This 1996 EDUCAUSE paper by G.D. Bothun of University of Oregon, “Teaching Via Electrons: Networked Courseware at the University of Oregon” provides a compelling look into the early questions and concerns surrounding instructional technology involving the web. It was striking to see just how many of the topics mentioned are still relevant, in particular this bit on the yet undecided future of web-based open content:
In an open system, other professionals in the field will have access to the developed curriculum products and can build on them. The curriculum development effort at the UO has certainly not been done in a vacuum, as material from elsewhere has been used. In turn, we make all our developed material freely available. This open exchange of resources potentially allows for joint curriculum development among experts in a format that is easy to update.
Huzzah! the beginnings of open education, the revolution will be networked! But wait, here come the commercial publishing houses….
It has long been customary in most disciplines to choose certain textbooks which define the core-course curriculum. Unfortunately, textbooks do not rapidly respond to feedback from the users to redesign the curriculum. In theory, network-based curriculum resources could rapidly evolve into a very high quality, somewhat standardized product. Clearly, this has not yet happened in any discipline. Herein lies another profound challenge for the higher education community. A wide variety of knowledge sources are making their data and research available on the World Wide Web. The key is for effective integration of these individual knowledge sources into subject-based curriculum products. Will this integration be done by the content experts located at colleges and universities or will it be done by the commercial publishing houses that may only offer limited access?
Reminds me of another passage, this one in Ecclesiastes 1:9 from the Good Book:
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
Following-up on my PS4 charging port fix, I decided to double-down and fix the PS5 stick drift issue that one of the controllers still has even after endlessly pressing down and rotating the stick clockwise and counterclockwise (NB: this method did work for one of the two controllers). This meant taking the controller apart, which is absolutely a pain in the ass for the PS5 controller, especially compared to how simple it is to disassemble the PS4 controller. From hidden screws to removing shoulder buttons to various plastic clinches, be careful with this one. I used this video to take it apart, but take it with a grain of salt when he says it’s easy.
Once apart and the battery and circuit board removed you then need to identify the stick giving you issues. This should be easy enough given you should know already when you were playing a game and things went south (or north or east or west). That said, this gamepad tester site is a cool find as a result of this process. It helps you identify even the slightest drift, but also lets you test every button or joystick on your gamepad to confirm all are working. Anyway, once the controller is apart follow along with this video which will explain the issue and show you how to both clean and/or replace the wiper and the track of the stick. I just cleaned the track and wiper with a bit of isopropyl alcohol and I was good to go.
Not much more to say, I’m really just using this post to save the gamepad tester URL and the two videos that helped with the fix. The thing that annoys me about this issue is it happened pretty much out-of-the-box. Rather than the normal wear and tear folks suggest as the cause, my controller had drift almost immediately. This smells more like a manufacturing fault or bad quality assurance than anything else.
I’ve been using the PS4 controllers for my RetroPie and Batocera given the PS5 has replaced the former console.* The PS4 gave our family a solid 10 years of work (after a fix or two), but it’s now slated for the bava console museum. Unfortunately both the PS4 controllers I had been using with my retro setups stopped working recently, but luckily I’ve been down this road before. The USB port on the PS4 controller is pretty fragile, and sooner or later the wear and tear on the charging port catches up with you. That said, both going at around the same time was odd. I picked up two replacement ports (model JDS-030) for about $10 to see if my hunch was right.
The fix requires opening up your PS4 controller, but the operation is pretty simple. You’re just disconnecting a ribbon cable from the battery circuit board which allows you to remove the old USB port cleanly and replace it with a new one. There are tons of tutorials online for doing this procedure, and none I could pretend to do better. That said here’s a look at the ribbon cable on the battery board you need to simply pull on to remove.
A look at the PS4 battery and ribbon cable that connects to the USB port.
Once that’s off, the port on the bottom part of the controller needs to be removed and replaced, and once that’s done your controller should charge again.
A look at a JDS-030 port on a PS4 controller (with ribbon cable already removed)
Anyway, I replaced both charging ports on both controllers and I was 2-for-2, which felt pretty awesome. I can now dedicate one controller to the RetroPie in my home office and the other to the Batocera in bavastudio. Winning!
I used the PS3 controller on the Retropie in the interim and it was annoying because every time I plugged it in it would go into dual shock mode and shake uncontrollably until I reset it. The PS5 controller works cleanly over bluetooth with the Batocera and I’m hoping I can get the PS4 controller to work wirelessly on the Batocera as well.
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*Another thing I must add is that the stick drift on the out-of-the-box PS5 controllers is terrible, and in my mind inexcusable. I bought a setup with two controllers and both were unusable as a result of the stick drift, how is that acceptable Sony?
Over the last 10+ years Stephen King has not only proven to be one of the more prescient literary figures, but also the coolest. He’s been on social media talking smack on the shitstorm that is American politics for the last 10+ years without any fucks to give. Rock, not rot!
Where are all those literary critics turned up their nose at this badass for the last 40 years now? Anyway, the following clip from NowThis has King talking about his Trump-like character Greg Stillson from the novel Dead Zone.* It’s a quick, fun watch.
This is pretty timely because after getting close to finishing The Shining diorama (coming soon,!) I have been thinking about taking a scene from David Cronenberg’s brilliant adaptation of Dead Zone (1984). I ‘d been toying with trying to figure out how to do the scene where the hockey kids fall through the ice into the pond, but that might not only be impossible but also go over like a lead balloon here in Trento.
The other idea I floated by the recruits that will be imported from Canada to help me with this one is getting the shot of Greg Stillson on stage right before he has his political career-ending (even life ending) child shield moment.
Something like this shot of victory
Another idea I have been thinking about is a scaled-up version of the following shot that has the gun on the Newsweek cover with a cigarette burning in the ashtray.
Thinking through a scaled-up version of this shot to fill-up the window, maybe at an inclination to create a sense of depth?
Luckily I have a month or two to mull this one over before work starts on what will be the third diorama for the bavastudio. Another thing, I should probably share this post with my guest curators to get their feedback given they will be doing the heavy lifting 🙂 Fortunately, this provides the perfect excuse to re-watch one of my very favorite films yet again.
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*For those readers who know Andy Rush, can you see the resemblance between him and King? It’s not just the healthy hair, even the mannerism and the way of talking.
If you didn’t know any better you might think this post was shaping about to be a deep rumination about the nature of this blog, as Martin Weller did so well the other day. But, alas, no need for that because this was, is, and always will be a b blog, and to re-enforce that fact let’s dig into the 10th episode of the Family Pictures podcast, “Father Knows Death,” wherein we discuss the 1987 b-movie gem The Stepfather.
If the idea of watching a much younger Terry O’Quinn of John Locke fame from Lost playing a homicidal maniac is not enough to entice you, how about an allegory of the Reagan 80s that was arguably the birth of the right-wing conservatism that we are currently witnessing go off the rails in the US? We got it all on the Family Pictures podcast, we’ll feed your pop culture hankerings while also educating you about the fall of cultural empires; it’s junk food for the soul.
“But wait a minute, who am I here? Ahhh, Jerry, Jerry Blake.” That’s the line from this film that really ties the room together. Our protagonist goes from family to family and identity to identity trying to reproduce the ideal Leave it to Beaver scenario from the 1950s only to be disappointed time and again. But rather than coming to terms with the impossibility of his retrograde conservative vision he instead leaves a blood mess in his wake as he continues his futile quest—the political allegory coming together for you now?
Robbie Conal’s popular political protest poster from the 1980s: “Reagan/ Contradiction”
As Robbie Conal‘s Reagan/Contradiction guerrila protest poster from the 1980s points out about Reagan, at the heart of Jerry Blake’s conservatism is the contradiction of enforcing family values with violence (at home the war on drugs and abroad the Iran-Contra Affair amongst others). In his 2009 essay for AV Club, Scott Tobias writes about the contradiction at the heart of the “Reagan Revolution” in his 2009 essay on this film:
Coming seven years into a Reagan Revolution that attempted to turn back the clock of American culture, The Stepfather presented Jerry as the perverse face of family values, a proudly “old-fashioned” guy who still watches Mr. Ed, talks about real estate as “selling the American Dream,” and goes so far to protect his stepdaughter’s purity that he confuses a goodnight kiss for attempted rape. Throughout the film, Jerry tries to impose his reactionary ideals onto a family—and if you count those he’s murdered or will murder, families plural—that can’t function within those tight parameters.
It’s worth noting that Terry O’Quinn’s performance is absolutely brilliant, and it’s safe to say without it this film would have most likely been forgotten. But the stars aligned and the film became a cult classic because of that performance, what’s more it opened up the opportunity for pop culture as critique of a moment in the moment. As The Stepfather argues, it’s the kids who see through the hypocrisy of the conservative adults. This may explain why youth subcultures like punk and hip hop were such strident responses to the reactionary politics of the 80s, crying out against deregulation, a growing police state, and eroding public services. B-movies like The Stepfather use the rise of that turmoil and violence as a form of entertainment to not only critique that 1950s family mythos, but also underscore the deep contradictions at the heart of the conservative family values that when taken to their logical end over the following 40 years would result in more and more families unable to afford the basics like shelter, food, and clothes on their back. How does that benefit that mythical family unit? Where is you “City Upon the Hill” now, Mr. Reagan?
I love the bit in the 1984 documentary Another State of Mindwhere various figures, including Keith Morris of the Circle Jerks, talk about the generational struggles around the idea of family and what it means to live in the Reagan 80s.
Just six years after The Stepfather the rise of the aggrieved white male that has become the template for the MAGA man can be seen in Falling Down (1993)
MBS makes a great point during our discussion suggesting where The Stepfather goes to great lengths to suggest how deranged this conservative vision of the 80s has become, just 6 years later the template for the proto-MAGA man, namely Michael Douglas in Falling Down (1993), is championed. The idea of excessive, random violence as a justifiable reaction to changing times highlights a potential shift in the vision of Hollywood. To be fair, it is just one film from the early 90s, albeit it has taken on cult status, so we would have to dig deeper to make any sweeping statements about Hollywood. Nonetheless, it’s an interesting referent point that MBS argued well.
The teacher from First Born could have very well been another Jerry Blake for all we know.
In fact, I think the whole point is that MBS and I are start to find our legs a bit with this podcast. We’re more comfortable with one another and as we talk about more films together we gain more insight into each other’s tastes. What’s more, with each new episode I have yet another movie to compare to First Born (1984), which has become my mission in life 🙂
For our 9th episode of the amazing Family Pictures Podcast we waxed on about the 1984 hit Karate Kid. Did you know Karate Kid was directed by Rocky‘s John Avildsen? Makes sense when you think about it given Karate Kid is just a re-make of Rocky set in California with karate replacing boxing. This is just one of the many deep insights you’ll get from this cutting-edge, truly innovate film podcast that will be sure to blow your mind and pay your mortgage, so like and subscribe for more!
One of the things I’m learning as MBS and I find our rhythm is how much film is about the power of place for me. The ways in which a film offers a portal into a place never gets old. Karate Kid captures a particular slice of California in the 80s which is a world I was obsessed with as Long Islander. To put things in a bit of context, I was a skateboarder and a wannabe surfer (my older brother was the real surfer) and if you were into these subcultures in 1984 then California was the center of the world. My older brother took a trip out to Southern California around this time and came back with stories from the promised land reporting scenes of Steve Steadham doing a backside boneless followed by Neil Blender doing a lein air at the Del Mar Skate Ranch—the stuff of Thrasher magazine legend for a 13 year old kid on the other side of the world.
The great Steve Steadham doing a backside boneless over a channel
But to be clear, if you want to see early 1980s skateboarding culture at its rawest then pop in a VHS tape of the Bones Brigade Video Show or Skate Visions —both also released in 1984.
In retrospect Karate Kid has a different take on the golden land of opportunity, it starts by showing a Newark kid forced to up and leave the East Coast to move to LA. Almost immediately Avildsen dispels the magic of Southern California. It was lost on 13 year-old me, but post-19 year-old me who moved to Long Beach in 1990 would relate deeply with each re-watching of the film. The spaces deeply resonate.
So like with my First Born post, although a little less over-the-top, I took some screenshots that capture these Southern California spaces that were both a draw for a 13 year-old me and a bit of a wake-up call for a 19 year-old me. Continue reading →
As I finally catch-up on blogging, it’s time to turn to the Family Pictures Podcast which is now available on Apple’s Podcasts and Spotify as we get into the double-digits of episodes. “We’re mass communicatin’!”
I’m three episodes behind* so it’s time to get back on the horse because MBS and I are cooking with gas! Let me start catching up chronologically, which just happens to be a personal favorite: Michael Apted‘s First Born (1984). As MBS points out in the podcast, Apted took over the reins of the British documentary series Up which “follows the lives of ten boys and four girls in England, beginning in 1964, when they were seven years old.” Right before filming First Born Apted was finishing up the third installment of the series, 28 Up, which is considered by many critics a masterpiece.
As MBS astutely notes in the episode, Apted’s coming off this formative experience on the Up series following kids for 21 years which had to inform the way he approaches what is a remarkably authentic look at a 1980s suburban kid’s world. I essentially swoon over the production design of this film, and I’m pretty blown away by how accurate the film is at depicting the details of growing up in the mid 80s in the tristate area, everything from Def Leppard jersey shirts to lacrosse practice to Drake’s Cakes to the pre-posh mall experience to specific place mats and coffee cups you might find at some department store from that era—the devil dogs are truly in the details of this film.
As I mention in the podcast, this film has become the go-to show and tell for my kids to illustrate what it was like to grow up in a household of the 80s, right down to the Sony Walkmans, handheld games, and kitchen cabinet raids that were part and parcel of my growing up. Apart from the storyline (which is another take on family in the 80s) the film almost seems like a Frederick Wiseman documentary of a middle class suburban home from the tri-state area in 1984. Also, I have to believe the details were more localized in the 80s before the advent of gigantic box stores like Wal-Mart, Target, and their ilk that ensured no region of the US was distinct from another. For example, the multiple pizza parlors that populate any given town in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut had their own deco and the ways in which those spaces are highlighted in this film might be an argument for its greatness.
Screenshot from First Born highlighting a 80s Pizza Parlor in New Jersey that is featured in First Born. This film is all about the spaces.
Anyway, you can check-out our discussion in the YouTube video above or, as mentioned earlier in the post, subscribe to the podcast on Apple’s Podcasts or Spotify. In fact, we have two fun episodes since we recorded First Born that dive into Karate Kid (1984) and a personal favorite The Stepfather (1987), so this is post is truly in catch-up territory.
But I’m not done yet. In fact, the reason this post took so long to write is because I wanted to include the numerous screenshots of the moments in First Born that provide more concrete evidence of this authentic, documentary approach the film takes to 80s suburbia in the NY metropolitan area. I thought it would be fun to provide a running commentary of these images, if only for me and my begrudging children—this is the Family Pictures Podcast after all. Continue reading →
In the things I learned today department, a high schooler named Antonio dropped by bavastudio. He was grooving on the old video games in the space, and as it happens he’s a bit of an retro gaming geek so we had a lot to talk about.* There is nothing cooler than kids that dig so deeply into something that their passion for the topic becomes palpable. Oddly that vision of today’s youth is too often buried because the checked-out teen is both a lazier and easier vision to prop up.
Splash screen of the ostensible made-up video game Polybius
Anyway, while I was showing him the collection of 1980s games he asked me if I knew about the urban legend tied to the game Polybius. Admittedly I had not, and he went on to tell me about a story from the the early 80s wherein the US government was experimenting on young kids viz-a-viz a videogame called Polybius. Presumably the game was a way to measure the addictive effects of this relatively new medium. The cabinet was only introduced in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon for just about a month before it entirely disappeared without a trace.
The game was popular to the point of addiction,[2] with lines forming around the machines and often resulting in fights over who would play next. The machines were visited by men in black, who collected unknown data from the machines,[2] allegedly testing responses to the game’s psychoactive effects. Players supposedly suffered from a series of unpleasant side effects, including seizures, amnesia, insomnia, night terrors, and hallucinations.[3] Approximately one month after its supposed release in 1981, Polybius is said to have disappeared without a trace.[1]
He also turned me onto a 2017 documentary about this legend called Polybius: the Video Game that Doesn’t Exist. Turns out it’s a thing and I first learned about it today in my makeshift arcade from a 15 or 16 year old Italian named Antonio that’s obsessed with retro gaming. That’s the world I want to live in.
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*I shit you not, the kid said to me “I really like your aesthetic.” He’s fucking Italian and talking to my stupid American ass about aesthetics in English. I am useless.
Continuing to build on our #blogging4life theme at Reclaim Hosting, I have the pleasure and privilege to follow-up my discussion with Audrey Watters last month with another discussion about writing, blogging, and life with the ever-inspiring Kin Lane. Kin is never short on wild ideas, like starting a church of digital identity to use the protections of those organizations for the realities of our new cyber flesh.
Kin Lane is a writer, storyteller, and forever recovering technologist. If you’ve heard of his name before, you probably know Kin as the API Evangelist, covering the technology, business, people, and policies of APIs. Kin lives in New York City with his wife Audrey, and Rottweiler Poppy, while continuing to make technology more transparent and visible via his stories, artifacts, and tooling published on API Evangelist.
A few months ago I had the opportunity to chat with Jesse Friedman (WP.cloud) and Ronnie Burt (Automattic) about hosting WordPress on the Impressive Hosting podcast. The conversation quickly turned into a romantic reflection on the long history of our work with WordPress in higher ed. We were all early advocates for WordPress Multisite, and the opportunity to reflect on that work was refreshing. Jesse was a most gracious host, and it sounds like Ronnie and I lived parallel lives for years as WordPress Multisite admins for higher ed.
The endless possibility that abounded in the future past of the world of WordPress has been a bit dampened lately by erratic leadership. That said, I have to imagine trying to juggle such an extensive for-profit organization alongside the open source project, while keeping the lights on for both, can’t be easy. Unfortunately the world of speculative finance is often at odds with the principles of open source, and I’m wondering if the financial chickens have come home to roost.
Regardless, it’s worth remembering all the projects that still depend upon WordPress and all the great work still happening. Feeding too much into the cycle of drama doesn’t benefit anyone, least of all those on the ground trying to get the work done that billions of users have come to depend on. Open source isn’t free, but it’s also not a business in the ways touted over the last 15-20 years. Open source needs to be a sense of commitment, not unlike democracy, but what we’ve seen is the erosion of these principles as scale-driven capital moves in. This is pretty basic, I know, but I’m trying to move beyond the mud-flinging details of any given drama to understand how we re-think the cancerous ideas of growth and commodification that tend to ruin most of the spaces we inhabit online.
is an ongoing conversation about media of all kinds ...
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