When social media goes too far: Facebook introduces software for stalkers

If you have the location services enabled on your iPhone, your exact GPS coordinates are broadcast to a variety of different apps.  This has always freaked me out just because of the stereotypical “big-brother” idea, but on Thursday Facebook decided to take things a step further and put the information into the hands of your “friends”.

Ok, so maybe you should delete that psycho ex-girlfriend that you dated in high school 9 years ago, because you guys don’t talk and honestly, she freaks you out.  But what about the people that are not so obvious? Luckily, Facebook allows you to change the settings about who you can see and who can see you. Hopefully we can all figure out who to trust with the knowledge of knowing where we are at literally all times.

But what about people we can’t trust? what if we don’t know them at all? “Facebook has also revealed that it plans to share your Nearby Friends data with advertisers.” (Huffington Post) This takes things beyond anything we have imagined with today’s capabilities: Personalized Ad’s based on your likes, sent to you based on your GPS location, and dependent on who you are with or nearby to.

While the capabilities for this software seem cool, taking a deeper look reveals a scarier fact.  With an unsecured Facebook network in control of your location at any given time, anyone could be watching you.  The government being the obvious first choice, when does the line of amendment rights get crossed? We may never be informed of that. Do your best.

Stray Righteous. 

The shots captured in these videos are crazy!

For all of the aspiring videographers out there, take a look at some of these creative videos, and do some research on the techniques behind them, simply amazing!

Life Update

Hi guys, I just wanted to make a post this week just to keep everyone up-to-date with some of the projects I am currently working on.

Photoshoot

This week I am working with Seattle-based YaM Brand, to shoot and brand Saint Leo University for upcoming publications for prospective students.  We identified some specific shots we wanted captured, and outlined a rough magazine concept.  Shooting began today, and will last through the week and finish up in Orlando on Thursday. It is always a pleasure working with YaM, Mike and Angela have a definite eye for what looks good in print, and shoot effectively for that every time.

End of another semester

Luckily I get to go home this weekend and finish adding some modifications to my Jeep to get it ready for the summer.

Unfortunately, next week finishes up the regular class schedule, and we move into finals.  Yay.

Roadtrip!

But after that, I’ll be leaving the Sunshine State and venturing into the wild for a quick roadtrip before I begin my stint as Videographer for the summer.  (I’m getting pretty excited for this)

I have a couple cool destinations in mind, one being the famous Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky.  Mammoth Cave is part of the largest known cave system in the world, with over 400 miles explored.  That should be cool.  Another is a old traditional roadtrip stopping spot, Stripling’s general store in Cordele, Georgia.  A family favorite, their meats and jerky are to die for. So now that I’m going on a big-boy roadtrip without my family, I feel the need to continue the tradition and share it with others.

I hope everyone is having a great year so far, mine has been stressful but it is going to be over soon for me.  A few finals and some projects stand between me and a great summer.

Best of luck to all of you.

Stay Righteous.  

 

 

http://about.me/rhettpringle

Head Games: Virtual Reality

Becoming Reality

For a 21 year old “self-taught” engineer and designer, selling a Virtual Reality company to Facebook this year for $2 billion isn’t too bad.  Most 21 year olds can barely dress themselves on a good day.  Palmer Luckey – the founder of the company, Oculus VR, had more than an outfit picked out, he had a dream.  He wanted a virtual reality device that he could actually enjoy.  After purchasing over 40 different models, he decided that a good one simply did not exist.

So he decided to make one himself.

A discussion with famous game designer John Carmack on a VR blog led to Luckey sending his only working prototype to Carmack to try out.  After being thoroughly impressed with the results, Carmack put the device on display at E3, the largest gaming convention in the North America. Luckey was nowhere ready for the publicity and inquiries that came after that. But the rest is what makes history.

Oculus Today

Flash forward 2 years, and Luckey and Carmack now work together in an office building in Irvine, Calif. Joined by Nate Mitchell and Brendan Iribe, previously from game software company Scaleform, they are creating something worth noticing.  Well, I guess that’s only if over 2 billion in assets is worth noticing to you. But seriously, with over $2,400,000 backed on Kickstarter, $75 million in venture capital, and the new deal with Facebook, Oculus is set to design the stage for VR in any way they please. Yes, they will have competition from larger companies such as Sony, who already has a VR headset.  However, compared with the Sony’s $1,000 price tag, the current Oculus Rift Developer model sounds good to a value-minded hacker at only $350.

With so much growth in just the last year, be sure to keep your eyes on Oculus and the future. Especially  make sure to mind your surroundings, because you might end up in a virtual world before you know it.

Vigilindie: Your friendly neighborhood game company

My weekly feature has been slacking off lately, so I thought I would bring back the excitement with the growing  indy game company Vigilindie.

A Well-Rounded Development

Created in 2009, the company seeks to provide solutions to a variety of different video game components, specifically digital music production.  They also have experience with graphic design, content development, and programming.  Starting with only one guy with a desire to create old-school games, Vigilindie has expanded into a multi-faceted organization with staff specializing in all areas of media development. The main founder, Quincy Pringle, still retains creative control of the work, but manages other talented artists to contribute to the final product.

Examples of Music

Utilizing FL Studio with a variety of plugins such as Massive and Kontakt, Quincy is able to lead Vigilindie in the development of video game sound tracks which have been featured in a variety of different published games.

Check out some of the sample projects and sounds here.

Current Project

The company has been working on it’s debut game, Dark Theory, for a few years now.  It features all original music, characters, story, level design, and graphics.  It is a single-player side scrolling interactive, with a focus on the science fiction.  It is set to debut in the near future, so give them a follow to stay updated!

For more information on the game, check out this blog! It features the developer Quincy, talking about it on a popular gaming website.

Make sure you stay prepared for the future, as Vigilindie is already set to be involved in even more projects in the next year.

But I’m sure I can post more about that later.