Thoughts on Flash

It’s rather amusing to read Apple’s CEO tut-tutting Flash for not being an open developing environment, but plenty of developers with years of Flash skills are watching this very closely. Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they…

A fond farewell to the floppy disk

Sony is discontinuing the production of the floppy disk. I’ve seen the vast excitement over the arrival of VHS tapes – and the shrug that accompanied their demise. Plus: Betamax videocassettes, reels of recording tape, DAT tapes, audio cassettes, eight-track cartridges, and 5.25in floppy disks. Now, Sony announced this week, 3.5in floppy disks are set…

Embrace technology to avoid 'crisis of relevance'

Universities “should not be doing anything in the classroom that could be done online” (Times Higher Education) I’ll give the speaker the benefit of the doubt, and interpret that to mean “could be done just as well online.”  Actually, I’ve recently been re-considering my goal of collecting and returning all feedback from face-to-face classes electronically.…

The 2010 Lyttle Lytton Contest

“I shouldn’t be saying this, but I think I’ll love you always, baby, always,” Adam cried into the email. –Shexmus Amed The winner from Adam Cadre’s “Lyttle Lytton” contest (an awful-first-line contest, named after the author who famously penned “It was a dark and stormy night”) My favorite was actually: There was only one man…

Copyright Law at 300

The world’s first copyright law was passed by the English Parliament on 10 April 1710 as ‘An Act for the Encouragement of Learning’.  The Queen Anne Statute, as it is known, marked the beginning of modern copyright law.  Professor Gillian Davies, author of ‘Copyright and the Public Interest’, describes it as ‘the foundation upon which…