Book Covers for 1984 12-14-09

These are different book covers for 1984, the novel by George Orwell. This book is set in a bleak future where a totalitarian government enforces control by eliminating privacy and instilling fear in its citizens.

This is the Indonesian cover for 1984. It may not necessarily fit with the story, since people in the book aren't necessarily bar-coded. However, it may symbolize how people in the book are not seen as individuals.

The big, colorful balloon-type letters against the blank background don't exactly fit with the tone of the story. As stated earlier, this story is about a bleak, dystopian future. The letters give off a cheerful tone.

This cover is stark and simple, with a single piece of torn paper saying "Nineteen Eighty-Four". It doesn't give us much information about the book itself. However, that may be a good thing to stir up the curiosity of those wanting to read the book.
This cover shows Big Brother juxtaposed with the tagline, "Big Brother is Watching You". In the lower-left corner, there is a rat. The rat is an important symbol in the book, but revealing what it symbolizes may spoil the book for those who haven't read it yet.

This cover was shown to us in class. Let me say that this cover is both unintentionally hilarious and inappropriate in many ways. First, the woman in the foreground is supposed to be part of the "anti-sex union", and yet she's wearing a cleavage exposing uniform, which ends up being seductive. Second, the man in black seems to be wearing a disturbing type of leather uniform, making him look like an S&M man. Also, everyone seems to be wearing sleeveless uniforms, even though they wouldn't be wearing this in the book. This cover is pretty unfitting. In fact, the cover makes the book look more like pornography than anything.

This cover is fairly recent. The cover depicts an eye in the middle of what appears to be a Communist-styled poster, evident in its use of black and red. The eye is supposed to symbolize how everyone in the society is being watched by Big Brother.

Alternate Book Covers for Brave New World 12-14-09

This entry is about different book covers of the same book. This book is titled Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. The book is about a futuristic "Utopian" society in which people were all cloned, conditioned and placed into different social groups. The cloned people are all free to take drugs called Soma and participate in non-conceptual sex.

This cover uses the tagline: "The mighty novel of a soulless, streamlined Eden, and two who escape it". We believe that the two people in the cover are supposed to be the "Adam" and "Eve" of the story. This couple starts to escape from modern society into a more "primitive" place, just like in the Biblical book of Genesis. It is not clear who these characters from the book are.

The human limbs with the body of mechanical parts is somewhat reminiscent of Dada(an early 1900s art movement that rebelled against everything), yet at the same time, it symbolizes the mechanical nature of the futuristic society in which the book takes place.

This cover was inspired by Futurism, an art movement that embraced the increasingly mechanized society. More specifically, it may have been inspired by the 1927 Fritz Lang movie Metropolis, which also features a futuristic society.
This book cover captures the futuristic nature of the book and the humanoid "robots" symbolize the clones and how the clones were conditioned, or rather "programmed", to obey the society and to appreciate their own social class at an early age.

Article(s): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurism_(art)

Playstation Portable Models 12-13-09

This journal entry will be about the different models of the Playstation Portable. There have been four models, thus far. First, let's look at the first three.

The first PSP model, also known as the PSP-1000, is the bulkiest of the three. The control stick is also bulkier. They've flattened it in the newer models. The newer models(2000 and 3000) have more features as well, including built-in microphone and more hard-drive memory than the 1000.

Now let's look at the PSP Go.

The PSP Go is the smallest and youngest PSP model. Unfortunately, there is no UMD drive and gamers will have to buy and download games from the Playstation Network(if they have a PS3). This may prove frustrating and costly for people who already own games bought from the PSN.

In fact, this may be Sony's equivalent to the iPod Shuffle(see previous entry for details). I would rather take the PSP-3000 over the PSP Go, because of more functionality, just like the iPhone vs. the iPod Touch.

Articles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSP

iPod models 12-12-09

This journal entry is about Apple's MP3 device, the iPod, and its different models. The iPod Classic, Touch, and Nano have screen interfaces, but the Shuffle doesn't, which may make it hard to know what song is coming up, unless you've memorized the order of the song track. Though, if I may, there may be a misnomer. If anything, the Shuffle and Nano should switch names, because the Shuffle is the smallest iPod model, and the word "nano" implies tiny size.

Overall, which model does the general public like the most?

After multiple fights on Googlefight, it seems as if the iPod Touch is the best or most popular iPod model.

Oddly, the iPod Touch, the most functional model, looks almost like the lost twin brother of the iPhone. In fact, this article from AppleiPhoneReview states that consumers will have a hard choice choosing between the two, but also points out that the iPod touch has less features than the iPhone.

I'm not sure which to go for, either. The iPhone only has 8GB of space, but has phone functionality. The iPod touch has 16GB, but less functionality. It's a balancing act.

Which one would win in Googlefight.com? It seems that the iPhone is the overall winner. It seems that overall functionality is better than file size.

Google Chrome 12-11-09

This is the video ad for Youtube Chrome. I'd like to thank Thomas Shackelford for sending it to me.

Anyway, I've just watched the ad, and I think that Google was very creative in showing how their web browser works. For example, they used a Rube Goldberg device to show a metaphor in how fast the website is. In another segment, they had balloons labelled with "dangerous" symbols as a metaphor for viruses and malicious software. Then they popped the balloons with sharp objects, but the browser "window" protected the viewer from getting splattered by the gunk from the balloons. This illustrates how Google Chrome can protect your computer from viruses.

At the end of the full video, a "menu" shows up and it uses annotations as links to different parts of the video, just like in the BooneOakley.com Youtube videos.

Online Egg-timer 12-11-09

http://www.online-stopwatch.com/eggtimer-countdown/full-screen/

This is an online egg timer that I have found recently. I think that this very tool itself combines Mr. Mannheimer's lectures on "time" and "metaphors" into one.

It deals with time, since you can set a certain amount of time in this screen to do what you have to do. This is also a metaphor for a real countdown timer that is usually found on microwaves, digital watches, etc.

The stop watch in this picture is a metaphor for a real hourglass, which was formerly used to tell and/or measure time. Speaking of which, I actually set this timer for 2 min. and 1 sec. as a reference to N201.

You could also make a game out of this countdown timer, such as "how many letters can you type in (number of) minutes and (number of) seconds?" or "how many words can you write in(amount of time)?" Anything is possible.

Red Robin Food Customizer 12-9-09

http://www.redrobin.com/food/

This is the food customizer from the Red Robin Gourmet Burgers website.

I think that this is pretty interesting, because it allows you to make continuous changes to your burger or meal of choice until you pick the one that's perfect for you...that is, if you go to Red Robin or plan to do so.

Burger King and Five Guys' burger chains also allow custom burgers with multiple extra toppings, but this customizer is better than both, in my opinion, because it has a wider range of condiments and toppings than those chains. It also lets you see the caloric intake of the customized burger or food of choice, so it's perfect for those health-conscious "calorie watchers".

This is pretty much a literal example of Mr. Mannheimer's food metaphors. He might like this. :)