“After reading this, I don’t see how anybody can be concerned about computer game players axing orcs.” Torill Mortensen —Game Violence (Thinking With My Fingers) I’m hoping somebody will jump up and announce that the whole “wimpy guys dress up in camoflage gear and hunt naked women with paintball guns” thing will be exposed as a…
“If you really want to get to know someone, try rummaging through their CD collection. An study has proved that when it comes to judging a person’s character, their favourite music is one of the most valuable clues….Almost anything about a man or a woman – from their looks, intelligence and fitness, to politics, wealth…
“Microsoft’s Internet Explorer might have trounced the likes of Netscape Navigator, but the folks at Mozilla.org insist the browser wars aren’t over.” Amit Asaravala —Mozilla Wants to Rumble with IE (Wired) My weblog developer Will Gayther recently showed me a 1999 Jakob Nielsen article that suggests that by now it is reasonable to expect that most…
“Some claim that games were like this only because that was what the current technology would bear, but I swear that those were still some of the best games ever made, and even today you could make a good one in this genre, which is now old enough to buy alcohol. | Thank heavens someone…
—Journalism Organizations & Related Sites (A Journalist’s Guide to the Internet) An excellent collection of journalism links, compiled by Christopher Callahan.
“Tulip is working with Ironstone Partners, which will handle all sales of Commodore 64-related products worldwide and take over the main C64 Web portal. Enthusiasts have made over 10 million game downloads, the site owners have said.|Unauthorized use of the Commodore name by other organizations will be stopped, Tulip said in the statement.” —Commodore 64…
“Of the 25 or so people in Electronics Boutique, six were women. Three of them looked bored — they were accompanying their gamer boyfriends. Two Korean-American girls were in the store on their own, but they were buying a copy of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne for a male relative. And the last woman? She…
“Users get lost inside PDF files, which are typically big, linear text blobs that are optimized for print and unpleasant to read and navigate online. PDF is good for printing, but that’s it. Don’t use it for online presentation.” Jakob Nielsen —PDF: Unfit for Human Consumption (UseIT) I’m so conditioned to dislike PDF documents that I…
I just got this in my in box, with instructions from my division chair that all faculty members are henceforth to paste the following block of legalese into their e-mail signatures: This document may contain confidential information and is intended solely for the use of the addressee. If you received it in error, please contact…
“Fred and Tiffany quickly came to one of their first decisions as a couple. It was about computers: Sharing was not going to work. Each one of the four children would get his or her own machine. It wasn’t a choice they made lightly….The cost, some $800 per computer, seemed like a reasonable investment for…
A comment by dsquared says it best: “I have to say that I too have been waiting for a word to describe the kind of atheist that spends nine hours a day militantly denying the existence of a massive God-shaped hole in his worldview, and ‘bright’ will suit just fine.” —Bright Is as Bright Does (Crooked…
“In most job-filling situations, the employer has the luxury of choosing from several well-qualified applicants, all of whom could probably do the job. It is then that the little things, like the common but often unrecognized mistakes described here, almost always come into play. Make sure you avoid them, so they don’t cost you a…
“The majority of companies that only make content for mobile phones will go out of business within the next four years…. many independent content providers are cranking out rich media for mobile phones, but have no marketing plans or strategy to get their products out to market.” Elisa Batista summarizes findings from a W2Form report.…
“The European Commission report on ambient intelligence describes a fanciful scenario in which Maria, a businesswoman, arrives at a foreign airport and walks through immigration unchecked, thanks to a wristwatch computer that presents her ID and visa for validation. At the kerbside, a rental car unlocks itself as she approaches and then guides her to…
“The ‘blogosphere’ may never be the same after America Online releases free blog-publishing software to its 34 million members this summer.|AOL this month began showing demos of its tools for creating Web logs, or blogs, to veteran bloggers. AOL has dubbed its service ‘AOL Journals’ because its surveys showed that members found the word ‘blogs’…
“If you go out this Sunday evening and look up at the Moon, you will see not only our closest celestial neighbor, but a piece of art history as well. The rising full moon will appear exactly the way it did 114 years ago, when Vincent Van Gogh captured the scene in his famous painting…
“In this game, you ride a lightcycle around the game grid. You can only make sharp turns of 90 degrees and a wall constantly builds up after you. Make your enemies crash into your wall, but be aware that they are trying to do the same to you. Only if you are fast enough, you…
“Harvard has revoked its admission of Blair Hornstine, the prospective member of the Class of 2007 who made national headlines when she sued her school system to ensure she would be her high school‘ssole valedictorian. | Following a widely-publicized report that Hornstine had plagiarized material in articles she wrote for her local paper, the Harvard…
“Edward James Olmos, the star of the new ‘Battlestar Galactica,’ has some advice for devoted fans of the 1970s sci-fi series: Don’t watch the remake.” Charlie McCollum —New Galactica Star to Fans: ‘This Program… Will Hurt Them.’ (Kansas City (Mercury News)) Frack! Only the Lords of Kobol could get my interest in this daggit of a…
“One guiding principle of committing the perfect crime is to leave or no evidence of the misdemeanour. | Sadly, the five Texas men who took an axe to an oak tree in Austin completely ignored this criminal tenet when one of them posted a full photo spread of the outrage on his website. Three of…