Stephen Colbert on Blogs
—Stephen Colbert on Blogs (Youtube) My student Gabby Blanchard posted this on her blog. Hilarious.
Source SDK Known Issues
In the new SDK it is necessary to build the client and server DLLs before running the MOD. Please build them if you see this message when trying to run the MOD. —Source SDK Known Issues (Valve Sofware) Chris Sherman from SHU’s helpdesk has spent several hours helping me try to get the Half-Life 2 SDK…
The Serious Business of Serious Games
Aside from a brief flirtation with Pong, Jenkins never really paid much attention to games until the mid 80’s, when he first connected his son’s new Nintendo Entertainment System — and was blown away by what he saw. “Ever since I’ve been passionate about games,” he says. “I want a serious game that engages me…
Shaking Things Up
Inkshedding was first developed by writing teachers Russ Hunt and Jim Reither in the 1980s. You can find all kinds of information about it online. Of course, as with any popular teaching technique, many different practices now fall under the name of inkshedding, as instructors have personalized it and made it their own. Dan’s version…
Under Fire, Soldiers Kill Blogs
Milblogs published by authors with “boots on the ground” received little attention from officials in the early days following the Iraq invasion in 2003, when the phenomenon of blogging was less known. But since then, Pentagon scrutiny has increased.–Xeni Jardin —Under Fire, Soldiers Kill Blogs (Wired)
''Kairotically Speaking'': Kairos and the Power of Identity
I’ll return to my analysis of Kairos as a project identity later. But first I’d like to consider one other aspect of Jerz’s critique–attention to audience. Kairos’s design (referring to Issue 5.1), Jerz says tongue-in-cheek, “has drastically improved,” making it “no longer an easy target.” The only mention of audience in Jerz’s critique is when…
Do Gamers Score Better in School?
Public education in America operates on a manufacturing metaphor. Line up the parts, send ’em down the line, inspect them, then ship them out. The assembly line idea couldn’t be more out of synch with the way a wired (and now wireless) teenager deals with information and with other people. They are social in fundamentally…
Math vs. vampires: vampires lose
Efthimiou supposed that the first vampire arose Jan. 1, 1600, around the beginning of a century during which some of the first important modern writings on vampires appeared. The researchers estimated the global population at that time, based on historical records, as 537 million. Assuming that the vampire fed once a month and the victim…
Salon Interview: Camille Paglia
What does it mean for Democrats to be agitating over Web communications, which in my view fall under the province of free speech? It’s a civil liberties issue. We can say that what Foley was doing was utterly inappropriate, professionally irresponsible, and in bad taste, but why were liberals fomenting a scandal day after day…
Allen’s Revenge: Exposes Underage Sex Scenes in Opponent’s Novels
Webb’s novels disturbingly and consistently — indeed, almost uniformly — portray women as servile, subordinate, inept, incompetent, promiscuous, perverted, or some combination of these. In novel after novel, Webb assigns his female characters base, negative characteristics. In thousands of pages of fiction penned by Webb, there are few if any strong, admirable women or positive…
Tetris – From Russia With Love
—Tetris – From Russia With LoveBBC | Google Video) I didn’t have time to watch more than the first few minutes of this documentary on Tetris, but it looks really good.
Building a Robotic Dalek Pumpkin
—Building a Robotic Dalek Pumpkin (Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories) Via boingboing.
New book takes humbug out of quotations
A new, meticulously researched book of quotations attempts to set the record straight on those beloved phrases that have crept into everyday use as signs of wisdom and wit, including Sigmund Freud’s sage advice that “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” (He didn’t quite say that, although his biographer thinks he would have approved…
We will soon be lost for words
At first Nihal and I were slightly wary of each other and then I told him I wondered if an ageing Radio 4 presenter could learn “street”. He humoured me and gave me a lesson. I flatter myself that I have a reasonably good ear for language. I reckoned I could get away with a…
Fantasy Congress
We The Creators of this site, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish Fantasy Congress for the United States of America. In this game, we…
Very Short Stories: 33 writers. 5 designers. 6-word science fiction.
Help! Trapped in a text adventure! – Marc Laidlaw Machine. Unexpectedly, I’d invented a time – Alan Moore Dinosaurs return. Want their oil back. – David Brin Cryonics: Disney thawed. Mickey gnawed. Omigawd. – Eileen Gunn MUD avatars rebel: virtual Independence Day. – Paul Di Filippo Leia: “Baby’s yours.” Luke: “Bad news?” – Steven Meretzky…
Can Wikipedia Ever Make the Grade?
Mr. Halavais expected some of his fabrications to languish online for some time. Like many academics, he was skeptical about a mob-edited publication that called itself an authoritative encyclopedia. But less than three hours after he posted them, all of his false facts had been deleted, thanks to the vigilance of Wikipedia editors who regularly…
Wishes
—Wishes (Despair, inc :( )
Martin Scorsese's Next Film To Be Three Hours Of Begging For Oscar
“You want feel-good and heartwarming, right?” Scorsese said. “I can do that. Or I can do casual violence with no strings attached. You know I can. What else you want? Kung-fu wire-work? Mentally disabled guy? Boring Robert Redford-style fishing movie? Just tell me what to do, I’ll do it. Done. End of story. Give me…
Thinking that Goes beneath the Surface
A month in hyper-space can scatter the brain. Traditional books offer readers respite from hyperactivity. The book’s definitive, closed, linear argument lets mind and sensibility enjoy moments of inner harmony. Linear text offers the kind of contemplative thinking that goes beneath the surface. –Heim, Electric Language: A Philosophical Study of Word Processing. New Haven: Yale…