I post a short comment about social software which Prasad got a link (.pdf), so I would like to link to the document for users who are interested in exploring the definition and information of social software.

URL : http://prasadlonkar.wordpress.com/2006/10/29/social-software-and-learning/

Document : http://www.futurelab.org.uk/download/pdfs/research/opening_education/
Social_Software_report.pdf

ARM.

I found one flash animation on the Internet for a long time, it seems to be linear-story. I would like to post it in order to share experience and someone can get some ideas from this file

I hope it can make you fun and may have some idea to create your new linear story in the concept of flash animation.

>> Flash – Animation – video powered by Metacafe <<

Good luck

ARM.

Computer games do not seem to be based on narratives: Classical action based games like Space Invaders (Taito 1977) or Donkey Kong (Nintendo 1981) do contain a framing narrative about, respectively, a space station attacked by aliens and a girl kidnapped by an evil ape. It is then the responsibility of the player to right this wrong – chase away the aliens, rescue the girl. This is the structure of a simple narrative: A good situation threatened, the hero has to restore order. But unlike narratives, where a part of the reader’s incentive is the desire to know the ending, the ending of an action-based game is known from the start; it is the goal of the player to actualise this good, wellknown ending. Additionally the narrative frames are not especially tied to the games; it takes only few graphical modifications to turn Space Invaders (space game) into Centipede (game where you fight spiders and centipede, Atari 1980). A traditional game like chess also has a similar narrative frame, one of two societies at war. But that is hardly the point of chess: Playing a game, one gradually ignores the story and graphics to focus exclusively on the structure of the game, i.e. what manoeuvres it takes to complete the game – no matter what the game “is about”. Tetris (Pazhitnov 1985) with the falling squares that have to be fitted contains no frame story or any indication of what you are “really” doing: The squares on the screen seem to be nothing but squares on the screen: You can have a computer game without any narrative elements. 

There seems to be a conflict between the temporalities of the game and the narrative : When something is interactive – like a game – the interactivity has to be now, when the player makes a choice. But the narrative has a basic trait of being about something past. Similarly, space is treated differently: Computer games always create space, where the player can move around, but narratives are very focused on skipping uninteresting spaces; a journey is only described when something actually happens. It is essential for the narrative that narration does not happen with constant speed, but that we shift between resume, cuts, and scene. The computer action game is based on real time, on the constant control of the player. It is a constituting trait of the narrative as such, and of the novel in particular, that the time of the narrator and the time of narrated are distanced in time. And that any novel raises questions of the identity and knowledge of the narrator. This relation between the narrated and the narrator is an important device of the novel. But the computer game does not share this temporal split between the time of the narrated, of the narrator and of the reading: In the computer game, these three times are imploded to a single now. This means that the computer game does not allow for the interesting variations in the relation between narrator and narrated.

Reference source :
http://www.jesperjuul.net/thesis/1-introduction.html

ARM

Multimedia may be broadly divided into linear and non-linear categories. Linear active content progresses without any navigation control for the viewer such as a cinema presentation. Non-linear content offers user interactivity to control progress as used with a computer game or used in self-paced computer based training. Non-linear content is also known as hypermedia content.

URL : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia

Supplement : The second paragraph of Multimedia’s description is a significant part enabling me to have more understanding “Multimedia”. I have confusion about linear and nonlinear, until I asked Simon Bold (my friend in the class) about those words, he made me clear, but this can give me having more understanding that Linear content is people cannot control their navigation in the content while Non linear content give me having ability to control exploring in the content just as computer games websites and so on.

ARM

 

Virtual reality (VR) is a technology which allows a user to interact with a computer-simulated environment. Most virtual reality environments are primarily visual experiences, displayed either on a computer screen or through special stereoscopic displays, but some simulations include additional sensory information, such as sound through speakers or headphones. Some advanced and experimental systems have included limited tactile information, known as force feedback. Users can interact with a virtual environment either through the use of standard input devices such as a keyboard and mouse, or through multimodal devices such as a wired glove, the Polhemus boom arm, and/or Omni directional treadmill. The simulated environment can be similar to the real world, for example, simulations for pilot or combat training, or it can differ significantly from reality, as in VR games. In practice, it is currently very difficult to create a high-fidelity virtual reality experience, due largely to technical limitations on processing power, image resolution and communication bandwidth. However, those limitations are expected to eventually be overcome as processor, imaging and data communication technologies become more powerful and cost-effective over time.
URL : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality  /  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:VR-Helm.jpg

ARM.

 

 Reference : (p.141 of “Principle of Interactive Multimedia”)

Interface is another word that I do not know clearly when I participate in class of Multimedia and people talked about interface. I thought about something happened on the monitor just that, but in reality it has many meaning in each term when people talk about it, the following items are some examples which I think it seems to be concern with my area.

   Ø Graphical user interfaces (GUI) accept input via devices such as computer keyboard and mouse and provide articulated graphical output on the computer monitor. There are at least two different principles widely used in GUI design: object-oriented interfaces (OOUI) and application oriented interfaces.URL : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphical_user_interface Supplement :  according to Principle of Interactive Multimedia of Mark Elsom – Cook (p.141), “the interpretation of these interfaces revolves around the four key aspects in the name.-      Window – An area of screen dedicated to a particular purpose Windows can (often) be moved, grown, shrunk, hidden behind things, tec. There will generally be many windows on a screen.-      Icon – An area of screen where a particular action can be initiated by clicking a mouse button.-      Menu – An area containing a range of alternative selections from which one is chosen.-      Pointer – A physical device represented by a pointer on the screen which communicates location information”
   Ø  Web-based user interfaces accept input and provide output by generating web pages which are transported via the Internet and viewed by the user using a web browser program. User interfaces that are common in various fields outside desktop computing :URL : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_interface

Reference source :
Elsom –Cook, Mark, Principles of Interactive Multimedia McGraw Hill 2001 ARM.

Today, I would like to present flash tutorials sources from You Tube due to my investigation.

I think it would be good for someone who want to practise seriously, this also is video tutorials, not text tutorials.

If you think it is useful for you, you can investigate in YouTube and find out “flash tutorials” in search box. I hope you will be happy with to start to make flash animation.

Good luck my friends.

Flash tutorial 

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Flash tutorial integration with Xara 3D6

ARM.

Today I would like to share my experience uploading .fla (flash video file) to Geocities (Webhosting of Yahoo).

I used to try to upload .fla file to there but it showed invalid name. I anyone knows which webhosting can support .fla of flash, please comment to me because I am trying to find another place which can support this file extension.

ARM.

Most game theories (von Neumann, Nash, Maynard Smith, Axelrod, …)
are based on a (so called) rational ‘optimality’
- in plain language: ‘to make most profit from least cost’.
- in real life, it is ‘the winner takes (almost) all’ concept.
Many disciplines (economics, business and commerce, politics, …) are based on this optimality.

At the LOWEST level, we play games to be winners – regardless!
A level UP, we keep playing to learn ‘behaviour’ and ‘capacity’ of ‘opposition’.
A level HIGHER, we play to continue to IMPROVE ourselves, opponents and the game.

We would come to see that a game is a tool that we could use to better our world.

It seems that we are in a TIT-FOR-TAT game (at the lowest and crudest level).
TAT-FOR-TAT can be run on-and-on until both sides have used up all resources,
they can ‘plunder’ from their (and ‘our’) environment.
Winners, losers, by players, by standers and society all could be ‘victims’ of the game.

Other references Links :
http://www.econ.canterbury.ac.nz/personal_pages/paul_walker/gt/hist.ht
http://www.nidambe11.net/ekonomiz/2005q4/article2005nov11p9.htm
ARM.

Skype is a communicative tool and a social software. I use it to connect with a person who live faraway such as my younger sister and my parents. It is easy to use and reliable signal.

I often use it while I am playing MSN messenger by using Skype to display the view of my family from web cam while MSN is used in chatting with text. Personally, I feel that it is a tool which can help me to save money from contact with my family in Thailand; however, I would be better for broadband internet connection or more because the social software needs a wide bandwidth to transfer the video signal. Also, it would be great if you can use unlimited download package.

Overall, it is a cool stuff.

ARM.