Weekly Blog Post 2

The purpose of the video is to discuss how writing has changed since and during the advent of the digital era. Where physical text, laid down by pencil, pen, or quill, has been and is generally unilateral, requiring a 'start-over' in order to make a change, digital text can be edited during any state without destroying the text or physically copying it. The main change that digitizing text has brought about is the ability to manipulate it, especially after the fact. With digital text you can change the style (bold, italic), font, color or even create links to other digital texts, all after the writing has already taken place. And even as technologies grow, the impact of digital text changes. Where in HTML, form and content couldn't be separated, XML can easily pull them from each other to display the text seamlessly in new different forms. Furthermore, the ease with which users can upload text digitally is continuing to grow as well. With the creation of blogs and sites like Facebook and YouTube, uploading personal digital texts, and even videos has become a simple, just seconds long task.

His medium is an excellent example of how digital text is different from text written on paper. Not only is his writing done through different examples of digital space (from inside the coding to search boxes) but it is assembled into a video posted onto YouTube. In the video he is demonstrating his subject matter by actually manipulating, moving, and changing the text digitally. This serves to strengthen and support his purpose especially in the fact that it simply gives and example of what he's talking about, both providing a warrant to his claim and clarifying by demonstration. You could say that his medium contradicts his statement that content and form are now separable in that we cannot separate his context from his video (except manually which would be the same as with text written on the paper), or I should say, we cannot yet. Software does exist that can pull text from video (think of the automated postal systems that create digital text from a video feed of passing addressed envelopes), it is mostly just an issue of its availability (as per demand) that it is not in widespread use. It will be interesting to watch the technology and innovation continue to grow and how this video will stay or change in relevancy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE

Weekly Blog Post 1

"If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster." -- Isaac Asimov

To reflect on my randomly selected quote, this quote is saying that if you knew you only had a little time left, instead of focusing on that fact or 'brooding' about it, spend your time working on something. In his case, Isaac says he'd type a little faster because he's a writer (hence being listed among writers' quotes). So the quote doesn't claim that given a little time that we should all exclusively type a little faster, but instead continue to work, leave our mark, or keep on doing that which we enjoy. It could just as easily say help the needy a little faster, prove the theorem a little faster, or just have fun, a little faster.

Time is money. The old quote putting a value on time isn't far from the truth. Time is the most valuable commodity you can't buy. It's a strange thing to think of a place without time (whether it be instantaneous or simultaneous). The value of time is beyond money however. No matter what you value, whether it be happiness, leaving your mark, affecting change, or even money, time is an underlying factor necessary to achieve anything.

From his quote, Asimov would not have you waste your valuable time by brooding over its end, but to use it to its potential. This is similar to another quote (the author and correct wording evades me) that you should write as though you were on your death bed and your audience was on their's, meaning that you should value what you write and you should write so your audience will value it. All of this ties into underlying senses of purpose and reason which entirely different and deeper conversations than this one. But the small summation is to value your time, not to regret its end, and to use it to all its potential.