shoe gaze

I bought a pair of shoes at the Salvation Army last week. It was the last thing I bought from that store before it closed. I guess I didn’t realize it was empty when I rolled into the parking lot yesterday. As I sat in my truck, I waited for a moment, sipping a Frappuccino. I watched a man wheel another man in a wheelchair. The automatic door swung open on an empty line of white walls with nothing on them. The pictures were no longer hanging, and racks of missing clothing revealed the floors were white.

It looked more like a clinic, or a place where people go to get well, a hospital with no beds, from what I could make out. A man just inside with a blue apron on sent the customers back to their car and they wheeled out, on their way, past this old, dead building. They didn’t need this place anymore. It served no purpose to them.

You wouldn’t know it from looking at it that it was closed, but you never could really see into that place. The windows were mirrors that reflected light onto cellophane back in a crackly, flashbulb hue. I could never really see into the store front, but I always assumed it would be open. I don’t know why, but it makes me think about how sad it is when your favorite stores close, sadness that turns into a mystery of why a place came to be, or how it was ever there in the first place.

This sad wonder only adds myth to the legend of a place long gone. So often it is that when we look up at the stars at night we do not see the light of today, but rather light centuries back, pushing into reverse, into being the days of Abraham Lincoln or some dead saint. What we hoped would always be there is not but ancient dust reflecting back for your eyes to behold, at least for a moment.

And I think about the times I was there, what I bought there that has provided meaning and significance to my life, and the life of things. What I can know and see I can buy, and that says a lot to the testament of belongings. That I can still wear that T-shirt with the rainbow color bars in the shape of an Apple icon says something. I bought that shirt there, and I think it’s the smartest thing I’ve ever bought for various reasons: because it’s a dead logo; Apple discontinued the colored bars apple design in 1999; because I still place value on the Apple brand; and much of what I have purchased in the past five years, excluding my education, has been Apple products. Because I think that what I buy makes me a bit cooler than who I am, it’s the wonder in a disgruntled realization that makes me who I am; not me, actually.

What we can see in things is a testament to the reality of now, how in computers we can have a second sense. With the use of subtle instruments, one can monitor connections, crossing other networks into the great unknown. For this week’s research, I examined three computer monitoring software devices: Wireshark, Pandora FMS, and Angry IP Scanner.

Wireshark is a free, online network monitoring tool usable on either a Linux, PC, or Mac operating system (Hak5, 2012). You can inspect data passing through your interface, whether it be Ethernet, LAN, or wireless radio (Hak5, 2012). Wireshark can open and decode the data packets in the TCP/IP layer (Hak5, 2012). Administrators can determine whether the data is being sent securely, and, conversely, Wireshark can be used by hackers on an open network or company computers (Hak5, 2012).

This monitoring tool shows much of what a network traceroute will show: the flow of traffic, where data gets congested, and in which node the data transmission stops (routergods, 2014). Wireshark offers a feature called Interface List, which displays which devices are sending packets and analyzes the data (Hak5, 2012). You can view the source IP address; view by modes, i.e. by monitor mode, which shows you all traffic that the Wi-Fi adapter can receive, in addition to the IEEE 802.11 headers or radio information, or promiscuous mode, which allows the network adapter to capture all traffic that network, above and beyond the traffic sent to its own network address; also filter information by very specific parameters, including by website and update data using real time (Hak5, 2012).

Contrasting Wireshark with Pandora FMS, the two are different in several ways. Pandora FMS lets you create a network agent, which is lets you independently view and monitor activity from the network of your choice (Pandora FMS, 2012a). What’s quite different from Wireshark is Pandora FMS compiles useful and visually pleasing charts, graphs, reports, and predictive diagrams based on current and future data (Pandora FMS, 2012b). This feature makes the information sticky and reusable for corporations and small businesses whose IT department may depend on such vital information. Pandora FMS costs nothing and allows you to keep track of applications and communications, sends alerts based on specific events and send notifications to administrators (Pandora FMS, 2012a), and is a cross-platform option that runs on Linux, Mac, and Windows (Pandora FMS, 2012a).

A third type of network monitoring tool is Angry IP Scanner, which, in contrast of the previous two options, is free and requires no installation (Rajaram, 2012). It is an executable file that can be executed from a USB flash drive. By definition, IP scanning allows you to scan a network to locate network devices and other nodes on a network (Rajaram, 2012). The main purpose of using IP scanning software is to find out whether or not a specific node is active on a network (Rajaram, 2012). Scanning involves pinging an IP address, port scanning, and gathering specific information (Rajaram, 2012). The following information can be found using IP scanning: status of node, dead or alive; packet round-trip time; host name and domain names using DNS reverse lookup of the IP address; NetBIOS information; operating system type and version; TCP ports opened on a node (Rajaram, 2012).  Angry IP Scanner can be used to monitor one’s own devices, and also as an offensive tool to prey on unsuspecting open ports of other networks.

So much of life is mulling through the detritus until we salvage meaning, which has been the key to unlocking so many unknowns. The unknowable variable in any constant is your own mind, so taking comfort in a thing relieves some of the angst and fear of all your own, unexplored space.

My shoes are printed space. There is a photograph of the Milky Way that was printed onto this pair of Vans with white soles and black laces. I stare at them now and lose myself in them, staring into my own shoes as if they have the answers that I can stare into like an abyss and retrieve something, make up for the lost time of my misspent life, travail into my imagination and bring back someone’s favorite hat or a misplaced set of keys. Sometimes I like to think there is a missing plane of existence that everyone hops into and out of, intermittently, through the ages, and this place is for everyone, leaves no one out, and rebuilds something that is not there.

References

Hak5. 2012. How to Capture Packets with Wireshark – Getting Started. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X5TwvGXHP0

Pandora FMS. 2012a. Pandora FMS – Video Tutorial – 02 – Monitoring setup. Retrieved

from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vafwf0lZWz0

Pandora FMS. 2012b. Pandora FMS – Video Tutorial – 05 – Remote access. Retrieved

from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_IEMwZ00cQ&list=PLBF33347E616E977A&index=5

Rajaram, Kevin. 2012. How to use Angry IP Scanner. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wgcdgP-fgI

Routergods. 2014. Wireshark Certified Network Analyst Class #1. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaoheEdkqdc

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code page 437

I think about some things in my life that have fallen away or entirely changed, and technology is certainly one of them. When I was in middle school, it was nearly the dark ages. I wrote my first research paper on the effects of smokeless tobacco. To gather research I went to the Northeastern University library at the Burlington, MA, campus. My mom and I would go together after school. She would drive me to the library. I would photocopy all my sources, then we would pile in the car, and head back home.

The resources I used are the brilliance of the caveman’s first paintings, well preserved as a record in time. The renderings of our ancestors that our recent relatives hang in the Smithsonian museum are not unlike the relics of my youth, which can likely still be found in any present-day library procured by modern-day librarians: books, encyclopedias, and microfiche.

To write back then I used a family computer that ran on MSDOS, with a black screen monitor that displayed orange letters in a font called code page 437 (“Code”). I printed out my final draft on a dot matrix printer. I think about the resources I used then and how much things have changed.

What was once a multi-venue, multi-resource process has been condensed down into something much more simple. At home I have my laptop, computer, and printer. I don’t need to go outside of my home, or outside my one device to gather research. I can simply go online. I go to google or use ebscoHost to research my papers. This convenience has eliminated time and money and has liquidated the process of research into something effortless. I simply think of what I need, point and click, and I’ve got what I need. Writing and research is simply a whim at my fingertips.

When I think about Steve Jobs, initially I remember my first Apple technologies. The day was dawning. The first laptop I ever owned was an iMac laptop and iPod I got as Christmas presents. I used the iTunes application on my computer to upload songs to my iPod, which allowed me to listen to music in my car or on headphones while running. I think about Steve Jobs and I think about the technology, as I should. They weren’t necessarily interchangeable but in my mind they go hand in hand. Jobs was the keynote speaker for new Apple products. The procession congeals the Apple computer in a kind of sentience with Jobs that I think will remain in my heart for a long time, in his memory.

I do not know how these technologies would have formed in a different world. In a parallel universe these products may have originated on a different timeline or found their success from different makers. Had it been served on a plate with a glass of cold milk and chocolate chip cookies, I would have attributed its creation to Santa Claus, but it did not come about this way. Steve Jobs is credited with much of the commercial success of the Apple product line. His ability to speak and develop excitement has generated sales and success and as a result he has won countless awards.

Steve Jobs’ interest in typography directly contributed to the inclusion of type set design and writer’s applications, including MacWrite and MacPaint in some of the first Mac computers (Peterson).  His love of calligraphy and the study of the formation of letters in different fonts, with proper proportion and spacing, fascinated Jobs (The Apple History Channel). His inclusion of writing and research tools in his computer designs helped facilitate the revolution of the research and writing process.

After Steve Jobs was fired from Apple, he founded NeXT in 1985. NeXT introduced the first NeXT Computer in 1988, and the smaller NeXTstation in 1990. The NeXT computers experienced relatively limited sales, with estimates of about 50,000 units shipped in total. Nevertheless, its innovative object-oriented NeXTSTEP operating system and development environment were highly influential (“NeXT”).

The Next computer used the first graphical user interface and dynamic page generation design. The systems also came with a number of smaller built-in applications such as the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, Oxford Quotations, the complete works of William Shakespeare, and the Digital Librarian search engine to access them. The NeXT computer was used to create the internet, where, in 1990, Tim Berners-Lee used Next to construct the first web browser and web server. (“NeXT”)

Jobs started Next and Pixar, which made the first computer animated film, Toy Story (“NeXT”). Pixar is the most successful computer animation studio ever (“NeXT”). Apple bought Next and they use their ideas for apple technology renaissance (“NeXT”).

Apple started focusing on integrated software for personal devices like cameras, camcorders, and PDAs. This was known as the Digital Hub Strategy; where, different devices and media link together sharing data and common functions. This worked really well for everything on the market except for digital music players. The devices were clunky and had pretty bad user interfaces, so to fix the problem Steve Jobs had the Apple engineers design a new music player, the iPod. The iPod came out in 2001 (“Apple Press”).

With its essential integrated software counterpart, iTunes, it was the product game changer that Apple needed to surpass its competition. The iPod once again showed Steve Jobs’ design values. It was clean, white, simple and elegant. It also introduced a mobile device user interface to the industry. This was the stepping stone to the next product that would again change the world of design. (Peterson)

Steve Jobs revolutionized the way that people use technology to access and learn about new music. What was once walkmen: cassette players and CD players tethered to the ears by headphones were static resources that could play one album at a time. IPods allowed a user interface to find new music. ITunes recommended new music with their predictive algorithms. With an iPod one could store an entire library of music with thousands of songs, as opposed to one album. On February 12, 2012, Jobs was posthumously awarded the Grammy Trustees Award, an award for those who have influenced the music industry in areas unrelated to performance (“Steve Jobs”).

In January 2007, the clean, sleek, simple, and elegant iPhone was introduced to the world. Not only did the iPhone (and 3 years later the iPad) jumpstart a whole new industry standard, Apple again, opened another new media platform for design professionals known as Mobile App Design (Peterson). Steve Jobs’ designs have inspired the way the media works. Most people can access news headlines from the likes of CNN, New York Times, BBC, with mobile applications. This has transformed news ratings systems from a TV platform to an individual window that anyone with an iPhone, smartphone, or other personal device can use.

Jobs was awarded the National Medal of Technology by President Ronald Reagan in 1985, with Wozniak (among the first people to ever receive the honor), and a Jefferson Award for Public Service in the category “Greatest Public Service by an Individual 35 Years or Under” (also known as the Samuel S. Beard Award) in 1987. On November 27, 2007, Jobs was named the most powerful person in business by Fortune magazine. (“Steve Jobs”)

In August 2009, Jobs was selected as the most admired entrepreneur among teenagers in a survey by Junior Achievement, having previously been named Entrepreneur of the Decade 20 years earlier in 1989, by Inc. magazine. On November 5, 2009, Jobs was named the CEO of the decade by Fortune magazine (“Steve Jobs”).

In November 2010, Jobs was ranked No.17 on Forbes: The World’s Most Powerful People (“Steve Jobs”). In January 2012, when young adults (ages 16 – 25) were asked to identify the greatest innovator of all time, Steve Jobs placed second behind Thomas Edison (“Steve Jobs”).

In March 2012, global business magazine Fortune named Steve Jobs the “greatest entrepreneur of our time”, describing him as “brilliant, visionary, inspiring”, and “the quintessential entrepreneur of our generation” (“Steve Jobs”).

Two films, Disney’s John Carter and Pixar’s Brave, are dedicated to Jobs. Steve Jobs was posthumously inducted as a Disney Legend on August 10, 2013 (“Steve Jobs”).

There is no question these awards and accolades have only scratched the surface of the legacy of Steve Jobs. Jobs was a man, and stands as a testament to the obelisks that the primates have encircled and made entirely their own. It is the discovery of fire that our Cro-Magnon forefathers came upon perhaps by chance, inevitably to find warmth. Sometimes people don’t criticize what they can’t understand, such as the brilliant engineer Steve Jobs. Who could fault him? He was brilliant. But the salesman Steve Jobs has been accused of so many crimes.

There’s hardly a cliche in the leftist lexicon liberals couldn’t have applied to Jobs and his customers: commodity fetishism, false consciousness, objectification and alienation, manufactured wants, the marketing of desire, and, most obviously, planned obsolescence. This last is the hoary charge from mid-century that American businessmen designed a product so it would soon be superseded by a similar product, compelling consumers to buy, buy, buy (Ferguson).

There is something that aligns perfectly with a formula that is inherent in us all. I am still trying to extrapolate. The variables are comprised of the American dream, entrepreneurship, and the capturing of what people all wish they had: tons of money. There is no question in my mind that Steve Jobs is the world’s greatest capitalist, yet to be toppled by the next big thing. The remains of this insight help me to step from this dark precipice to determine what many hold as a symbol of greatness, when, in essence, we have been enculturated to know this greatness is inside us all. To understand the idea of Steve Jobs, or any cult of personality that we might think is great, is to understand our own flawed notions of greatness.

In season three of Community, the community college study group is fiercely recruited by Glee club director Mr. Rad, played by Taran Killam, who, after losing the original members to a collective mental breakdown, preys on the group. “Glee, it’s like a drug that you use that turns pain into shoes and your shoes into dance” (“Baby Boomer”). The hypnotic song master croons to an unsuspecting target. Abed, played by Dani Pudi, sings, “Glee is what’ll spread to my friends like a virus that sends them to a healthier place” (“Baby Boomer”).  The infected members of the study group infect others and double their efforts, eventually forming a complete glee club that will supposedly go on to perform at regionals.

After Abed infects his best friend Troy, played by Donald Glover, they turn Pierce Hawthorne, played by Chevy Chase. Pierce, an aging baby boomer, is particularly vulnerable due to his demographic’s “well-documented, historical vanity” (“Baby Boomer”).

“You, Pierce? Your generation invented music” (“Baby Boomer”). Pierce responds, “I don’t know about invented; perfected maybe” (“Baby Boomer”). The ensuing anthem heralds Santa, having been part of Pierce’s peer group, who “fought at Woodstock and Vietnam, smoked a ton of acid and burned his bra” (“Baby Boomer”). The song credits Santa with the advent of “Spielberg and microchips” (“Baby Boomer”). Santa “invented Coca Cola and aerobics” (“Baby Boomer”). “He made the iron curtain and the Gremlins, too, fake butter and AIDS, and Twin Peaks” (“Baby Boomer”).

Pierce cuts in, singing, “You’re welcome for everything in the world. I’m Baby Boomer Santa, I bring the gift of the world” (“Baby Boomer”).

The remaining uninfected of the study group back out of the study room together, shaking their heads, promising each other it will never happen to them. They all became infected in the coming days, all succumbing to Glee.

Glee in this analogy is the hype that surrounds anything, the social distortion that echoes around something huge, the sequel trilogy to the Star Wars movies. They weren’t that great. I still love IV, V, and VI the best. They all have this place in my heart that will not be tarnished by the ensuing onslaught of the prequels. The first of the post-quels, Star Wars VII, is something I am eagerly anticipating, coming December 2015. It’s supposed to be great: “more practical effects, less CGI; captured on film, not digitally; and it will feel more authentic” (Mentel). It will have to be better than the prequels, in my hope of hopes.

In addition to the hype of inevitably bad movies, I think of incumbency as another useful marketing tool. “The percentage of incumbents who win reelection after seeking it in the U.S. House of Representatives has been over 80% for more than 50 years, and is often over 90%” (“The Power”). If he’s been in office for one term, what would another term hurt? The devil we know is safer than the devil we don’t. And that devil continues on to a lack luster second term, occupying space instead of breaking records or blowing our minds. “True, things can definitely get out of control when frothy-mouthed marketers promise life-changing miracles to get all of us to take notice” (Stapleton).

Regardless of the bad movies, there have been some great ones. And of the presidents we hold up as the top five, there are always some that we have marked off that list. But there will always be something else, something more that we have not seen or cannot see, not without the hype that extends to the world hope in the form of something we wish upon that grants us more wishes until we have witnessed something grander than all our expectations. And the fact that we saw it happen means that we all were there and we were a part of it. And it will be held up in the annals of time as something historical, important beyond words can comprehend.

Related articles:

http://blog.paris.id.au/2015/05/22/the-reality-distortion-field-has-never-been-so-strong/

http://daringfireball.net/2015/04/the_apple_watch

References

“Apple Press Info.” Apple. Apple Inc., 2015. Web. 9 February 2015.

https://www.apple.com/pr/products/ipodhistory/.

“Baby Boomer Santa.” Wikia. Wikia, n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2015. http://community-

sitcom.wikia.com/wiki/Baby_Boomer_Santa.

“Code page 437.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 7 January 2015. Web. 9 February

2015. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_page_437.

Ferguson, Andrew. “The Steve Jobs Snow Job.” Commentary 132.5 (2011): 80. Print.

Mentel, Thomas. “8 Reasons Why Star Wars VII is Destined to Please.” The Cheat Sheet. The

Cheat Sheet, 10 Nov. 2013. Web 22 Feb. 2015. http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/8-reasons-why-star-wars-episode-vii-is-destined-to-please.html/?a=viewall.

“Next.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 23 January 2015. Web. 9 February 2015.

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

Peterson, Vicki. “How Steve Jobs Influenced the Modern World of Digital Design.” Symantec.

Symantec Corporation, 8 February 2013. Web. 9 February 2015.

http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/how-steve-jobs-influenced-modern-world-digital-design.

Stapleton, Dan. “Opinion: Hype Isn’t Always A Bad Thing – Hype Is Hope.” IGN. IGN Games

Newsletter, 30 Jan. 2015. Web. 22 Feb. 2015. http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/01/31/opinion-hype-isnt-always-a-bad-thing-hype-is-hope.

“Steve Jobs.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 9 February 2015. Web. 9 February 2015.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs#Honors_and_public_recognition.

The Apple History Channel. “Steve Jobs Commencement Speech 2005.” Youtube. Youtube, 6

March 2006. Web. 9 February 2015.

“The Power of Incumbency.” Boundless Political Science. Boundless, 02 Jul. 2014. Web. 22

Feb. 2015. https://www.boundless.com/political-science/textbooks/boundless-political-science-textbook/congress-11/congressional-elections-81/the-power-of-incumbency-446-1638/.