FREE software! Revisting an older post for ENG 3333, Spring 2013

Check out this old post on my blog for links to free design software.

Also, here's a link to the companion website for our text, Document Design.

Remember that Photoshop (and/or GIMP) and Dreamweaver (and/or some other WYSIWYG editor) are on many of the computers in JM 103. Over the course of the semester, we'll be using these programs to produce some of our class assignments, so if you want them on your personal computer, these links will help you get them.

"New" design aesthetics?

Nothing for months (not that nothing interesting was happening; rather, I mean that I've just been lazy/busy and not writing anything on this blog), then POW, something interesting pops up. Gizmodo posted an article yesterday about a SXSW panel on "The New Aesthetic," a (kinda) new trend in digital design. That article linked out to a Wired article by Bruce Sterling and to several other sites, including Glitch - Designing Imperfection and a sort of manifesto on a site called Book Two, that comment on this New Aesthetic.

In part, The New Aesthetic (P.S. can't we come up with a better name than that?) is about representing the digital glitches inherent in - what to call them? - "failed" digital design. Errors sometimes created in digital design become art unto itself. Pixelation can (should) be celebrated. Googlemaps goofery is a comment on the nature of the visual form. OK, yeah, I'm oversimplifying it, but I think there are some interesting aspects of postmodernity going on in these concepts. Go read the artciles. What do you think?

Links for class today...

CBS news story about internet censhorship bill.
Basically the same story on Perez Hilton's blog, 'cause...

Basically the same story on The National Review's website.

Infographic about censorship in China.

Privacy in the age of Twitterbookspace?

Just a link and some food for thought as we jump into our discussion of privacy rights and communications technologies next week. Over the weekend, check out this editorial about real world privacy in the age of immediate, ubiquitous, digital communication. Terrifying Interesting food for thought.

Also, just because it fits in with some of our economics discussions this week (especially about global manufacturing and U.S. consumerism), check out this theory regarding price-hikes for our cell phones.

Advertising, privacy, and your use of the Interwebs

We're just starting our look at advertising rhetoric (let's call it chocolate, for now), and we've got privacy/freedom of expression coming up in the not-so-distant future (let's call it peanut-butter; I'm going somewhere with this metaphor).

Ta-DA! Marketplace Tech Report did a story today that is basically the Reese's Cup of my little blog post. See? I told you I was going somewhere with it.

The story is about a study done by Carnegie-Mellon (considered a VERY good technology-focused university) suggesting that our online "opt-out" decisions, supposedly protected by Federal mandates, have probably NOT been honored. In other words, when we thought we were protecting our online privacy as we avoided/engaged online advertising, it turns out that the advertisers were probably still collecting data on us. Give the article a read. Go on; click on some links...