The ethics of videogames

Key Links
http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/14293226/nba-2k10/videos/nba2k10_vdr_v2.html
Video Review

http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/14293226/nba-2k10/videos/nba2k10_vdr_v2.html Xbox 360, XBOX 360 review

http://orange.half-life2.com/hl2.html The Orange Box, Info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creatures_in_the_Half-Life_series#cite_ref-2 , Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Creatures in the Half-Life series

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/halflife/images.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gsbottomnav&tag=quicklinks;images Game Spot, Half-Life Images

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_(video_game) Wikipedia, Half-Life (video game)

Key Books and Articles

Craig Alan Anderson, Douglas A. Gentile, Katherine E. Buckley - Games - Oxford University Press (2007)
Mainly Focus on the influence of violence videogame can bring.

Barry Atkins, More than a game, Gritty realism: reading Half-life, 2003
The analysis of different game in the book are convincing and distinct.

Mark J. P. Wolf,Bernard Perron, The video game theory reader, Playing at Being, 2003
GIve me a brief understanding of that video game industry affecting people's ideology.

Stéphane Natkin, Video games and interactive media: a glimpse at new digital entertainment, Preface, 2006

Geoff King, Tanya Krzywinska,Tomb raiders and space invaders: videogame forms and contexts,I.B.Tauris, 2006
This book focuses on key formal aspects of video games and the experiences and pleasures offered by the activities they require of the player.


Case Study

• Maker of the game: Orange Box



• Name: Half Life



• First released :1998
  



• Detail :

1. Provide:
   Valve Software--constructing the model
   Steam Platform--Allow players to exchange information through texts, voice, images etc.
   



2. Expansion: three expansions: Opposing Force, Blue Shift, and Decay



3. Game’s setting
   Protagonist was called Dr. Gordon Freeman. He is a physicist. Once he has failed an experiment, then an unexpected "resonance cascade" happened. After that, there was lots of alien life-forms from other worlds (Vortigaunts, Headcrabs, human-liked) in his working country. The place he worked was a secret underground research facility which is in New Mexico. The name of it is Black Mesa Research Facility.



4. Story’s background
   Someone said that it was Simulating a possible near-future environment.People there is experiencing the new century.
   This game's story makes knowing references in popular genre, however, it generated a totally new model for the game-fiction.

• Interesting Part:

1. Innovation of narrating



2. This game valued both immersive action and story telling which is unusual for the other games. It uses scripted sequence rather than cut scene.



3. Key Quote: "Increase immersion and to maintain a smoothly-flowing experience that keeps the player's interest”



4. Because of its innovation in the story telling, the protagonist follow the chapter flow and can seldom be interrupted.



5. The story progress neither depends on the levels nor grading between scene to scene. It is quite a special different from the other games.



6. The “Boss” in the game is not expected as they occasionally appear in chapters
   Therefore it is a very fluent story which gives player a sense of compact and tight.



7. Players are then easily indulged into the videogame's virtual world.
   



8. Innovation of acting the protagonist
   As it is a first person shooting game, you are him and can see what he sees.It is a first-person perspective, so you never see character’s face and voice



9. Ways to play



10. To be people's hero and to attack the alien invaded. As the plenet's sources are depleted and populace are reduced, you are the only can use power to fight against the invaders. When all friends count on you, the things to do is to save the place and confront all the invaders furiously.

• Key issues the videogames raised



• Keyquote: As..."Violencecontent in video game is criticized, which is related to ‘moral panic’ subject...‘computer games cause violence’ discourse is mostly psychology-based "
  ---Flew, Terry and Humphreys
• We have the duty to look at those issues. First of all, we have consider the following points in order to have a brief understanding of the problems Half life has given.
  Questions here...
  Does Half Life offer us a fictional world…
  With Moral?
  With Ethical complication of the adult world?
  With anything mistaking?
  Teaching people to be reliable as being a hero? Or by contrast, to betray and be violent in order to survive, to rescue?
  We can explore them by considering at three aspects.
  1)Freedom for choices
  2) The imitation of real world
  3)Use of real person’s characteristic

1. Freedom for choices
   •The only way to survive in such a danger planet, to save the place is to use weapon
   •Generally, most of the people will chosse to survive by seeking help from others or cooperating with another
   •But…in this game, if you want to open a crucial doorway and the game terminates to escape, you should first sacrifice someone; kill a scientist, soldier of guard
   •In videogame....these is no accommodation of humane motives



2. The imitation of the real world
   •Techonology provide us an virtaul wolrd but with a real historical background. Like the Black Mesa Research Facility is similar to Los Alamos National Laboratory.
   •The protagonist studied in University of Innsbruck which is a real school in the real world.
   •It (somehow) sways players impression and understanding towards the actual world.
   Key Quotes:Technology”…leading to a view of the world that always satisfies the player/ spectators. The danger is the use of this knowledge to control customer habits, moral attitudes, or political viewpoint.”
   --- Stéphane Natkin
   Analysing this quote:
   • Customer Habits : to express, to voice there feeling, to vent
   • Moral Attitudes : Use of violence is an heroic attitude?
   • Political Viewpoint : The enemy against our land, the New Mexico??



3. Use real person’s characteristic as the game’s players
   •The sophistication of character’s feature easily makes people get indulge into this virtual world
   •correlate the affairs happen in the game with the real world
   •It is challenging people’s origin
   
   
   

Cory Arcangel: super-Mario Clouds

A work of art by Cory Arcangel



The original videogame: Super Mario




Features of the game:
-The clouds and the eyes-catching blue sky are came from the Mario Brothers
-Clouds slowly move from right to the left / left to right
-All the main characters in the Super Mario have been removed, although they are the significant subject leading players to play the game
-The background music,which is supposed to make player more filing into the game, is removed too
- The audience/players can only imagine they are playing the Super Mario videogame when looking at the slow motion of the clouds which illustrating you are moving in that digital world

Art or not?Why?
I think it can be called as an art. Firstly, the image is still appealling, like the nice contrast of the white and blue, although most of the character used to appear in the Super Mario is missing. Secondly, it makes me think when I can JUST look at the moving clouds in such a slow motion. It is which could also allow me to have enough space and time to remind my memories and emotion when I am playing the Super Mario. This is the new idea and perspective for me to look at a videogame.

Are Digital games art?

a)Art is......
-"purchased in art galleries by art intellectuals"
-"criticized by art critics"
-"concerved in art museums"
-"not sold in any toy shops"
-"an interactive medium"
-"not formulaic"(should be original: exception appropriation taking other art; re-presenting in a new way to create new meanings)
-"aesthetically interesting"

I mostly agree the last one that art should contain aesthetic quality.
It is not acceptable to feel disgusting and horroble in a so called work of art.
Pleasure should be aroused in percepting an art.

b)To be considered as art, videogames need.....
- content to give people a new idea or messages
- aesthetic qualities to give people sense of pleasure
- to make people feel things
- to outweigh its consideration of utility and saleability
- to do something that other art forms will do
- to have an artist who has received adequate publie recognition
- to do something to pursuade people to believe it is an art form

Computer games is art as it creates new depiction of images,new meaning to us.

Game revolution

a)According to the film, what are some pros and cons of playing videogames for individuals and sociteties?


Pros for individuals:
-Widen one's horrison/ range of knowledge
-Players can be educated through videogames
-One can feel relax when playing videogames
-People's emotion can be expressed through images of the screen
-Player's speed of think is fasten and improved
-Change players mind of thinking


Pros for societies:
-Our world can be constructed in a better way in the digital realm.
-It can have a more hamonous atmosphere as people can easily speak through the media. Their pain can be released. Less complain is produced.


Cons for individual:
-Players can do whatever they want in the videogames to become more violent
- Violent part of human's brain is activated when people playing videogames
-Some kind of ideology is built like Racism
- People is difficult to distinct the reality and virtual world as both of them look very similar when containing common elements like practical materials and emotion arouse

Cons for society:
-People is addicted to the videoames, therefore, less time can be spent on dealing social issues
-The surrounding environment in society becomes the parody and satire. People make copy the affairs happened and make fun of it
-People treat things not in a serious manner


It is also worthy for us to think if games should be more like fantasy and less like real world war.


















Beatles' MTV in a digital format

Technologised Bodies

1)"“To what extent are we already experiencing a man -machine symbiosis that has turned us into cyborgs [or posthuman bodies]?” Christiane Paul (Digital Art, p 166)

When you simply look at one person who is wearing glasses, you can realise how have we been experiencing a man-machine symbiosis. Another example is like those who want to own an attractive body's line, they would choose to wear a case in certain shape for a long term to help improve the body line. Also, the disabled people would use wheel chair or some kind of externally mechanical legs to support their steps when they walk.
These man-machine symbiosis appears generally and commonly in our society.People rely on machine and it is gradually not easy to seperate them. I believe we have already experience a man-machine symbiosis in a high extent.

2. What are some pros and cons of becoming a cyborg?

Pros:
Frankly speaking, machine like mobile phone, glasses even the prosthetic-fake arms etc., helps human a lot in terms of increasing convenience in tackling problems in daily life. It, in a certain extent, reduces our use of time as, lets say, there can be three hands doing things concurrently. It also allows human to do something they are not used to do because of its hazard and danger.
Cons:
Being too addicted in using mechine, human becomes dependent.
Out cells and organs may no longer adapt to the condition once the machine is abandoned.
Human body's function become worse and worse.
The attachment may harm our body once the connection between human and machine is handled badly.

3.What do you think of Stelarc’s work?

After I have seen his work, prosthetic fake arms, the first impression araised in my mind is that it looks like a character in the film (Spiderman) called doc_ock. He is a scientist and professor. He has invented a prosthetic arms which is able to be attached to human's back bone. It functions as people's another pairs of arms. At the end of the film, he realised his failure of electronic terchnique which has led to his death.

sp3_doc_ock, Yahoo
http://images.google.com.hk/images?hl=zh-TW&source=hp&q=stelarc&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
(accessed 28 Oct 2009)

Stelarc's work totally gives me this sense of terror and horror. It disobeys the natural law of human structure. Especially for the work (so-called work of art) in which a third ear in grafted onto his forearm, it is extremely disgusting. Organ is in a wrong possition, but the artist even the public says that it is a work representing contemporary art media. Appreciated by somebody, I disagree with his presentation of art and think he is just self-mutilating.
Look at the video below....
It is shocking and provocative!

Interesting

See?
Although it is not so related to the topic per week,
it is so interesting....how can't I put it here!

Online Identities

Introduction of my friend 's identities:
Here comes Cindy Wan.
She showed me her various online identities, such as the one in HK Discuss forum and My Space, Facebook, MSN and ICQ, Xanga and Blogspot, the email boxes....Gmail, Hotmail, Lingnan...etc.
Obviously, she is just like the others in HongKong; more than one online identities she have gotten and they let her do different things through internet.

Introduction of my online identities:
I have totally 13 online identities. They are used in Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, Lingnan U and the online blog like Xanga, Blogspot. Also the communication flatform like Facebook, MSN, ICQ and some specific web sites such as Youtube, iYellowbus, HKartists, HKflash.
I can use different identities in various webs. The advantage is that I can change my identities often to suit my different wants.
Sometimes, an identity is required to be approved to access some of the specific regions in the web. It seems that you are one of their guest and belonging to a group.

Online Identity by Aaron Darc


"Aaron Darc on Online Identity",Google.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6293366579547571198&ei=5-reSs6ZAZr8qAOc4dG3Ag&q=online+identity+&hl=en#
(Accessed Oct 21, 2009)

Mouchette


Mouchette
www.mouchette.org/index.html
(Accessed Oct 21,2009)

Digital Art

What are some challenges digital art presents to the art world (ie galleries, exhibition goers, art critics and scholars)?

-The art work presented is rather complicated. Usually very broad category like science, music, physical movement, film is combined into one work of art. It is then difficult to classify it.

-As it is complicated, people need plenty of time to understand. More discriptions of the work of art are needed.

-For digital art, we need more digital equipments and eletronic facilities to help generate that art work, but some of the galleries may not own these kinds of offer.

-The form of it is difficult to be confirmed, and the standard for evaluating a digital art is changed. It is then hard to critque.

-It needs more audience participation. However, it may not be suitable and available for some people like elderly, disable. They then cannot understand that work efficiently.

-Dig. art like trend. It appears fast but passes fast too. People may forget and hard to follow it.

- If it is a web art, those people living in the Third world and Totalitarian countries, like North Korea, have no chance to appreciate it. Therefore, web art is restricted.

-It is easily copied. People can generate lots of copies in a short time.

-The value of virtue may decrease as Dig. art may be related to commerce sometimes.




An example from Rafael Lozano-Hemmer








"Eye Contact is the first piece of the Shadow Box series of interactive displays with a built-in computerized tracking system. This piece shows eight hundred simultaneous videos of people lying down, resting. As soon as a public member is detected, his or her presence triggers the miniature video portraits to wake up: hundreds of people simultaneously turn to look at the visitor directly, creating an uncanny experience that questions who is the observer and who is the observed. "
Eye Contact,Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
http://www.lozano-hemmer.com/english/projects/eyecontact.htm
(accessed Oct 14, 2009)









Example of net art.




Jodi (Joan Hemskeerk and Dirk Paesmans)
( Netherlands, Belgium, Barcelona-based)
•http://wwwwwwwww.jodi.org/

This is a net work made by a net art group.
The interesting part of it is that you can be the participator of the art work.
Once click of a certain area, the image of the screen changes.
The pattern are repeated every time you click on it, but the possitions of the elements are rearranged all the time.
I like the monotone in red and black of it.
And the pattern is special.
It is quite different from their early work which just like an error.

Review of the "Mission to Earth"

"Being alone in other planet, I work on the same thing every day of my life...
I get used to it. I am sigular. Everybody is diffrent from me. I am bored and tired but calm."

" To observe her movement, I look at her in thousands of angle, various perspectives, different lens with color, serveral times in one day. I am interested in her. She is ordinary but not the same with other."

Do you feel that they're having this self assertion inside the film?
I do.
I have been penetrated by a "self-isolated" atmosphere.
At the same time, this was being peeped.
And I am the one witnessing how this whole thing has happened as the peeper told me this.

What I also discovered after the film have been settled down in my mind is that in a traditional film, what I, the audience would likely to concentrate on is firstly the plot or story (narration). Secondly is the subtext of it. Finally, I will try to appreciate its way of shooting, framing, editting.

Interestingly, the situation was totally reverse when I watch "Mission to Earth". What I have focused on was its appearance including the colours delivered, the composition and ratio of each seperated boxes, the pattern of interaction between illustration or movement inside the boxes. And then the meaning behind each design comes to me. Finally, I will try to think of the story. What the me is telling in the voice over.

Although it is comparatively strange, maybe boring, and weird, there could be something worth to be appreciated.
Like the beauty in terms of Rhythm and Random.
And the arrangement of the time lasting of each box, sound, voice and also the proportion of the boxes' sizes.

How's Youtube going?

QUOTE3

“Whereas it used to be that ‘creative’ or ‘well-made’ videos could get a ‘huge amount of [Youtube] views’, she says, now it was the videos that are sensationalist’ or represent the ‘lowest common denominator’ get a lot of views, providing what the ‘mainstream media’ was
providing before the emergence of YouTube, and that the people who make up the ‘core’ of YouTube were ‘running away’ from the mainstream media to avoid.”

(Jean Burgess, Joshua Green, “Agency and Controversy in the YouTube Community” Internet Research 9.0: Rethinking Community, Rethinking Place, Copenhagen, 15-18 October, 2008, http://eprints.qut.edu.au/15383/1/15383.pdf)

-------------

The reason I choose this quote is that, it arouses my reconsideration towards the derivation of Youtube in few years ago.

Youtube let people upload videos freely.These videos are usually considered as very "funny", "up-dated", "ridiculous", "eye-catching", "controversial", "hot topic" ...and that's why people eager to upload these video and to create a "discussion wave" on the internet.
However, when this passion and eagerness of generating a hot issue to talk with passed, and when people get used to uploading and searching...and discoveriing and obtaining...they don't find themselves have already been one of the "ordinary" and surrounded by an non-stop renewal of issues.......
What a sorrowful situation....

Youtube

d)Briefly describe the video---The Bus Uncle

It certainly was the peak of trend in the teenager's world at that time.

Everbody use what the Uncle said as the statement of "problems are not yet solved".

e)Find at least one interesting video , based on Bus Uncle, and upload it to your blog.

f) Report some positive and negative comments about this new ability for computer users to make and widely distribute and respond to online films (such as the above three videos).

Positive:
Youtube is an international multimedia uploading platform which allows everybody to use it freely and conveniently.
Countries' culture can be widely spread when people from different countries upload their interesting video clips on to it.
Due to its convenience, everybody can do what the media do( recording the daily life, news, accidents).
Consequensely, some tiny incidents happened can be distriduted to publicity even haven't been reported in the News or newspaper.
People can get well-known of their society rapidly every day as reporters of the places are as more as the population.
The comments towards the society phenomenon can be exchanged easily.
Video maker's creativies can be aroused and developed.

Negative:
Once people are addicted to use the youtube in terms of their interest sharing, they started to forget what should be pulic and what should be private. People's privacies have been invaded
People are likely to upload songs and movie onto youtube. Therefore, copyrights of goods are infringed
The qualities and type of video are not guaranteed because of its lack of supervising.
Video may include sex and violence, terror and horror which is harmful to children.

Who own my digital tools?

Steve Jobs

To knowmore about him-->

-Born in 24/02/1955 in San Francisco, California, USA
-Chief executive of Apple
-CEO of Pixar
-Disney's most important stockholder
-Acknowledged as the icon of computer community and amusement communit
-Creator of iPod, iTurns Shop,iPhone
-Popularized the product design's aesthetic concept and ideas
-Advocated the importance of "Simple & Convenience" in design realm
-Popularized the individually use of computer and invented the first "Personal Computer"
- Generated the famous system like iBook, Mac mini, Mac OSX

"Steve Jobs". Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs
(accessed September 30, 2009)

I think the most important and obvious common features of these men is that they all give such a enormous influence towards computer development. They generally lead the flow of our IT iductry.

The differences may be some of them ,like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, concentrate on the innovation of computer system and profit making, while some of them, like Richard, focus on the morality, politics and legislation of open source operation. He leads the Open Source Operation System Movement.

The Philosophy behind the open source movement:
-is a software diffusing methodology
-not to follow the cathedral model which is used ing the traditional software engineering
-the people's role of designing, managing, implementing is blur
-users of open source are treated as co-developers who are going to submit additions to software bug reports or documentation.
-rate of software evolvement can be increased
-early release of software version
-frequent integration of source code so as to prevent computer from having a large number of bugs
-various version of software are prepared: both developed and not developed

"Open source software",Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_software
(accessed on 30 Sep 2009)

I agree the philosophy behind the movement of open source.
As it is really healthy for the technology development in the long-term.
People may get a larger and more free opportunity to access their preferable software version.
And our use of software will not be monopolized by the big industry like Microsoft.

Review

A) Is there any problem with simply using the products that these two companies create for us?

In terms of their function,
we may find that it is not adaquate for us to work on something which cannot be made simply by the pre-install software.
For example, I am an art & design student. I need to install some more soft ware like Adobe, Corel painting, to make aome design works.

In terms of their qualities,
let me use editting a film to be an example.
The pre-install software on computers, Dreawaver, which allows user to edit a film, is less professional than the one provided by Adobe.
There are less typography choices in the subtitle design item and the way of combination between clips and clips are less variety than those in Adobe.

B) Why do some people choose to use open-source software such as Linux?

It is firstly because it is a free collaboration.
People can easily download it from its official website around the world.
It is not only can be installed on the computer, but also embedded device, mobile phones and even some kinds of watches.
Therefore, its conveniency is unique around those now most popular software provided by the major companies.
The interface layout of the Linux is somehow different from the Window and Mac.
People have their own preference in the monitor's display beauty.

Xfce

KDE

"Linux", Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux

(accessed 30 september, 2009)

C) Who owns the right to modify your digital tools? Does it matter at all? Why or why not?

I don't think there is anyone has the right to modify anybodies' things, digital tool is certainly not an exception.

It is undoubtedly a big matter if someone modify my digital tools.

Nevertheless, the digital tools' design and system combination cannot controled by me, as I am not a technology expert and I am not keen on exploring news or the most up-dated technology.

However, I am the consumer and user who have my own right to set up a coordinated system of digital tools, including the softwares in my computer, the layout of the interface, the MSN network, "My favourite" websites records etc.

If someone has modified these, I will get lost when I start to use all these.

I don't know where am I going to open the file which used to be stalled in its original drive.

The button may be gone and I may use tones of time to find out where it is to generate only a tiny music player and then it becomes less convenient and would influence my choice in using a digital material or rather use a simply machanical CD player to play a song.

See? It leads to so many problems..............................so, it is really a matter.

Play with the PHOTOSHOP

Interesting PIC

These are the photos from Johanna Trainor, who have been to our class giving a section to share her process and feeling in taking some photos.



Actually, I like those pictures she have shown in class more.....

Casey Williams Tokyogaze III 2000

the division of each color of the wall and water is interesting. It is calm in the proportion, but exciting in the use of color---pink and shocking red which contrast with the blue.

Digital vs Traditional Photography

We have been discussing the following questions...



1) What is the difference between digital photography and analog/traditional photography?


There are certainly quite a lot of differences in terms of their output format and physical appearence.



Regarding the format, digital photography is presented in a digital format which can be saved in a memory card.

Scene is captured in the digital photography by using the digital as a kind of electronic way.

After the light has reach the sensor, a digital memory can be formed.


But the traditional one is saved in a film format. Light is allowed to be caught on the film. After a chemical reaction has taken place, the form of the target can be recorded.



Regarding the appearence, a digital photography can present a total different depiction from the reality once a specific adjustment has been set before taking photos. Also, we can get a various texture of photograph as it is comparatively free for us to choose a special kind of paper(like a rough one, semi-transparent one, coloured one) on which we are going to print the photograph.



However, the traditional photography can only present a relatively realistic scenery including the lighting, the color, the mood. Refered to the chemical reaction I mentioned prior, we can only make the photos onto some particular photo papers. For that reason, we may sometimes get a less variety of traditional photography.





2) What use is digital technology to photographers?



Since a lot digital cameras have been invented within these few years, many photographers changed their use of traditional camera to digital one. Why are they do so? Surely, there are several advantage on using digital one.



Firstly, digital technology release photographers burden.

Photographers used to bring a heavy big carrying more than one lens. It may be a burden to the photographers. If a digital one is used, most of the effect can be done within a small size of digital machine. Also digital photo is stored in a tiny, light, slim memory card. It is easy to carry.



Secondly, digital technology somhow arouse photographers' creativites. It is so convenient to add surreal elements into a photo. It is free for them to edit a ready-made photo by softwares.



Besides, digital technology can fulfill photographers' imagination by using software when you merge and combine things into a photograph.

Me, my school, my frined

My tutor
Lovely smile
















An attractive scene rite?

My tentative classmate, Gigi

From Hungsheng

Am I smoking cigar...?

Talking with Gigi...

Information Reformation

According to the short video, how have computer technologies changed the way that knowledge is stored, created and shared?.....It's worth to think.

Let's go back to the ancient period. People in that period got their knowledge by experience, sharing feeling from each and others, using stone or wood to draw simple pictures. Later on, people have invented writing. Gradually, our historical records have been stored in a written style like a book, note etc.
But nowadays, after computer technologies have been developed, lots of agencys would like to develop their sources on the internet for the sake of offering readers a more convenience method when they search related information. Later on, internet becomes people's main stream of information search. This search is faster and easier while you have a computer at hand.

Before the era of computer technologies, most of the writer of professional knowledge container, a book, were authorities. They were respected and approved by publications. What we gain from a book is in part trust worthy. However, now, we can upload and access whatever information we want onto the internet. Apparently, it can let whoever people share their thought via such a convenience platform, but at the same time, the knowledge we may find on internet may not accurate at all. In this sense, knowledge is shared in a very different way.

Wikipedia VS Encyclopaedia Brittannica

I am going to share something about Encyclopaedia Brittannica here.

a)Brief history of the Encyclopaedia Brittannica
-The first edition has been published since 1768 in Edinburgh, Scoltland.
-It was edited by the cheif editor William Smellie.
-It was written by a staff of about 100 full time editors and more than 4,000 experts contributors.
-There are totally 15 editions through out the ages.
-It was mainly written in the oldest English-language.
-The ownership of it have switched time by time.
-In order to reduce the production cost and price, it has produce the electronic versions on CD-ROM, VCD,DVD and even the world wild web.

b)Key features of Encyclopaedia Brittannica
According to wikipedia
-It adopted a "continuous revision" policy in 1933.
-It was continually reprinted and the articles were updated on a regular schedule. ---It retained its reputation as a reliable research tool, although there are many people criticise its resources.

According to Encyclopaedia Brittannica
-Its length and scope has increased since the time when the second edition of it has appeared.
-It was originally a dictionary of art and science.
-The scripts were reprinted and renewed one after another.

c)Encyclopaedia Brittannica is more useful in this search.
It is more well-organised and clean in the web page framing.The information is more reliable than Wikipedia as it is renewed by group of people regularly.

d)We should not trust this encyclopaedia 100%, because there is seldom a thing in the world that is absolutely correct. We should think independently before we receive some information.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopaedia_Brittannica
(accessed September 09, 2009)

Pros and cons of the internet and new computer technologies

Pros:
- Time-saving when we get loads of information by surfing the internet
- Our friendship network can be enlarged by using MSN, Facebook, email, Xanga etc. such platform and tool
- Lots of softwares allow people to edit their own music, film, drawing, design etc.,therefore, their creativities can be developed
- Very new and updated materials are provided anytime
- Little occupancy area is used as numerous files can be saved into one memory card or hard disc
- We can share our thought and feeling with whole world easily and conveniently

Cons:
- The radiation is harmful to human when people spend most of their time to surf the internet
- People is easily addicted to the online computer game where allow people express and do whatever they want
- When people is too dependent on using computer, they may be gradually less willing to talk in reality
- Wrong and unreliable sources may be spread when everyone can upload things onto internet without any strict permission

I am yu

Hi everybody.
Finally I got a new blog here.
Um....I used to use facebook ,xanga, msn, or email,
but now I should put more attention on this web...
Coz lots of things will be discussed and shared here.....