And that’s just for the bill of materials according to a Merrill Lynch analysis published by Engadget. A big item is the $230 allowed for the Blu-Ray drive. Drat. I had high hopes of the PS3 being a cheapish gadget that could be hacked to do useful things. What it means is that if Sony launches the product at an X-Box-level price then they will lose even more money on it than Microsoft does on its product. Gaming is a mad, mad world.
The explosion in self-portraiture
Interesting piece in the NYT about the prevalence of self-portraits on the Web.
Art historians say that the popularity of the self-portrait is unprecedented in the century-long history of the snapshot. “I think it is probably a new genre of photography,” said Guy Stricherz, the author of “Americans in Kodachrome, 1945-65” (Twin Palms, 2002), which includes snapshots culled from 500 American families. Mr. Stricherz said he reviewed more than 100,000 pictures over 17 years in compiling the book but found fewer than 100 self-portraits. These days you can find as many by clicking through a few home pages on MySpace, Friendster or similar social networking sites.
So what’s going on? Part of the answer is that digital cameras make self-portraits easy to do. Another part is that many people have a camera with them all the time now — in their mobile phones. But is there more to it than that?
Even in previous generations when cameras were cheap, they were generally reserved for special occasions. “In 1960 a person just wouldn’t take a Kodak Brownie picture of themselves,” Mr. Stricherz said. “It would have been considered too self-aggrandizing.”
Psychologists and others who study teenagers say the digital self-portraiture is an extension of behavior typical of the young, like trying on different identities, which earlier generations might have expressed through clothing and hairstyles. “Most of what I’ve been seeing is taking place in the bedroom,” said Kathryn C. Montgomery, a professor of communication at American University, referring to teenage self-portraits. Dr. Montgomery studies the relation of teenagers to the digital media. “It’s a locus of teen life where they are forming their identities, and now it’s also a private studio where they can develop who they are.
“What better tool could they have than one that allows them to take pictures of themselves and manipulate them like never before?”
Aside from the self-indulgent teenager, however, there’s a lot of semi-serious self-portraiture going on. I looked on Flickr, for example, and found two really interesting photostreams — one by a talented (and beautiful) photography student, the other by a busy broadcaster.
Looking at these images, it suddenly occurred to me that in nearly 40 years of being a serious photographer I’ve only once ever photographed someone who appeared to be unashamedly fascinated by the resulting portraits. Most of my subjects seem to be embarrassed by their images — even when the pictures have been, qua pictures, beautiful. And I wondered if it’s significant that the sole narcissist turned out to be a major artist whom I photographed at the beginning of her career.
Hmmm…. These are deep waters, Holmes.
Barcelona
‘Henry’ Gates and the Model-T PC
This morning’s Observer column…
Many of the PCs in people’s homes are riddled with a rich ecosystem of viruses, worms, trojans, adware and spyware which exploit flaws in Microsoft software. While most companies escape the worst of these pestilences because they employ expensive IT support staff and robust defence measures, the average home user remains hopelessly exposed. In his keynote address, Gates finally acknowledged that his company bears a large responsibility in this area – which is great news. But in the same breath he went on to say that the ‘entire computing industry’ needs to get together to build a ‘trust ecosystem’. Let us deconstruct that. The problem, it seems, is largely Microsoft’s responsibility; but it’s the industry which has to fix it.
At the same time, Microsoft announced a helpful new service for those embattled home users mentioned earlier. It’s a ‘computer health’ software package called OneCareLive, which includes antivirus programs, automatic updates, back-up prompts and live customer service. It can be installed on up to three computers in a home and will be available from June. Oh – and it costs $49 a year. Neat, eh? Snake oil salesmen, eat your hearts out…
Spring?
Photographed on a walk with the kids this morning.
Quote of the Day
No man can make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he himself could only do a little.
My countryman, Edmund Burke (1729-1797). It’s why I’m boycotting the US for as long as the Bush-Cheney regime lasts, somewhat to the bafflement and chagrin of my liberal American friends. Besides, I don’t want to run the risk of being shot at close range by the Vice-President.
Mac OS becoming mainstream?
Well, by some measures anyway. BBC Online is reporting the discovery of a worm that targets Mac OS X 10.4. It spreads via files transferred in an iChat session but doesn’t seem particularly fiendish. Still, it confirms the wisdom of Bill Thompson’s advice to Mac users not to be too smug about malware.
Cultural impact of blogging
From an exchange between Kurt Andersen and Andrew Sullivan on the subject “Are Weblogs Changing Our Culture?” This is Sullivan talking:
I think over the past couple of decades, liberalism in its classic sense has been under threat. Not just from crazy theocrats abroad but from P.C. paternalism and religious-right activism at home. The formation of solid camps of thought, and the punishment of heretics, and the maintenance of orthodoxy on all sides have inhibited a free discourse in ideas. And part of the reason for that was the limit on the numbers of vehicles for expression. After all, there aren’t that many genuinely intellectual mags in this country, and the battle to influence them can be intense. But the fragmentation of media, accelerated by blogs, can break this up some and allow more complicated or unusual voices to emerge, without their having to ask permission or fight for space or suck up to people already in charge. If, say, the writers at Indegayforum had had no option but to try and get into the established gay press—which has been, until recently, extremely P.C.—it would have taken up a huge amount of time and led to enormous angst and wasted energy. Blogging circumvented that. It widens the sphere of possible voices exponentially. That’s wonderful news for the culture as a whole. And for liberalism in its deepest sense.
Quote of the Day
Let’s call it a “beta,” which is the software industry term for, “We’re just putting this out. Please let us know if it works.”
Michael Kinsley, writing in Slate.
Sony BMG demotes CEO for deploying DRM
From Boing Boing
Sony BMG music has demoted its CEO, Andrew Lack. One of the reasons he got the sack was that he oversaw the release of eight million music CDs that were deliberately infected with malicious software that covertly installed itself on music lovers’ PCs, spied on them, and destabilized their systems, and left them vulnerable to opportunistic infections from other malicious programs.