blogging once or twice a week, mostly in the end of the week. Some months ago Sabrina Dent’s blogging behaviour was less regular. In August this year, for example, she only published one entry, whereas from the 24th till 28th May 2009 she blogged at least once a day.

The embedded artifacts Sabrina Dent uses most of all are pictures. She almost always starts her entries with an eye-catching, grey framed graphic or photograph (size: 415 pixels × 175 pixels) that is related to the topic she writes about. Sometimes she uses further pictures (such as screenshots or photographs), YouTube videos or slideshows to illustrate her ideas and give vivid examples. I like the banner-like, well designed and consistently formatted graphics Sabrina Dent uses for her blog posts. However I find it a bit confusing that they are provided with a mouse over effect (the grey frame changes its colour into a lighter grey), but nothing happens when you click on them. They look like they are containing links but they are not. Another design aspect that took me getting used to was that it is not so easy to get back to the main page. Therefore, I normally click on a website’s banner, but Sabrina Dent’s blog does not have one to click on. So one has to use the pretty small Home button on the navigation bar. Other than that I like the design of the blog very much. The bright grey, white and bright coloured text Sabrina Dent uses on a dark grey and black background as well as the sanserif font used for the main text are very eye- and reader-friendly. The more cheerful font the blogger uses for special matters like the headings of the different link lists on the right-hand side of the blog matches the also cheerful and decently girly background image and bullet point design very well.

I also like the commenting system of the blog. Only the first comment posted by a user must be confirmed by Sabrina Dent, but is already shown to the commenter. So your comments do not disappear like on Gizmodo where you never know whether and when your comments get approved and where also nobody seems to answer the questions you sent to the extra e-mail address for comment and account questions they have. After Sabrina Dent confirmed your first comment any further comments can be made without additional approval. The list of commentators is shown on the right-hand side of the blog being headlines gossip mongers. Sabrina Dent also interacts with her readers by often answering some of the first comments left on her articles.

Chosen post: Dyslexia, Dyscalculia and Design

Dyslexia, Dyscalculia and Design is my favourite entry because Sabrina shows very well how websites with a bad design can become very hard to handle even for just slightly handicapped people. She herself suffers from Dyslexia and Dyscalculia. As she says in the entry her particular instances are pretty mild. Anyway, she lists lots of examples of everyday life situations (especially those connected with numbers) that become problematic for her. Then she shows examples of complicated logins, long and bad structured telephone numbers and confusing booking calendars from different web pages that make her struggle when using them. As the user comments on this entry show, other people have similar problems with these things, too, and agree in the entry’s conclusion that a good design makes a website easier to handle for everyone. A simple and user-friendly design is better than trying to provide a special user interface (that confuses people more than helping them). Probably, her mild Dyslexia and Dyscalculia make Sabrina Dent a better web designer because she knows from her own experiences very well how a website has to be structured to be easy to handle for nearly everybody and what might cause problems.

My comments on blogs:
(I commented under the pseudonym GirlFromM4rs.)

Pixel Publishing Ireland:
comment on Site Launch: FarmVille Village
comment on Dyslexia, Dyscalculia and Design

Pixelsumo:
comment on The fun theory
comment on The Marshmallow Test

Gixmodo:
As I mentioned above, Gizmodo is not very commenter-friendly. I tried to comment on Mozilla Whines About Apple Being First in Microsoft's Web Browser Ballot Screen and iREV, the Bumper Boat With a Built-In Grill, but Gizmodo did not approve my comments and did not answer my questions about when they will confirm my comments and if not at all, why not. In my opinion a website that does not allow user comments or censors them in an inappropriate and unjustified extent cannot be classified as a real blog.

2009-10-29T05:47:00.000-07:00

Student (Kathleen Berns 0847461)
Chosen Blog (MediaShift - Your guide to the Digital Media Revolution)
Chosen Post (Record Labels are Losing Power to Fans, Artists http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/10/record-labels-are-losing-power-to-fans-artists282.html)

Over the past few weeks I have been following various digital media blogs. My goal from the get go was to find a blog which really interests me and one which I would enjoy following long after this college assignment was submitted.

Mark Glaser is a longtime freelance journalist whose career includes columns on hip-hop, reviews of videogames, travel stories, and humor columns that poked fun at the titans of technology. (MediaShift 2009)
He is also the host of the digital media blog I am focusing on in this article.

MediaShift is a fascinating blog with content from a number of different bloggers for example Simon Owens, Steven Davy, Susan Currie Sivek and of course Jason Feinberg who authored my most-liked post “record Lables are Losing power to Fans, Artists)

The post is a follow on piece to “What will record labels look like in the future” and it discusses issues in the music industry such as Digital sales verses physical sales and the revenue being lost. “Sales of digital music have not come close to replacing the revenue lost from the decline of physical sales.” (Feinberg 2009)

The blog also gives information from Paul Resnikoff, founder and publisher of music industry news site Digital Music News who gives valuable feedback from the industry as well as Fanscape CEO Larry Weintraub is an industry veteran with 25 years of marketing experience and the Artists perspective from guitarist Steve Vai.

I really liked this blog as the whole record label and digital music downloads debacle has been a subject that has interested me greatly for quite a while. To be honest the fact that this blog also included the opinions of the musical genius that is Steve Vai made this post a clear winner in my eyes.

My Comments

(MediaShift)

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/10/record-labels-are-losing-power-to-fans-artists282.html

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/09/what-newspaper-cartoonists-can-learn-from-web-comics273.html

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/09/local-politicians-use-social-media-to-connect-with-voters272.html

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/10/did-the-web-kill-gourmet-magazine299.html

(uberGizmo)

http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2009/10/guitar_hero_played_without_guitars.html?dsq=21112491#comment-21112491

http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2009/10/apple_offers_cheaper_ram_and_processor_upgrades.html?dsq=21112819#comment-21112819

[http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2009/10/vioguard_uvkb50_self-sanitizing_keyboard.html?dsq=21113142#comment-21113142 ]

[http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2009/10/sony_ericsson_kurara_being_worked_on.html?dsq=21113413#comment-21113413 Comment 4]

09003466

2009-10-29T05:38:00.000-07:00

Student ID: Jennifer Agstrand 09003466

Chosen blog: Amy M. Burn´s Blog http://amymburns.musiced.net

Chosen post: Absolutely Brilliant http://amymburns.musiced.net/2009/10/15/absolutely-brilliant/

My comments on blogs

The author: The author for the blog that I have chosen is Amy M. Burn. She is an elementary general music teacher at an independent school in New Jersey, US. She is also the President-Elect of the Technology Institute for Music Educators (TI:ME). Besides the blog she also has a webpage and she uses Twitter.

ULR: http://amymburns.musiced.net/2009/10/15/absolutely-brilliant/#comments

Main topics: The blog is all about elementary music and music technology. The author posted her bloggspost in seven different categories that she has named; Blogrolls, Books, Lesson plans, Methodology, Reflections, Software and You can find me here. She writes about her daily life, her work and ideas that she has. She advices people about things in the world of music technology that she think is intresting.

The frequency of posts: In the “about my blog” the author says that her plan is to blog three times per week and I would say that she does that more or less. Sometimes it is some days between the post and sometimes she post a new blogpost a few days in a row. This blog also contains a variety of links to other blogs and websites such as other bloggers, YouTubevideos and Facebook groups.

The target audience: The target audience, as the author describes it as, is other elementary music educators and teachers. The author wants to achieve and to encourage teachers to enhance their music curriculums with new music technology.

The language used: The author use language that makes the reading easy and fun to read. She uses a language that is readable and interesting and it gets to you. She makes you want to find out more about the topics.

The graphics: the graphics are of a professional standard but simply and suggestive.

Embedded artifacts: She uses some embedded artifacts, like some links to some websites and a blogroll.

The interaction taking place: There is not that much interaction taking place on this blog but there is a few comments from people who are mentioned in the posts and you can find some information contributed by readers

Favorite post and why: My favorite post is the one of the post that I commented on. The author has named the post “absolutely brilliant” and she posted it on October the 15^th in 2009. The post itself does not say that much but the author posted a link to youtube with a fantastic videoclip. The author describes that the video originally romancing your soul and when I looks at the video I thought that it is fascinating.

My comments.

http://amymburns.musiced.net/2009/10/15/absolutely-brilliant/#comments

http://amymburns.musiced.net/2009/10/21/reading-through-the-menc-forumsand-thinking-about-time/#comment-13848

http://amymburns.musiced.net/2009/10/15/absolutely-brilliant/#comments

http://amymburns.musiced.net/2009/10/18/new-music-education-major-facebook-community/#comments

2009-10-29T05:28:00.000-07:00

Student: Aisling Flynn 09006268

Chosen blog: http://jamesfrankel.musiced.net/feed/ Music Technology in Education

Chosen post: My Day with the PS 22 Chorus ,
http://jamesfrankel.musiced.net/2009/10/08/my-day-with-the-ps-22-chorus/

The author of this blog is Dr. James Frankel, he is the Managing Director of SoundTree , but before he became this he was the instrumental and general music teacher at the Franklin Avenue Middle School in Franklin Lakes. He he studied the tuba as well as composition in
Montclair State University where he earned his bachelor degree in music. James Frankel is now an Adjunct Faculty member at Teachers College Columbia University where he teaches courses on music technology. He is the author of many articles such as "Teaching Classroom Music in the Keyboard Lab". He has presented clinics and workshops at the statewide and national level. He also discussed the role of technology in the music classroom on the MENC Television program Tempo. He is a very inspirational person you has achieved alot in his time.

The main topic's in this blog are ranging for music technology to experiences of James Frankel. My favourite post was The day with the PS 22 Chorus. This post is about how James Frankel was given the opportunity to visit and watch a rehersal with music educator Gregg Breinberg and the students in the PS 22 Chorus. After James Frankel asked him if there was any way his company SoundTree could assist him in continuing his work.

I chose this post because i had come across the video os the PS 22 Chorus on YouTube before an I found his post inspirational. It was posted on Thursday, October 8th, 2009 at 6:58 am. In my opinion the target audience is a very broad audience an this could attract people interested in music, music technology, students , adults... The comments are all very positive, there were 8 posts and were posted within a few days of eachother. On this post there is also a youtube video of the actual chorus James Frankel was invited to visited. The children in it have amazing talent an it. The post is written in the first person and is very enjoyable to read.

My comments on this blog:

http://jamesfrankel.musiced.net/2009/10/20/off-to-atmi/#comment-53025
http://jamesfrankel.musiced.net/2009/10/08/my-day-with-the-ps-22-chorus/#comment-53027
http://jamesfrankel.musiced.net/2009/09/29/soundwaves-september-edition/#comment-53083
http://jamesfrankel.musiced.net/2009/10/03/critical-issues-in-music-education/

The other two blogs I followed and commented on are:
http://digitaljournal.blip.tv/rss
http://feeds.feedburner.com/ubergizmo

2009-10-29T04:06:00.000-07:00

Student: (Andrea Harte 09001944)
Chosen blog: (Joe McNally, http://www.joemcnally.com/blog/)
Chosen post: (On Location, Shoots & Ladders http://www.joemcnally.com/blog/category/on-location/)

Joe McNally is a renowned American photographer /photojournalist who has travelled widely. His photographic work, “The Faces of Ground Zero”, for the aftermath of 9/11 has been highly acclaimed. His credentials and experience involved 20 years as staff photographer with Life magazine and National Geographic contributor as well as with Sports Illustrator. He has travelled to 54 countries, 50 states and continues to provide fresh aspects to his work. Books, workshops, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Kelby Training all form part of his visual presence.

What I like about Joe McNally is that his blogs are fun and contain a lot of different information from locations shoots and tips to general views. His website style is bright, airy and full of life, in some ways he could be described as a walking, talking, running advertisement for living life to the full and maintaining your humour. His blogs are regular over the last two years with many categories, 23 so far and there probably many more in the future.

The overall style of the blogs is friendly, welcoming, fun and light but with a lot of information and knowledge backing it up. It gives the appearance that he never takes himself seriously and has lots of laughs. The target audience in general being those interested in photography but his style and manner make it good reading for anyone not so inclined. The articles are interspaced with images which, while giving some details about the shots also help maintain interest. The variety of topics is large, ranging from upcoming events, locations and equipment to friends, birthdays, best guesses as challenges, and many more. McNally responds to few comments allowing them to grow until there is something more to contribute. Links and referrals are provided to other matters that his friends, fellow photographers might be developing. Overall he projects a generous, upbeat, friendly attitude with a good dash of humour.

My favourite post would be his article on location, “Shoots and Ladders” in which he combines the difficulty of getting an unusual perspective on a subject with a reasonable shot, which he acknowledges himself, and then finishes the post with a gripping shot of a different subject. It is an unexpected twist to this blog. Leave the best to last and keep everyone interested in the next one.

My comments on blogs:

http://humanplanet.blogs.bbcearth.com/2009/10/16/waiting-for-kudu/comment-page-1/#comment-328 comment awaiting moderation

http://www.joemcnally.com/blog/2009/10/15/workshop-at-the-bank-day-three/comment-page-1/#comment-34110

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/digitalrevolution/2009/10/rushes-sequences-general-views.shtml?ssorl=1256716399&ssols=13&ssoc=register comment awaiting moderation

http://www.draiochtwebdesign.com/blog/sxchu-new-administration-will-no-longer-protect-photographers?commented=1#txpCommentInputForm

2009-10-28T19:22:00.000-07:00

Student: (Blue Cassidy 09005231)
Chosen blog: (http://jamesfrankel.musiced.net/)
Chosen post: (SoundWaves September edition, music technology)

My comments on blogs:
James Frankel is a renowned professor and teacher in America in the areas of music technology, musical instruments and music composition. He is well known for giving seminars around the states and has organised a variety of online education courses in the areas of music technology such using music programs.
He has recently been incorporating his musical knowledge with music technology for primary school students in an attempt to interest children in music production from a young age.
He has recently been elected to be the president of the Association for Technology in Music Intsruction or ATMI. This is a renowned and prestigous place to be given and is made up of the most well known and respected professors across the United States and Canada who focus on the effective integration of music technology in music instruction, ATMI membership is a veritable Who’s Who in the field of music technology.

The thing that I liked about James Frankel is that he explores different methods and ideas in the field of music technology. Also he is a very helpfull and usefull resource for amateur music editors and composers like myself and supplies a rich wealth of knowledge in these areas.
My favourite post would have to be his sound tree articles which keep us updated about new technology, new music tutorials and generally what is happening in the music world. The blog was updated every five or six days and contains a variety of links to other blogs and websites ranging from jazz instruction to the Propellor Heads and Reason. There are also plenty of videos, opinions music reviews and articles.
His target audience encompasses a wide variety of people ranging from his fellow professors to students like me to people with any general interest in music in any of it's forms.
Frankel uses quite a straight up, correct and formal language for his audience which I guess must be for the wide variety of people who read it.
He writes with an upbeat manner yet does not specifically incorporate any humour into the text.
The layout of the blog is simple and straight forward which is useful for ease of reading. He generally tries to brighten up the text with the image of some new music book or with cover of his SoundWaves post. This combined makes it all easier to read and keeps it more interesting.

My comments on blogs:

2009-10-28T15:29:00.000-07:00

Student: (Sheena Faughnan 09004706)
Chosen blog: Pat Phelan http://www.blogger.com/www.Patphelan.net
Chosen post: (UPC Broadband, wonderful service unless you want to work at the weekends
http://patphelan.net/upc-broadband-wonderful-service-unless-you-want-to-work-at-the-weekends/.)
Pat Phelan is a well known distibutor in telephony circles and has been involved in telecoms for over the past 10 years.Pat works mainly in Cork but also spends 3 months of the year on the East Coast of America. Pat launched Irelands first independently phone card company in 1999.

The reason I liked Pats blog is because he advices people about things in the world of Digital Media/technology that they may not understand and helps them make discisions about what they should do or use. This enables people who may not have alot of knowledge about devices, broadband (etc) to not be scammed or ripped off.
For instance, My Favourite post was "UPC Broadband, wonderful service unless you want to work at the weekends". I liked this post as it was able to warn people about the risks when using UPC broadband. I really appreciated this as I was myself considering changing to this broadband company. It is almost Pat is looking out for us, the readers so we do not make the same mistakes and can learn from a Man who clearly understands this field considerably well.
The blog was usually updated every 7-10. The blog contained reviews, news, opinions and videos. His target audience would be anyone who uses or has an interest in modern technology today whether it be someone with a Twitter account, someone interested in cutting-edge technology or just someone who is looking for the best quality broadband service. Phelan uses quite colloquil langauge which makes it more interesting and easier to read, he also uses alot of humour in his posts which engages the reader.The blog is laid out quite clearly which makes it easier for the viewer to access which post they are looking for. There is a great deal of interaction with the readers as there are many conversations going on within the posts also posts under most viewed etc.

My comments on blogs:
PatPhelan.com
[http://patphelan.net/upc-broadband-wonderful-service-unless-you-want-to-work-at-the-weekends/#comment-512821]
http://patphelan.net/how-to-twitter-no-charge/#comment-513242
http://patphelan.net/ebays-main-problem-fake-goods/#comment-513688
http://patphelan.net/donal-og-cusack-out-of-the-closet-and-into-the-clover/#comment-513781
Ubergizmo.com
http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2009/10/foxconn_to_manufacture_apple_tablet_pc.html#comments
http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2009/10/apple_said_to_be_working_on_a_radio_app.html?dsq=20070464#comment-20070464
Gizmodo.com
http://gizmodo.com/5381470/video-25-stylophone-beatbox-makes-even-nerds-look-cool
http://gizmodo.com/5390958/i-like-the-asspeaker-concept-and-i-cannot-lie
http://gizmodo.com/5390718/diy-larger+than+life-soccer-ball+controlled-guitar-hero-game

2009-10-28T10:10:00.000-07:00

Student: (Thomas Moyles 09002057)
Chosen blog: (PS3 Blog & Community Click Here)
Chosen post: (FTC: Bloggers Must Disclose Payments for ReviewsClick Here )

Authors: As I chose a community blog there was many different writers such as Tosh, Trev, JimmyMagnum & Eddie.

Topic: Computer gaming news for the Playstation3 console.

Frequency of Posts: Average of 5 – 10 posts per day.

Variation of posts: News, reviews, and rummers.

Target Audience: Playstation3 Owners.

Interaction taking place: Poles, comments, forums & links to various interesting videos and articals.

Favourite Post & why: My favourite post was “Bloggers must disclose payments for reviews”. This blog was about how the Federal Trade Commission in America have decided that all bloggers must clearly disclose all and any payments or gifts they have received from companies to review their products. It was 1980 when these guidelines were last reviewed and the first time that it has included bloggers. The FTC Commissioners approved the guidelines by voting 4 – 0 in favor of the changes. Although the did not fully say how these new guidelines will be inforced, they did say that possible penalties could include fines of up to $11,000 per violation.

I really liked this post because I have sometimes found it hard to believe some reviews on the net because you never knew if the reviewer was getting paid to give the product a good review, or if they had received some gifts or freebies to sway their decision in favour of the company. I think this law could finally bring a defree of honesty to the net.

Other Blogs I Followed: I also decided to follow three other blogs.

“I Do Music” \Here
Which is a digital music medium community blog.
“Gizmodo” Here Which was a very popular blog for up to date electronic’s of all types.

“Red Rants” Here Which was the only blog not to deal directly with digital media. It’s a blog for Manchester United fans which I also had a great interest in and really enjoyed.

My Comments:

PS3 Blog.
Classic Game Remake.Comment

PS3 Blog.
Bloggers Payment. Comment

I Do Music Blog.
Writing for Live & CD Audience Comment. Comment

Reds Rants Blog.
Fan Union Comment. Comment

Thank you for reading.

2009-10-28T09:48:00.000-07:00

Student: Martin Kelly (09007196)
Chosen blog: ubergizmo (www.ubergizmo.com)

Ubergizmo is one of the largest gadget blogs on the internet. It was founded by Hubert Nguyen and Eliane Fiolet who are now both the main editors of the site. Hubert has an extensive background in programming and computer game development while Eliane has a background in graphic design and currently owns a Corporate ID design business. The main topics addressed by this blog are new gadgets, the applications on the gadgets and the technologies that make the gadgets go. The site posts several new blogs daily and will regularly get between 200-300 posts per week. The site is primarily aimed at gadget lovers but is not exclusive to "gadget geeks" as the language used to describe the technologies is simple and easy for anyone to understand. To help you decide which gadgets you may or may not need, everything from the design, to user interface practicality, pricing and competition, are taken into consideration. The layout is straight forward and easy to navigate. Along the side you will find a list of topics to search through or you can simply scroll through the latest posts. Each new post has a picture of a new gadget and a short article discussing its relevance. The interaction between users and the bloggers is good. You can expect to get a reply to a reasonable question within a day or so from either the site administrators or from another fellow blog user.

Chosen post: new lease of life for optical drive.(Here)

The post I picked as my favorite was the "new lease of life for optical drive" article because it gave quite a simple and novel way of playing your CD`s through your car stereo by just using an old optical drive which you may have discarded otherwise.

My comments on blogs:

Toshiba dynario annonced
view comment

Xbox 360 could get blu-ray drive
view comment

Wink glasses to keep eyeballs well lubricated
view comment

Degree charger concept
view comment

alan mc gee

2009-10-28T08:58:00.000-07:00

Student: (kim griffith 09001947)
Chosen blog: (alan mc gee www.guardian.co.uk/profile/alanmcgee)

- The author:

Alan mc gee - founder of creation records

Founded in 1983 it was a key label in the mid 80s indie movement

Mc gee signed such big name acts as: "the Jesus and Mary chain"

"Primal scream" and Irish act "my bloody valentine”, and after creation

went bankrupt in 1992 went on to discover oasis.

- His topics:

Being a long term music industry insider, mc gee generally blogs his opinions

On current and past states of the industry, his current musical likes, dislikes, whether

A current album is a "classic" and will stand the test of time, he also spends

A lot of his time going to underground gigs around England searching for

Undiscovered talent and bringing these acts to people’s attention through his blog,

Blog titles include "Is the rock opera making a comeback?"

"The best film soundtracks only need one songwriter"

"The undiscovered magic of the Cherrystones".

-frequency of posts:

Mc gee is quite a regular blogger with his blog serving almost as an online journal

And there is an average of four posts a month since January of this year

-the target audience:

By his own admission McGee has always tried to stay on the cutting edge of music

This is evident in his constant search for new talent, although he himself is in his 50's

So it could be said that his target audience is anywhere between 16 and 60.

-the language used:

The language used is descriptive and often humorous i.e.

"With Buddhist chants and psychedelic battle cries,

Dead Skeletons are the perfect outlet for the troubled Brian Jonestown Massacre front man"

-the page layout:

The page is well laid out, with posts arranged chronologically

And because the blog is part of the guardian newspapers

Website the graphics are of a professional standard.

-embedded artefacts;

There are many, including links to band websites and my space pages, links to videos,

And links to legal download sites where you can listen to the music he mentions in his blog.

-interaction:

There is much interaction on the blog page and the page gives a list of the most commented posts, the latest, and the most talked about

-my favourite post: "Why it doesn't matter if the Monkees were '4 real'"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/mar/10/monkees-pop-authenticity

-why I liked this post:

liked this post because of the title, which is attention grabbing and because the arguments contained in it

Are hilarious and convincing.

-Blogs commented on:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/oct/28/dig-anton-newcombe?commentpage=1

http://billycorgan.livejournal.com/40394.html

http://glittercop.blogspot.com/2009/10/billy-talks-about-effect-pedals-used-on.html

2009-10-28T08:47:00.000-07:00

Student: (kim )
Chosen blog: (title and URL)
Chosen post: (title and URL)

module wiki page

My comments on blogs:

2009-10-28T03:27:00.000-07:00

Hi! I'm Jane Doe (989898) and the blog I've chosen for this assignment is Daynuv. Daynuv is the name of a company involved in the creation and hosting of "3D immersive spaces on the Internet for Education and Training, Marketing & Communications and Virtual Events", as mentioned on their site.
As far as I could see, the blog has two authors, James and Keith, who both contribute to it. There are no categories or tags, but most of the recent posts are about events and new developments in 3D technologies. The frequency of posts is 1-2 a month and it seems to be fairly constant (the blog was started in April 2009). There were more posts in May and June (8, respectively 7). In my opinion, the blog is speaking to potential clients, keeping them up-to-date with their achievements and sharing news from the 3D technologies domain. The blog posts include a lot of videos and pictures. The layout of the page is simple but suggestive. The side bar includes links to archives, a link to their Twitter account, a blogroll(list of related blogs) and a list of the most recent posts. There is no much interaction taking place - just a few comments from people who are mentioned in posts and information contributed by readers (links to similar projects or applications).

My favourite post is titled Multi-touch or no-touch? Notes from 3Dcamp , authored by James. It speaks about an event I myself attended this summer, and about ways of interacting in virtual worlds other than by using a keyboard and a mouse. I found the idea of "digital puppeteering in a virtual world" fascinating. I also enjoyed watching the video on Project Natal included in the post - I heard a lot of people talking about it and I was curious to know what it was all about.

My comments on blogs:
1. http://www.irelandgirlgeekdinners.com/?p=94
2.
3.
4.

2009-10-27T14:20:00.000-07:00

Student: John Slattery (09004371)
Chosen blog: Pixelsumo (Here)

The blog which have chosen to review is Pixelsumo. Pixelsumo is a blog by Chris O'Shea. Chris O'Shea is an artist and designer who specialises in creating interactive art which often utilises digital media and technologies. He is very experienced in his field and he has had many clients in the form of private companies, as well as a number of commissions from public institutions. He has also created exhibition works for such names as the Tate Museum in Britain. His installations are often entertaining, but also cause one to ponder on the mechanics and thought process behind each piece.

Naturally, as the author is an artist/designer with an active interest in technology, his posts reflect his interest and involvement in those areas. Many of the posts are based around technological innovations, such as his post about Microsoft's new video based games control system. The majority of his posts are based around his interest in digital art installations which he has designed, and also designs and concepts by others which he finds interesting. Some posts also focus on news in the digital art or gaming industry, and events which he is interested in.

Pixelsumo's posts are perhaps a bit sparse for my liking, but were more frequent than the mustech.net which was far too sparse to be of any value, and far less frequent than Gizmondo's amount of posts, which was far too frequent to make keeping up with it anything short of a full time job. I received a total of 10 posts in my Google Reader from Pixelsumo. I have received 6 from MusTech.net, and a whopping 1000+ from Gizmondo. The posts from Pixelsumo have come roughly in weekly intervals, with a default 3-4 posts which were deposited by Google Reader upon subscription.

I would consider the target audience for a blog of this nature to be people between the ages 16-40 with interests in technology, alternative art, digital media or alternative entertainment.The language used by the author was, therefore suitable for an adult audience. I found it easy to understand, with the exception of a few new words derived from the technological world, which I had not previously encountered. The design of the blog was also quite interesting. Previous blog posts were selected by clicking on an image of the object/objects which were the topic of the blog.The blog posts themselves contained many links to external sources, as well as videos from video providers such as YouTube. Other embedded artefacts included images.Interaction in the blog takes place in the form of commenting the blogs, and the possibility of experiencing a conversation with Chris O'Shea himself, or other subscribers with interest and/or knowledge in the area.

Chosen post: The Fun Theory(Here)

My favourite blog post from Pixelsumo had to be the post entitled "The Fun Theory". It was a post which referred to a campaign advertisment for Volkswagen. In the blog, there was a number of images and videos which asked the question "Can we make people do things by making them more fun to do?". The videos contained two experiments where two objects were modified so that they provided a source of human interaction. It showed some very impressive conclusions. Later in the post, Chris directed our attention to some similar interactive installations. I liked this post especially because it showed the potential of interactive installations to modify human interactions for the better without making it a chore.

My comments on blogs:

Pixelsumo
Comment 1-http://www.pixelsumo.com/post/playful-conference/comment-page-1#comment-64173
Comment 2-http://www.pixelsumo.com/post/hand-from-above/comment-page-1#comment-64174
Comment 3-http://www.pixelsumo.com/post/project-natal/comment-page-1#comment-64175
Comment 4-http://www.pixelsumo.com/post/boom-bench/comment-page-1#comment-64176

Music, Technology And Education-MusTech.net
Comment 1-http://mustech.net/2009/10/13/google-wave-keyboard-shortcuts-and?dsq=20115039#comment-20115039
Comment 2-http://mustech.net/2009/09/28/excited-or-insulted-writing-songs?dsq=20116375#comment-20116375
Comment 3-http://mustech.net/2009/09/20/amazing-youtube-music-video-series-3?dsq=20116631#comment-20116631
Comment 4-http://mustech.net/2009/10/23/microsoft-7-the-upgrade-play-by-play?dsq=21106225#comment-21106225

Gizmodo
Unfortunately, Gizmodo does not allow commenting rights to people without an audition. Therefore, I was unable to comment on these blogs.

Our class blog

2009-10-18T16:36:00.000-07:00

This blog was created for collecting assignment 2 of the module CS4031 - Introduction to Digital Media, academic year 2009/2010.

The following week, I will post an example of how your posts should look like. You will also receive a user name and a password via e-mail.