Today I experienced some problems with Spotify. The problem was that I could not log on to Spotify, and it returned an error stating that there was some problems with the firewall settings, also known as Error 110. After checking the firewalls, and confirmed that there was no problem with the rules, I was stuck. After searching and surfing for solutions on the net, I found other people experiencing the same problems that I had.

The problem seemed to be with the “Remember me” option. Other people that had the same problem just disabled the remember me option, and logged in as usual with their own password. The same solution worked for me. :-)

Just got to love the power of Google :-)

I’ve used the newest version of Windows Live Messenger for some time now, and I’ve noticed there’s a bug which is really annoying. What happens is that the WLM Contacts Server (wlcomm.exe) uses excessive amounts of resouces, which eventually leads to a total hang-up for all the applications running. This happens randomly, atleast in my case. What happens is that the wlcomm.exe process tend to use from about 15 to 60% of the CPU, and makes the computer run slow, and in worst case a hang-up or a system crash. It may also use excessive amounts of memory, but this hasn’t happened on my computer.

If you try to kill the wlcomm.exe process from within task manager, you will be logged off WLM. wlcomm.exe will start again when you log in the next time.

After a bit of searching around the net, I found a solution, it’s not perfect, but atleast it works. You will have two (2) options. The first is to downgrade to an older version of WLM/MSNmessenger, or the second, which is to install a different MSN client like pidgin or amsn. (There are other open source msn clients, just google it :-) )

Note: If you choose to downgrade to an older version of WLM / messenger, you will have to run the Microsoft Install Cleaner after the uninstall of WLM. Otherwise you will get an error while trying to install the older version, with the message that there is a newer version installed. Open the CleanUp Utility and highlight the Windows Live (WL) and Windows Live Messenger (WLM) files. Kudos to the user Bobbye from the techspot forum for this information, see techspot url under sources for more information.

If you have a solution for this error, without downgrading or installing another client, please post the solution in a comment, and I’ll update this article and include the solution.

Comments appreciated :-)

Sources:

• Information about the wlcomm.exe process (from whatsrunning.com)
• Information from a forum thread at techspot.com
• Windows Installer CleanUp Utility

Introduction:

In this essay we would see how the website Sun.com (Sun 2009) use different rhetorical effects to promote their product and different sections of their site. The use of connotations and denotations (Chandler 2002:173), signifier and signified, and the use of colors. To clarify the signifier and signified we will use the model created by Saussure (Chandler 2002:14).

General layout

The page itself have a consistent and clean look, with no disturbing color use. The website is divided into different sections on the main page. On the top of the page it has a navigation bar which is quite easy to understand and it also contains a search field. Top left beneath the navigation bar we have a download button and some featured products with direct hyperlinks to each product. Botton left there’s an advertisement frame, which change once in a while. Top right beneath the navigation bar we have the main content frame. This frame holds the newest news, and on the right side it has to boxes which contain information about a trial version of a product and the other one has a link to information about cloud computing. Bottom middle frame contains a short information about free trials and hot deals that are available at this time. Bottom right contains a news feeder based on RSS technology. The contains a set of links to different parts of the site which provide specific information about that part, either it’s a privacy policy or terms of use.

Semiotic analysis: the findings.

In this section we will focus on the findings from the semiotic analysis and point out why these different parts acts as they do. First up we’ll take a look on the download button on the right side of the page. This orange button is distinctive from the general color scheme of the website. The button is clear and easy to notice, it’s almost as it says «click me». It signifies a link to the download page, where the download page is the signified. Next up are the content frame and of course its content. The content frame have a little navigation bar on the top, which can be used to get different content based on the category viewed. We’ll concentrate on the «featured» category and the main image which shows us a big container, a short piece of text, and two small frames with additional related information. The latter will not be discussed.

While focusing on the picture, we can see the big shipping container with different logo’s from software provided by Sun, and the Sun logo itself. On the right side of the picture, we have a short text that says: «The Internet. In a Box. The Internet Archive’s vast and growing database is now stored in a Sun MD.» The first line, containing «The Internet» text are colored orange, to make explicit that this is what all the fuzz is about. The next line, which states «In a Box» are colored white, like rest of the text. So, what is this? Can we contain the whole Internet in a box? How big is this box? Which box are they talking about? This statement can be understood differently by every person that reads it. If you know what a Sun MD is, this will give you another meaning rather than a person with no experience would maybe interpret it as «storing the whole Internet in a cardboard box». These two different meanings can be different connotations, as Daniel Chandler (2002) states in his book: «The term ‘connotation’ is used to refer to the socio-cultural and ‘personal’ associations (ideological, emotional, etc.) of the sign.» The text itself would be a denotation, which is the literal meaning of the word or the sentence as a whole (Chandler 2002:137). The sign here would be the arbitrary text along with the rest of the image as a whole that generates a new meaning, that would be «you can store the whole Internet in this type of container». While the text and container in the image promotes different signs alone, they provide a more complete meaning together.

Summary

This website contains signs that are obvious, the download button stands out because it’s orange, when the rest of the layout is black and dark colored. This causes the user to see where they should click to get to the download page, and it’s hard to overlook. As mentioned earlier the content frame contains different material based on categories in the form of tabs. The main focus are on the featured category with the container image, which provide different meaning to different people based on the previous experience with the Sun MD (Modular Datacenter). People with the appropriate experience would see the the right sign, which is that this modular datacenter can contain all the webpages on the Internet because it can store up to 2 petabytes of data. While others would begin to wonder how this is possible, to contain the Internet as a whole in a box. It doesn’t matter what type of box it is, some would possibly interpret the box as the container, while others don’t.

Conclusion:

The semiotic analysis of the Sun.com website provides a set of different things to focus on. The layout itself is pretty neat with a dark colored theme. By using a dark colored layout it is possible to point out specific things on the site with other bright colors, like the download button which is orange. The website is also built up by using different frames for different content, which gives the user the impression of a good structure and easy to understand user interface. The main focus of the semiotic analysis is the featured tab in the main content frame in the middle. This image can give different people different meaning based on what the user knows about this topic. All of this points out that the website can give very useful information to the people who needs it, and may be frustrating for others.

Words: 1006

Sources:

1. Sun Microsystems. 2009. Sun Microsystems. Http://www.sun.com [Downloaded 27^th march 2009]

2. Chandler, D. 2002. Semiotics: The Basics. London New York : Routledge

Spotify is a really genius streaming music service, which is invite-only if you don’t want to pay a monthly fee. You can’t get an invite you say? Well, you may be able to get an invite through a friend, or by logging on to the Quakenet IRC network and joining the #spotify channel.  Instructions are provided in the topic of the channel. :-)

Go get the invite you want! :D

Got a fresh and funky playlist? Share the URL in a comment :-

Introduction:

Mark Bauerleins (2008a) book have generated a lot of controversy through the aspect that today’s youth are dumb and gets dumber by using the technology available for them. Bauerleins main point is that the technology that should have helped today’s teen’s had an rather different effect than what one should expect. To point this out, we’ll make an semiotic analysis of the website associated with the book (Bauerlein 2008b) which contains different material related to the book.

Semiotic analysis of the website: The Dumbest Generation

Mark Bauerleins new book, The Dumbest Generation have as mentioned earlier a webpage accompanied by the book, for supplementing reasons as extra material in form of interviews, articles and so on. First thing up in this analysis are the use of signs, the signifier and the signified, as defined in the Saussure’s model of the sign (Chandler 2002:14-28).

The first page we will analyze is the Welcome page, which is the first page you’ll see when browsing to this site. At the first glance of the page, you’ll be presented with a menu on the left, where you can navigate to different parts of the site. On the top we have the header, which states «The Dumbest Generation» and on the right we have the content. The content on the welcome page contains a string of text which can be arbitrary, an animated text compilation, and a big image that have the text: «The Dumbest Generation: how the digital age stupefies young Americans and jeopardizes our future (or, don’t trust anyone under 30)». (Bauerlein 2008c).

Now we have all the elements of the page laid out, and it’s time to evaluate them one by one. First runner up we have the navigation menu. It’s quite simple and have a boxed layout with grey text.

On the other hand, we have the headline, which states «The Dumbest Generation» with the color red. The use of the color red will arouse different feelings in people. «Studies show that red can have a physical effect, increasing the rate of respiration and raising blood pressure» (Bear 2009). With this in hand, we can see that the use of red might be a rhetorical move, in the way that it play’s with our emotions. «Flashing red lights denote danger or emergency. Stop signs and stop lights are red to get the drivers’ attention and alert them to the dangers of the intersection.» (Bear 2009). One could interpret this as a provocative move since it states that it’s the dumbest generation and play’s it out by using a color which, as stated earlier, arouse different emotions within every individual and can provide signals that there is a danger about the claim. The color red is also widely used for getting attention and prevent the message from disappering in the content as a whole. (Bear 2009).

We can also see another string of text, which represents a second headline that states «50 Million Minds Diverted, Distracted, Devoured». This text is in the color blue and Jacci Howard Bear defines this as «Blue is calming. It can be strong and steadfast or light and friendly. Almost everyone likes some shade of the color blue.» This applies a bit to irony, whereas the message is strong and contains an important statement it get’s buried by the use of the color blue. It is as Bear defined it calming, and it gives a calming effect on the statement.

The elements described now, are the static elements of the website. These elements are on every page and in the same form. Next up is the specific elements for the welcome and main pages. As explained earlier, the specific elements related to the welcome page are an animated text compilation and a «dumbest generation» image, which also is the cover image of the book.

Welcome page

Animated text compilation

The animated text, can represent different things for different people. In fact this animation of the text can be associated with games and advertisement, due to the change of color and size of the text from the start of the animation to the end. In the beginning of the animation the text’s size is big and fades down to a standard readable size and changes quickly from the color red to black. When Saussure’s model about signs are taking into concideration here, we can see different signs. The animation signifier can represent different signified’s as scrolling credits text in a movie or a game. The animated text compilation contains information about what the American youth have available, what they do in their sparetime, and what they don’t do, or won’t do. The way the animation is made, draws the attention to it, and makes it interesting for the viewer.

Image

As the next element for discussion is the main image on the welcome page. This image contains different elements. There are some robots rising a flag, a parody of cd’s explicit content warning sign and some text. The robots rising the flag is a ironic parody on the picture of the soldiers rising the american flag on Iwo Jima. By using this link to the World War II, it’s possible to say that the «the dumbest generation» statement can be a play with words, based on the book called «The Greatest Generation» by Tom Brokaw. A part of the text is also colored red, as mentioned earlier the color red can arouse different feelings within people and is often used as a way to get attention.
On the bottom of the image, we have the well known explicit content warning label for compact discs. The use of this warning label, in addition to the text in red («dumbest») causes a warning effect. That this issue is something one should address and take a closer look at. When we look at the image as a whole again, with the robots rising the flag and the warning signs. This tells us that the dumbest generation can or will not perform a simple task like rising the flag and need some help to accomplish it. With the explicit content sign and the red text in place, this also works as another sign in the image, which creates an effect of warning and fear, which on the other hand can be considered silly by others.

Home page

This page contains a short introduction to the book itself. It’s explained how this generation could be called the dumbest generation.There is two images on this page, and both of them have some arbitrary text which explains how this can be the dumbest generation. On the bottom of the text, there’s an paragraph headline that states «the not so greatest generation» in red. Which mentioned earlier kan have different effects on people. This headline also connects to the content of the paragraph, which states that some might think this is only a tradtion to think like this, but in reality there are studies proving the dumbness of this generation.

Summary

This page contains different way’s of promoting it’s content. There are many parodies and much irony. The use of the color red in specific places and by the use of well known sign’s, show how this generation may be the dumbest.

Words: 1298.

Sources:

1. Bear, J.H. 2009. Color Meanings – Explore Palettes and Symbolism – Color Meaning and Colors That Go Together. About.com. http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/color/a/symbolism.htm [Downloaded 27^th february 2009]

2. Bauerlein, M. 2008a. The dumbest generation : how the digital age stupefies young Americans and jeopardizes our future ; (or, don’t trust anyone under 30). New York : Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin

3. Bauerlein, M. 2008b. Dumbest Generation. http://www.dumbestgeneration.com/ [Downloaded 27^th February 2009]

4. Brokaw, T. 1998. The greatest generation. New York : Random House

5. Chandler, D. 2002. Semiotics: The Basics. London New York : Routledge

YouTube – Google Chrome, Japan.

Neat Google Chrome ad :-)

A compilation of applications that would be useful for your smartphone.

Networking:

• MidpSSH (SSH1/2 and telnet client)
• Mobile Web Server

Fitness:

• Step counter (Nokia E66 is not supported, yet..)
• Sports Tracker
• Wellness Diary (Data from Sports Tracker and Step Counter can be imported to this app)

Utilities:

• pyS60 [Post @ this blogg]

Media:

• Location Tagger
• Twibble (twitter app)

Useful applications will be added to the list. If you have an application that you would like to add to this list, post a comment.

Rettsaken mot ThePirateBay | Under overflaten.

Som kjent er rettsaken mot The Piratebay startet. Må si meg enig i innlegget skrammel(?) som lenkes til ovenfor. Det virker som myndighetene ikke klarer å skille hva som er data og hva som er metadata. Torrentfiler er som kjent kun metadata for de reelle dataene (lyd,bilde,programvare etc) og hvor disse finnes. (Les koble til en tracker, for så å finne aktuelle peers som har filen(e)).

Platebransjen klager nå over tapte innteker og vil ha kompensasjon for dette. Er det kun piratkopiering som har “svekket” salget av musikk og filmer? I think not! Hadde platebransjen vært litt up to date på teknologisiden, ville de for mange år siden forsøkt en iTunes lignende versjon for å selge de åndsverkene det er snakk om. Mens det som skjer nå er at plateselskapene ser at inntektene dropper, og skylder da på piratkopiering. Det at man kan handle musikk via nettet har tydeligvis ingenting å si, selv om de taper mange kroner per plate kontra ett kjøp i en platebutikk. Men så er det jo slik, at man kjøper musikken, ikke mediet den er distribuert på. At platebransjen krever 100.000.000kr av TPB er latterlig. Skal de stå som syndebukk for alle torrenttrackers verden over? Er det en sum som er kalkulert eller er det summen direktørene i plateselskapene bare plutselig kom på? Hvem vet, men det som er sikkert er at TBP ikke tjener penger på sin geskjeft da alt faktisk er gratis for brukerne.

Denne rettsaken kan oppsummeres med ett ord, latterlig.

Ser frem til resultatet fra denne rettsaken. Minnes godt rettsaken til DVD-Jon.

Oppdatering:
TPB-gjengen ble dømt, men de har anket. Det ble også klart at dommeren var inhabil i denne saken. Neste steg blir meget spennende.

Hilarious clip from Balls of Steel :-)