when there’s one half hour to go.

funny, this is something I told my advisor in comp sci 5 years ago we should do.

His response? Tough finding a teacher, and the field is moving towards criminal justice instead.

hm.

in the mood for the ol’ ultraviolence?

I know I am. I’ll f*%$&’in crush you.

one of my coworkers was talking about how soon people wouldn’t write anything down. how everyone would just either listen or watch what was going on. I told him that would never happen. People need a way of getting information that they are looking for, and text and the written word is the best way for that to happen.

I am not going to argue too much about the artistic side of things, because that is a bit beyond my ken, and it is not useful to argue about them, as it is largely subjective. So what is the main use of writing things down or putting things on video OTHER than art? I’d argue that it is packaging and storing information for recall at a later date.

So things are being stored for recall…why not audio, or visual, instead of text? It all depends on the information, I suppose…but for more or less ‘pure’ information, rather than experiences(which are more subjective and could arguably be put with art), text will beat audio and video everytime.

I’ll just mention two buzzwords learned in web design that support: scan and search. If the purpose is as stated above, the better the storage, the more efficient the recall. Audio and Video, for the majority of information, are(and perhaps always will be) much less efficient than text. Scanning involves just looking over an entire packaged form of information for any keywords, peices of interest, or specific phrases that may catch the eye. Searching, on the other hand, will pinpoint an exact peice of information.

Textual storage of information will always be best for recall. The information, if chunked correctly(another term from web design) will aid the person searching for it by organizing the layout so that similar items and connected themes are near one another. The information is also easily searchable(usually aided by mechanics(computers)) and it is then easier to scan the surrounding words and phrases to put that specific thing into context.

Audio will never be that easy…you COULD search it eventually, I suppose, but the amount of time after you found the phrase to listen to the surrounding information does not greatly improve having an audio file. Scanning for something that will interest or perhaps offer some other connection is so inefficient as to be ridiculous. You would have to listen to the entire package of audio information before you could make sure there was nothing within to be garnered. Sure it would be nice for effect to have a speech in audio, but it is an inefficient way to package the information needed. Audio is better for the EFFECT that it captures, which IS information of a sort, but a difficult one to recall due to the subjectivity it has upon the listener.

Video(in the sense of a dvd or movie or clip) has the same problems as audio. Yes, it’s entertaining and enjoyable; but it is, if anything, MORE inefficient than audio for the fact that you need to process both two forms of intake to parse the information coming at you. You cannot separate out the packaging of the audio and visual, because they are so interconnected…to do so would make the information meaningless. As stated above, the information packaged is not easily scannable. I would argue that DVDs with scannable scene menus are not audio or visual, because you’re picking those scenes based on the textual description beneath them. Even the information packed onto movies is best organized textually.

So until we eventually develop psychic powers, textually storing information will be the most efficient way to recall it and use it at a later time. We’ll never have only audio or visual, or only a combination of the two. Without text, things are unable to be drawn forth efficiently. Case in point: look at cell phones. Now look at the amount of communication happening between CALLING(audio) and TEXTING(textual)…even from a primarily audio device, it’s morphed into a textual one.

Long live the text!

$#(*&’n %$* *#&* (*$@^@$%(*&!!!!!!

working evenings at the hospital does nothing to improve my general outlook on life.