See also my resources on interactive fiction (text adventure games), programming in Inform 7, making games in Scratch, and coding hypertext stories in Twine.
Yochai Benkler’s The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom is a very exciting book. It captures an important set of developments — how new information technologies make it easier for individuals to collaborate in producing cultural content, knowledge, and other information goods. It draws links across apparently disparate subject areas to…
In “Are Elite Universities Losing Their Competitive Edge?,” the scholars examine evidence that the Internet — by allowing professors to work with ease with scholars across the country and not just across the quad — is leading to a spreading of academic talent at many more institutions than has been the case in the past.…
With their mouths largely shut but their laptops and flip phones open, teenagers’ bedrooms are beginning to sound like the library. So is the dinner table. On her show May 10, Ellen DeGeneres ribbed guest Lindsay Lohan: “Every time I’ve seen you, you’re out with eight or nine girls, having dinner. You’re all sitting around…
The Nintendo Amusement Park is a first attempt at making a life-size re-creation of Super Mario Bros. Players strap into a powered bungee system that lets them jump 12 feet in the air, collect coins and snag magic mushrooms. It’s hoped it will eventually be expanded into a full Mario Bros.-style obstacle course. —Nintendo Amusement…
Each scenario offers a simple Sim-City style visual depiction of its urban center that allows you to plan tactics and assess trends, but everyday events are usually planned and occur within the game’s menus, charts, and lists. Some scenarios offer maps that depict infrastructure, agricultural, or natural resources that can be targeted. There’s a ton…
A California appeals court has smacked down Apple’s legal assault on bloggers and their sources, finding that the company’s efforts to subpoena e-mail received by the publishers of Apple Insider and PowerPage.org runs contrary to federal law, California’s reporter’s shield law, and the state Constitution. Apple had also claimed that the inside information “could have…
Back in the 1980’s, when I attended high school, reading someone’s diary would have been the ultimate intrusion. But communication was rudimentary back then. There were no cellphones, or answering machines; there was no ”texting,” no MP3’s or JPEG’s, no digital cameras or file-sharing software; there was no World Wide Web — none of the…
Within blogosphere studies, there is considerable disagreement as to whether the blogger’s contruction of identity is a form of role-playing or an authentic attempt at mimesis. Some theorists have adopted apparently extreme positions: Raynes-Goldie, embracing postmodernism, suggests that “in this informational chaos, the question of truth is not really a useful one,” whereas McNeill notes…
Technological advances in everything from product design software to digital video cameras are breaking down the cost barriers that once separated amateurs from professionals. Hobbyists, part-timers, and dabblers suddenly have a market for their efforts, as smart companies in industries as disparate as pharmaceuticals and television discover ways to tap the latent talent of the…
In classroom after classroom, all across the nation, students are being asked to memorize and regurgitate trivia at the expense of time spent learning what is essential in the 21st Century. As one letter to the Times editors asked, “In today’s information age, where a body of information in all but the narrowest of fields…
Most plagiarists don’t expect to get caught and, when they do, they generally go along with the demands to avoid escalation. Many will do so silently, never writing back and others will write back to apologize or make excuses. A few bold souls might even blame the infringement on a friend who gave them the…
IRobot Chief Executive Colin Angle said one group of soldiers even named its robot “Scooby Doo” and grieved when it was blown up after completing 35 successful missions defusing improvised explosive devices. “Please fix Scooby Doo because he saved my life,” a soldier told repair technicians, according to Angle‘saccount at last week’s Future in Review…
—$100 Laptop Working Prototype Unveiled (One Laptop Per Child)
— Bob Coyne and Richard Sproat —WordsEye: An Automatic Text-to-Scene Conversion System (PDF)AT&T Labs — Research) The text in the caption is what told the computer to assemble these objects in this order. Of course, someone had to tell the computer how to draw these objects, tag each object so that the computer knows where…
Illegal or inappropriate blogging or social behavior over the Internet is now a violation of District 128’s student code of conduct at both Libertyville and Vernon Hills High Schools and can lead to denial of extracurricular student privileges. —Ed Collins —Schools crack down on inappropriate blogs (Sun Times) According to the article, the new school code…
In essence, it was classic libel against video games: That they encourage isolation, with each player staring glassy-eyed at the evil, hypnotic screen. The irony here, of course, is that these complaints were coming from players who themselves were spending hours staring at their own computer screens while they played Second Life. Dig it: People…
Early on, the visionary geeks among us at these institutes of higher education realized that these computing machines were great for games, and a whole lot more fun than a slide rule. These side projects took on a life of their own, and resulted in the popularity of games like “Adventure” and “Colossal Cave.” —Tom…
Youth and alienated populations are inclined to spend more time going through identity development processes because they are trying to “figure out who they are.” Blogs and profiles are particularly supportive of this. Of course, blogs require having something to say while profiles let you write yourself into being via collage. People do grow out…
“Students have told us that eMail is still valuable–mainly for storing and transmitting documents and for communication with adults,” said Julie Evans, chief executive officer of the nonprofit group NetDay. “IM is more valuable to them because it is instant, and they can speak with multiple people at the same time. I believe that this…
But even still I wrote about work inbetween pictures of me drinking, opiononated rants on creationism and conservation, I use the words cunt and twat and fuck. I joke about kicking babies and coat hanger abortions. I wax poetic about spring breaks past and Zombie movies. Once I made it up to the meeting they…