::A Geek in Korea::

I’ve been running Doggcatcher as my default podcasting client for the last three years, but tonight I finally uninstalled it entirely. Doggcatcher has never run without crashing on either of the phones I used it on. While it was feature rich and had the sped up playback feature I required, it locked up my phone one too many times and I finally decided that while I had paid for the app, it wasn’t fulfilling all of it’s duties and needed to be replaced.

I eventually settled on BeyondPod, and ended up purchasing it despite having a week to preview it. Not only did it have a sped up playback option, but the discovery process of loading new shows meant that I could quickly replace the 20+ feeds I follow easily, and find new shows as well. It also has a more intelligent layout, smart playback lists, and lots of sorting and display options for organizing the feeds. It also integrates RSS feeds better into the design to work as a hybrid news reader.

The best part of the switch to BeyondPod was that it doesn’t crash as often (so far). It doesn’t lock up randomly, or crash my entire phone. I was so locked in by my purchase of an expensive podcast player that I tolerated poor performance and was hesitant to buy a new fully featured player. Now that I decided that performance was worth the price tag of a slightly more expensive app, I’m happy with my decision. I’ve used the last app for three years, so I’m sure I’ll get some value out of the money I spent “upgrading” my player today.

Today there was a small class project I presented to my students. They needed to use adjectives presented in the unit and come up with a business plan that would describe different aspects of their company. Then they needed to come up with justifications for each of their choices and run through a mock interview session with someone pretending to be an loan officer. They were supposed to use convincing language to explain their idea.

One of the groups was finished early, so they wanted me to come up with a concept for my own interview while they acted as interviewers. I have a hard time coming up with a concept interesting for me to explain in detail that isn’t difficult for the students to ask questions about. I decided I’d have a crowd sourced audio tagging service where users could listen to audio provided on the web, add tags to the content to allow people to seek out the information easily, and use it to learn English or skip to content they were interested in videos online. I thought it would be an improvement on the links that Youtube provides that seeks specific times in videos.

The students let me get me through half of my pitch before they got out their phone, fired up the application, and showed me the finish product. Pikicast is basically that concept, already packaged and ready to go for Korean learners. My students showed me a demonstration where he searched for a keyword, and a podcast with that word being discussed or used in context was available. It had scripts and everything.

My concept wasn’t exactly the same, but it was close enough that I just stopped right there and just asked them questions about the finished phone application rather than talk about my idea for a hypothetical one. I was surprised that the idea had already been explored before I had even heard of it.

The class I taught today had a lesson about using past tense expressions to discuss fads. It was an entertaining activity to discover the origins of different trends in Korea. Most of the trends of the past decade I’ve seen personally or remembered hearing about, but occasionally they would bring up things before my time in Korea. Seeing what they thought was interesting, and how they looked at trends in the United States that made it to Korea was also fun.

According to my students, Starcraft, PC rooms, the IMF crisis, and fast Internet speeds occurred together in the same year, and sometime between 1997 and 2001 there were two television channels dedicated to Pro gaming (specifically Starcraft) as a result, and that trend continues today. According to some of my older students, both Disco, and Roller Disco were popular in Korea in the 1970′s, along with long hair for men. I totally missed that era, and trying to picture some of the students that would have been young and living through it totally cracked me up.

I also brought up trends that originated in Korea that went “viral”, discussed the meaning of “viral marketing”, and talked about how memes morph as they travel across the world. If I taught in a modernized classroom we would have been watching some of the weird variants of the Gangnam Style video that have popped up as that video has gone worldwide. One of the trends that also originated in Korea a few of my students knew about was the “Play Dead” (시체놀이)(sijaenori) phenomenon, and I demonstrated the later mutation of “planking” on some desks.

We built a timeline of different trends, their associated years, and used the lesson’s grammar to practice talking about trends that continue, died, or existed at certain points in the past. It was interesting to see when people remembered certain things happening, and how trends sped up once ubiquitous Internet connections allowed for the dissemination of information.

If you are thinking of using this activity in your own classroom, a word of caution. Opening the wikipedia page for Internet Phenomena is a dangerous way to spend time at work. If you don’t have an iron will you’ll likely fail to do anything productive. I was lucky to avoid finding too many unknown links that would have diverted myself from getting my lessons prepared, but I really would like to expand on this lesson in future sessions because it was a lot better than I had expected.

Over lunch, I got to discuss Transhumanism and the concept of The Singularity with my coworker. A third coworker was complaining about needing to research the implications of nanotechnology for a new class that had been added to their schedule. I was annoyed that I didn’t have the opportunity to get paid to do such a thing because of my schedule being so restricted. I wasn’t even approached for a job teaching topics I read about for fun.

I failed to reply about a “mystery class” before the topics had been settled up. Usually this is the best idea, but now that I found out the class has awesome content I’m kicking myself. What a missed opportunity! I’ve been interested in this concept, and have read cyberpunk and speculative science fiction for such a long time. When my coworker didn’t understand my enthusiasm as I mentioned some of the fundamental ideas behind the ideas presented, I figured out that I’m probably in the minority.

Why isn’t Snow Crash and The Diamond Age not mandatory reading for all intelligent people close to my age yet? I don’t know what the average person spends their time thinking about if it isn’t speculative ideas about the future regarding technology and the implications it has for mankind in the near and or distant future. Complaining about getting paid to read about interesting cool stuff? Why would you not want to research that? It beats teaching about the same old topics in a conversation class.

I’d love to teach classes in how awesome the future is going to be. I’d be really into the speculative ideas, fiction, and charting potential paths of progress in different fields. Of course, teaching that material to non-native speakers might be beyond my grasp since I can’t even explain it without tripping over my words to a coworker who was mildly interested in discussing it over lunch.

If I could just download information directly into his brain so that he could understand The Singularity, it’d be a lot better. Stupid irony.

During the summer camp this year, I made some purchases to prepare materials for my board game class. I got my hands on sticker paper on the camp’s budget, so now I have this paper to use in my university classes as well. I decided that I was going to do a hybrid ice breaker activity this coming semester in my first set of classes.

I’ve been doing a Venn Diagram “Meet your classmates” ice breaker. I break students into groups divisible by three, which conveniently works with the maximum enrollment of the class, and tell the students to try to come up with three or more items they’ve discussed with their group members in each part of an overlapping circle of relationships. Trying to find things people share, or share only partially, is a very interesting way to get to know a few people in your class. I then have one of the people in the group introduce their group members to the rest of the class, and they explain the most interesting thing they learned about each of their group members. I’ve done it a few times, it definitely sparks conversation, and it really helps me remember at least a few new names within the first week of class.

The new twist I am putting on this activity is taking advantage of all the new sticker paper I can use to make large name tags. Each student now has to come up with a “branded” name tag that describes themselves using images and their name. The students will take a few minutes of class to prepare these name tags, put them on, mingle, and try to find other people that they think, superficially, might have things in common, however superficially, with one another.

They’ll need to grab these two other partners, sit down, and then start doing the Venn diagram. Now they have a few things to talk about, like what their name tag means for example, and they can easily write each other’s names down in the diagram. The rest of the groups will also be able to learn the names of the people in the groups easily.  When I interview the groups, the first thing I’ll ask is what all of their name tags have in common when they formed their group.

I also suck at putting names to faces without lots of reinforcement, so being able to take their picture with my new laptop with their name tag visible will save me tons of time when I try to learn everyone’s name. Being able to have every student’s name with their picture with the limited student information I collect will save me tons of time when trying to remember names. I’ve never been able to exploit any technology in my Freshman classes before. I still teach with white boards and markers exclusively. Being able to go digital for a few classes will certainly help getting the classes set up for a change.

These new branded name tags will also let people be more creative and expressive, and I’ll award points for the best name tags to get people competing for the much sought after participation bonus points I add to my classes.

After going to the store to pick up my notebook computer, I was alerted to the fact that they hadn’t completed the update process yet. It was still running an upgrade to the version of Windows 7 that would allow for the English menus I requested to be installed. I’ve wasted enough time fighting Korean menus to know that while having to wait two hours to take my computer home is annoying, I’ll waste far more time searching through menus if I didn’t get it set up correctly the first time.

My vow to be more productive with my laptop was instantly broken when I installed Steam and got to work playing a game I couldn’t run on my own machine because of the quality of my old video card. I can run a game from a few years ago on high settings, which is more than my last machine could do. I’m not a cutting edge gamer anymore. I prefer simple card games to online shooters, so getting anything produced in the last five years running well on a machine I own was a feat. I got a few hours in exploring Rapture, and went about updating and installing all the programs I need to have my typical work requirements met.

The speed of my computer now is acceptable. I can run multiple programs, update, download, and still surf the web without any issues. The ability to play a few games from the last few years isn’t what I based my purchase on, and won’t be an ongoing concern. I tried to find the cables that would let me hook up my monitor to my laptop for even better gaming, but my HDMI cables have been misplaced. I’ll need to track those down and see how much the larger screen adds to the experience.

My wife wanted all the credit for suggesting I pick up a laptop computer, while being sure to put any of the actual decisions for the purchase on me so that I could be the person responsible if something goes wrong. Isn’t that always the case? Anyway, I’m happy with the machine so far, but it hasn’t seen much productive use yet.

The promises of houses for people in slums in a day weighed against the loss of construction jobs for for so many people.

[The Daily What]

Although I am interested in the ideas behind Transhumanism, one of the inevitable consequences of trying to become “more than human” is the modification process. The eventual merging of man and machine into a cyborg, not quite human, not quite machine mash-up that takes the strengths of both to accelerate mankind’s progress another step.

While things like Google Glass are awesome, (seriously, I’d gargoyle them in public, send me a pair), permanent body modification isn’t something I’ve ever considered. Outside of dental work, I have no tattoos, no piercings, and no desire for any decorative modification of any kind. I hate having my hair cut distinctively, so it’s not likely that I’m going to have a tattoo mark me permanently. That’s just how I am. I’m not saying it’ll never happen, but I can’t imagine what I’d ever think would be suitable for me.

This guy in the video got his arm modified because he wanted to attach an iPod Nano to his arm without wearing a wristband. Getting your arm modified to serve as a base for a product that is modified NEARLY EVERY YEAR, with a PROPRIETARY OPERATOR that might not allow future models in the same form factor is extremely shortsighted, let alone the fact that simple solutions exist to attach such a device to your arm. Telling someone with extensive tattoos that reach onto the neck and near the face that they should think about long term consequences because they might be making a poor decision probably won’t have much of an effect.

Besides, who the hell needs an iPod Nano for anything? Aren’t phones small enough to be carried and hold plenty of music? They are plenty of ways to listen to music easily enough, and none of them involve surgery. An iPod Nano doesn’t even connect to the Internet without a cable running to a computer. It’s basically a pretty interface for a flash drive with some offline apps, and you’d need another accessory to make it work wirelessly with headphones since having a wire running down your arm would look silly if you can’t even handle a wrist strap.

I have to admit, an iPod Nano is a little better than wearing a watch, which I do, but if I want to wear my watch all day it’s a little less traumatic and has a lower chance of infection. Theoretically, body modification to enhance functional man-machine interfaces is something I support being a geek, but seeing this in person doesn’t make me want to reach for sub-dermal piercing or strong magnets to modify myself to prepare for the future. I think I’ll make do with my pocket for my phone, and if I do decide to go under the knife, it’s going to be for something a hell of a lot better than an iPod Nano.

If all the people that are heavily into body modification are the people that turn into cyborgs, it isn’t going to be the future I anticipated living in.

[Reddit.]

ACTIVE X POP-UPS!

It is amazing that I might be able to live like a gargoyle sometime in my lifetime.

I went to work early to get some work done, then immediately got invited to the coffee break that everyone on my shift takes on Monday mornings. This is an hour of chatting and sitting around waiting for the sandwiches and coffee to arrive where a lot of peer office socializing occurs. It’s an office social obligation that I don’t really mind, as long as I think I can get my work done in the time remaining afterwards. Most of the conversation is just talking about people’s weekends, talking about graduate school papers, or talking about television or whatever else is going on in the office. There was some debate about a woman that entered the coffee shop, as some people were commenting on her someone brought up the social app 1km, and noted she might be using the social networking service.

I hadn’t been introduced to 1km before people mentioned it over coffee. One of my coworkers had it installed on his phone and said it was a great service for meeting women. He explained that it was a geo-aware service that alerted him when someone was nearby also using the service, and he could see if they were compatible matches by looking at their profiles. It could tell you if someone was in the room with you, or walking away down the street. All you need to do is turn on the application, share your location, and everyone nearby that is using the application is highlighted. You can specify for gender or interests, see their pictures, or anything else about the person that they’ve shared. You can see if people are looking for a relationship, what age ranges they are interested in, or what they like. That means you instantly have a way of finding a source of conversation before you even meet them. The coworker said that he knew someone that met a person and took them home for the night by using the application, which is why he thought it was worthwhile.

That struck me as funny, as there was a very similar “Gaydar” device that did nearly the same thing over a decade ago. I mentioned the Stephen Colbert “Gaydar”  inventor interview on The Daily Show, which no one knew about. That’s a decade old interview on a comedy show. I didn’t expect anyone to remember it, but I remember the interview as being particularly gut-wrenching to watch which was why I mentioned it.I was just pointing out that geo-aware hookup apps have been around for a long time.

I then remembered a more recent application. “It’s like Grindr, but straight people use it too?”

“What’s with you and all the gay apps? Do you have something to share with who you try to hook up with?”

UGH. I can’t stand overtly homophobic coworkers. I can’t believe people didn’t outgrow that in high school. I mean, really? Are you that insecure because you use a social hookup application? It has nothing to do with the apps being used by gay people. It was a huge social network dating app based on hooking up with people in your area from 2009. It’s exactly the same idea, but it’s been used in another community with a different preference. Besides, who knows what the hell Blendr is? Damn it, I happen to know the precedent for a social media application. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been living on the Internet for the last 15 years, not because it’s about a gay thing.

Anyway, someone at the table was curious and installed the application to see if it worked. I mentioned that I disliked geo-aware social applications because I found them invasive and creepy. No one else thought there was any problem to uploading lots of personal information about themselves on social media websites. All of the following phrases were said by someone at the table when I discussed my objections: “Oh, I’m always responsible with what I put online. No one can use that profile to identify things about me. Facebook isn’t really a problem. No one cares what I do online. I have nothing to hide. It’s never a problem to post something about my location or activities. What, do you have something to hide? What are you doing that makes you worried about privacy? Why don’t you like sharing information? Why do you care about privacy? Why are you so paranoid?”

Why hello, Internet generational gap. All of these people had also suffered identity fraud at one time or another.

I think I know a little about sharing things online. I just don’t like using the argument from authority, but I think having a blog for 11+ years allows me some knowledge on the subject. If you want to go ahead and share everything about yourself on Facebook, go ahead. I just don’t think that’s a good idea, and if you can’t imagine a scenario where sharing information could bite you in the ass, you must be sharing such trivial shit about your life that it might not ever really matter. It’s just another difference of opinion, but I think privacy is a virtue that once lost is almost impossible to regain, and I haven’t found many things worth losing any of my privacy over. I’d rather hold on to the few things I do that are private then spend my time advertising my location to the world all the time. Sometimes not sharing is a virtue too.

Anyway, the second coworker to install the app tried it out, and found that there were lots of people that were single, desperate people, clearly lying about their appearance, looking to find someone of a particular type. Women stating that they were looking for sugar daddies, people looking to start affairs, and all types of people that seemed somewhat sketchy. There were prostitutes that had discovered the service as a way of advertising their services, as you could see pictures and find their location without ever needing to go to a seedy location first. Cut out the middle-pimp, as it were. It was never stated, “Hey, this is a working girl,” but their profiles left very little to the imagination, and the app seemed to facilitate that sort of encounter perfectly. Sketchy to say the least. Perhaps that is how someone met someone using this app to take home. The person they met was on the clock, so to speak.

The most disturbing thing was that it only took someone 15 minutes from installing the application until they were stalking the nearest person they found online. They were looking at a stranger’s Facebook picture profile, discerning if they had a boyfriend in a serious relationship and trying to figure out exactly where they were relative to where we were at the time. It takes someone 15 minutes to turn into a total stalking creep. When we went into the student building, the entire application was filled with lonely single guys in different classrooms looking for ladies. We couldn’t recognize any of our students, but wouldn’t it be creepy to know that someone in your class was using the service? It took a relatively normal person 15 minutes to turn into a creep. What would happen when an actually weirdo got hold of this information? Still comfortable about sharing everything now?

I also found it extremely distasteful that you could sign up with someone else’s name, then use the service as a completely socially unacceptable stalker enabler. Imagine a revenge scenario? Sign up using someone else’s name, then solicit explicit contact with someone else’s name under false pretenses, then watch the fallout, or potentially blackmail the people involved. Online impersonation is one thing, but this is a service about meeting people in “meatspace” where things can really go wrong. What’s to stop you from ruining someone else’s reputation and or social standing using this application? I’m sure that’s against the terms of service, but once you ruin someone’s life, does it really matter? Getting doxxed sucks, but imagine having someone even worse happen to you in person every day for the rest of your life?

I’m just a cranky old man. Young people, blinded by the opportunity of a potential sexual encounter are willing to basically do anything without regard for their personal welfare. It’s the same as it’s always been, online or offline, except memories fade and people forget things offline, while online everything lives on forever. I think the stakes are a hell of a lot higher when posting content online. There are consequences for reckless online behavior, and I can’t believe people actually argue that point.

Anyway, I will not be installing the 1km application, as it does nothing I am interested in, but in younger circles it is popular. It’s a little too creepy for me. If you can manage the minimal signup procedures in Korean, you’ll be amazed at the number of people using it in any urban area.