Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages Through Our Student's Eyes » Second Life

Another Celeb Speaks Out…Close the internet?

tnturner — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 02:58:32 +0000

Found the link to this doozy of an article on Drudge Report just now. Really, I’m not surprised. I’ve always expressed my disdain and displeasure with celebs and professional athletes feeling that since they have the $$ they can dictate how others live their lives. This example did give me a nice factor of laughability. You can read the entire article here: The Sun Online – News: Why we must close the net.

Some of the highlights include Sir Elton as saying:

“We’re talking about things that are going to change the world and change the way people listen to music and that’s not going to happen with people blogging on the internet."

and

“I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span."

“There’s too much technology available."

don’t forget this one

“Let’s get out in the streets and march and protest instead of sitting at home and blogging."

This all comes from someone who is self-proclaiming: “I am the biggest technophobe of all time."

So in review….all we do is blog; we don’t communicate with each other at all; we’re boring (ok I read between the lines there and came up with that one); and not able to produce change.

I mean seriously here. Sir Elton. Get over yourself. Trying not to be holier than thou here but maybe looking in the mirror and seeing that the 70s and 80s slipped by you into a newer technological age might be in order. I’m going to finish with one more quote: “We’re talking about things that are going to change the world and change the way people listen to music and that’s not going to happen with people blogging on the internet."

I might be off my rocker here, but not being able to change the world? Because of blogging? Am I missing something?

*shakes head*

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages..

Tom.

Source: John, Sir Elton. "Why we must close the net." The Sun Online. 1 August 2007. 1 Aug 2007 .

Second Life Outage??

tnturner — Thu, 24 May 2007 01:16:52 +0000

Saw this report on Tech Crunch just now and well…I couldn’t resist making a comment on it. I nearly split a gut when reading some of this article. Two things that stand out:

“An update to Second Life’s client server will coincide with a 6 hour outage from 6am-12 noon PST Wednesday and Second Life users are not happy.” Being the gamer that I am, I’ve experienced 24 hour plus outages to World of Warcraft, Ultima Online and Everquest. We’re talking about games that I’ve probably sucked thousands and thousands of dollars into over the last decade. After the downtime, the product was better. Suck it up, enjoy your FIRST LIFE for 6 hours. This is getting into the ‘addiction’ part of this type of ‘tool’. Be warned about what we wish for.
“The then there is the various police investigations in a number of countries. The FBI recently started investigating Second Life for illegal online gambling. Police in Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands are investigating whether virtual rape in Second Life constitutes an offense, and German Police are investigating pedophilia on a service where virtual “age play” and bestiality are widespread.” And we want to use this as a platform to educate our children on? I don’t think so. Not with such rampant vulgar and obscene places, people and things out there. I’m not trying to be a holier than thou’ist here. I’m firmly of the belief that people have the right to choose where they go on the internet, what they view, and the things they do. Who am I to judge? I’m not. I just choose not to partake in such frivolity. However, without safeguards in place at the client level, we are putting our children/students at a higher risk of the things we strive to protect them from.

I will agree that Second Life is a great avenue to get together and have virtual one on one/face to face professional development opportunities. I myself just cannot support going into such a place that allows such things to exist. Again, this is my decision and I don’t judge, nor begrudge those that utilize the service. Until such measures are taken to rid the Second Life world of such things, I think I’m going to take a pass. I know, what a turnaround after blogging about my first Second Life experiences just about a month ago. Opinions change.

As always, I’m…
Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

Citation:

Riley, Duncan. “Anarchy, Discontent Plague Second Life.” Tech Crunch. 23 May 2007. Tech Crunch. 23 May 2007 .

Second Life – My First Impressions and Thoughts

tnturner — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 13:29:10 +0000

Ok….I will admit it… I had my apprehensions about Second Life from Day 1. Saying things like…”there’s no way this will work” and I think the word “silly” came out of my mouth at some point.

No more…I think I can get used to the navigation pretty quickly. In a matter of 10 minutes I had my dragon avatar suit going on, a set of black spider outfit type of thing, bat wings (TO THE BAT CAVE ROBIN!) and I was off to Kathy Schrock’s place. The second I walk in, she was right there wondering how I got into her place. Seems she forgot to lock the door or I’m an L33T Sup3R H@cK3r or something. From there she let me snag one of her schnazzy Schrock’s Guide for Educator T-shirts and I was off to the ISTE Complex. I will definitely head back there tonight when more people are around, should make for more interaction. Here’s some screen shots of Mithras Barbosa (combination of my online gaming persona and Pirates of the Caribbean, ARRGG!) and my first 30 minutes in Second Life.

The screen shots are saved in .bmp, and I used Zamzar to convert them to .jpg. I’m sure there are other tools out there…but truly like ease of use that zamzar gives.

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.