Tyler’s Weblog

So I am not too sure how “new” this techonology is, but I just heard about it. I don’t really watch too much tv but the past week I have seen commercials for a new… toy? tool? writing untensil? I don’t really know. Its called the FLY Fusion Pentop Computer and it is… a pen. Not just any pen though! This pen can help with math homework, translate spanish, play mp3s, and even creating word documents out of the notes you wrote down by hand. Again, I do not know how new this thing acutally is, I have heard of a pen that helps with spanish translations, but this pen can be personalized with tons of programs, your own music and your own handwriting. The pen can talk to you! By taking notes on the notebook (which looks like a real notebook) that comes with the pen, it can tell what you write and send it to a computer. Small dots on the page tell the computer where you have written. This thing makes me wish I wasn’t graduating in two weeks so I could by it and use it. I’ll probably by it anyways without justification.

I never would have thought a pen could do work for you. Think about it… all you have to do is write things, and it will basically tell you what to write. What the heck more can a pen do without doing the work for you? I think that technology like this pen are is going to do one of two things. Either creativity will rise because technology will take away the problems with actually creating things. If you can think it, you can find the technology to do it. OR creativity will begin to decline. Think about it. If we want a pen to do our homework, what else can we get it to do? Write movies? Create art? All we have to do is ask… What do we want technology to do and what do we want to keep for ourselves?

Ok, so I have never been too excited about Beowulf. In high school I was caught drooling on my books after I fell asleep in English class. What was the class doing? Listening to a TAPE of Beowulf read in it’s original Old English language. And don’t let the world “English” confuse you. The language is like a mixture of Gaelic and Cat with Hairball. Once every twenty words I would think I heard something that sounded like a word I might have recognized. So when I found out that Beowulf was coming out as a new movie with new technology I can admit I was less than intrigued. I still haven’t seen the movie, but since it earned $28 million in the box office it’s first weekend, I assume SOMEBODY had. I don’t really care about the movie itself but it is pretty cool reading about how they made the movie. The movie makers used performance-capture technology to film the entire movie. Sensors were placed on actors bodies and faces. These sensors detected even the most subtle movements.

The actors performed each scene and their movements and voices were recorded. Digital imagine created the environment and even the skin of the characters. I thought that it was pretty cool, especially when I saw how some of the characters looked. I know that the filmmakers were holding their breath when this movie came out. If Beowulf did well, it would mark the beginning of a new era in film making. The new technology could change the way movies are made because a director can get any shot they want, no matter whether or not it is actually possible. “We began one draft on a flickering firelight, and you realize it’s flickering on someone’s eyeball as he watches the fire, and then we pull back from the eyeball, move all around the hall watching what’s happening in a slow circle. It’s an impossible shot.” said one of the movie’s writers, Neil Gaiman. I think this stuff is pretty cool but I don’t really think I will get too into movies created like Beowulf. The technology is interesting and I understand what Beowulf did for technology in the movie making industry. I am sure there will be plenty of people who will embrace movies like Beowulf, but I can’t say I will be one of them.