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10 Developer Tips To Build A Responsive Website [Infographic] – ReadWrite

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The first thing to think of when building a responsive site is simplicity. Web designers love to show off that they can design the hell out of a website. They fall in love with their code and all the cool things that it can do.

“I think the challenge for me is to use [...]

Cyberculture | Design | Games | Media | Modding | Writing

Iffy “Cloak of Darkness” on Inform7/Parchment

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“Iffy Cloak of Darkness” is based on the “Cloak of Darkness” specification – a very simple pattern, designed to help programmers compare the strengths and weaknesses of various coding environments.

“Cloak of Darkness” is not going to win prizes for its prose, imagination or subtlety. Or scope: it can be played to a successful conclusion [...]

Aesthetics | Art | Cyberculture | Design | Essays | Humanities | Literature | Media | Technology

Two Steps Down the Interactive Fiction Road

Wonderfully detailed analysis of two ground-breaking works of interactive fiction. I regularly assign “Photopia” and “Galatea,” but in our media projects course we never have time to analyze the works in this detail. I never did use a walkthrough for “Galatea,” so I am sure I missed lots of it.

Last time I looked at [...]

Cyberculture | Design | Games | Media | Modding | Technology

My Ouya arrived.

My Ouya arrived — a Kickstarter-funded gaming console.

I have never been a console gamer. Lately, I haven’t even been a PC gamer — when I have the time I would much rather create in Blender 3D or, in the past year or so, make a video.

But the principle behind the Ouya — that [...]

Academia | Cyberculture | Education | Media | Social_Software | Technology

The new marshmallow test: Resisting the temptations of the web

The Stanford marshmallow experiment is a famous study that linked the willingness to delay gratification (children were told they could have one treat now, or two if they waited about 15 min) to a range of positive life outcomes. Many of my students who can’t resist checking their phone in class or during one-on-one office [...]

Cyberculture | Games | History | Media | Technology

Photo of William Crowther, 2012

Will Crowther Fall 2012

I just noticed that a few days ago, a Wikipedia user uploaded a photo to the bio for computing history legend Will Crowther. The caption reads “Will Crowther in fall of 2012 in the Shawangunk Mountains.” A bit of Google-fu leads to several photos showing Crowther is still climbing (the hobby he had long before [...]

Business | Culture | Essays | Literacy | Media | Rhetoric | Writing

Amazon Staff Meetings: “No Powerpoint”

I am not a big fan of traditional slide-show lectures. This is in part because I am not a visual learner, but also because, as a writing teacher, I can see how easily a slide show can fill time without actually informing, persuading, challenging or moving the audience. Students who create slides that summarize what [...]

Aesthetics | Design | Education | Media

Create Engaging Infographics for your Classroom

Several of my journalism students have gotten interested in infographics. I’m not finished with the spring term yet, but I can’t help thinking about the fall. When we look at our reading habits and our daily interaction with all this digital data that surrounds us day and night, it becomes clear that Kress point does [...]

Amusing | Journalism | Media

Nancy Grace and Ashleigh Banfield Hold Split-Screen Interview in Same Parking Lot

 

Nancy Grace and Ashleigh Banfield Hold Split-Screen Interview in Same Parking Lot – Dashiell Bennett and Philip Bump – The Atlantic Wire.

Aesthetics | Culture | Design | History | Media | PopCult

Ray Harryhousen, visual effects pioneer, dies

 

The Harryhausen family regret to announce the death of Ray Harryhausen, Visual Effects pioneer and stop-motion model animator. He was a multi-award winner which includes a special Oscar and BAFTA. Ray’s influence on today’s film makers was enormous, with luminaries; Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, George Lucas, John Landis and the UK’s own [...]