See also my resources on interactive fiction (text adventure games), programming in Inform 7, making games in Scratch, and coding hypertext stories in Twine.
“A lot of people in the weblog world are asking ‘How can we make money doing this?’ The answer is that most of us can’t. Weblogs are not a new kind of publishing that requires a new system of financial reward. Instead, weblogs mark a radical break. They are such an efficient tool for distributing…
> N You cannot go that way. > S You cannot go that way. > E You cannot go that way. > W You cannot go that way. > NE You cannot go that way. > NW You cannot go that way. > SE You cannot go that way. > SW You cannot go that…
“On June 27, 2002, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission issued guidelines that recommended that any ranking results influenced by payment, rather than by impartial and objective relevance criteria, ought to be clearly labeled as such in the interests of consumer protection. It appears, then, that any algorithm such as PageRank, that can reasonably pretend to…
See sportscar. See owner take sportscar to garage. See mechanic take sportscar for joyride. See mechanic brag about joyride on bulletin board. See owner read bulletin board. See mechanic’s ass get fired. —…MAKE SURE THAT NO ‘PUNK’ DRIVES HER CARMustang Message Board)
“All you need to do is download the games, play them, and rate them. Although you are honor-bound to play and vote on as many games as possible, you may still vote as long as you have played five or more games. You may play each game for up to two hours before voting. If,…
“in the beginning, there was nothing. well, actually, there was pinball, some shooting gallery games, a few nickel peep-show machines and those mechanical genies that would guess your weight and give a glimpse of your future.” william hunter —the history of computer games: from ‘pong’ to ‘pac-man’ (designboom) Hey designboom webmaster… your “Shift” key is broken!
“We despised the Dockers-wearing advertising-executive manqués who somehow scammed enough money to start up Web sites that gave license to appalling ideas, chief among them convergence….It seems that online content has fossilized. Online ventures doing exactly the wrong thing or the right thing the wrong way are no longer the norm…” —Has Online Content Jumped…
Google scans thousands of online news sites and automatically assembles what it thinks are the most newsworthy items. —Google News (Google)
“[T]he web has been unable to deliver on its socially progressive potential because it has been ‘born’ into capitalism, a socioeconomic system that creates and depends upon the same ‘hierarchical classification systems’ Berners-Lee [inventor of the WWW] would like the Web to eliminate.” mowabb —Illusions of Freedom-Kantian Divisions in an Electronic Agethere is no spoon)
“A surprising number of college students say they regularly use the Internet for academic purposes, but they see cyberspace as a supplement to — not a replacement for — traditional classrooms, a team of researchers reported Sunday…. The researchers warned against ignoring the possible educational benefits of some recreational online activities, such as instant messaging…
“Belief in freedom of speech does not require us to sit by passively as our systems, networks, work and lives are suffocated under an unending torrent of useless and often fraudulent e-mail. This is not to suggest we throw spammers in jail. As appealing as the thought might be…” —A Call to Jail the SpammersWired)
“A mysterious new obstacle has emerged for Chinese internet surfers attempting to use the Google search engine – entering politically sensitive search phrases crashes their internet connection.” —Google keywords knock Chinese surfers offlineNew Scientist)
A blogger with too much time on his hands uses a search engine to compare the rank-and-file content of an organization’s website to its official rhetoric. “[W]hen one types the word “abortion” into NOW’s search engine, 853 articles that mention the subject appear. But surely childbirth is something an organization that claims to be ‘for…
“[R]ather than examining why online writing is so undisciplined and attempting to appreciate the virtue of such impertinence, O’Conner and Kellerman are determined to impose on electronic communication all the limitations of the forms to which they’re already accustomed.” Review by Jonathan Keats —“You Send Me” by Patricia T. O’Conner & Stewart KellermanSalon)
Here’s what’s reputed to be an archive of the first e-mail message that included a smiley. —The First Smiley (Microsoft) [I wish I’d found it instead of Micro$oft. :( In 1979, someone named Kevin MacKenzie suggested the symbol -) for “tongue in cheek”. It’s not a “smiley”, of course, but it serves the same function.…
“Remote bell-tower hacking is just one of the ways the wireless network is changing life at Dartmouth. The network is subtly but profoundly altering teaching techniques, social interaction, study habits, and personal security. In spite of its remoteness, the college has long been one of the most wired places on earth, fashioning its campus into…
“One of Canada’s top business schools has decided to stop selling the paper version of its journal and will give the publication away online instead…. ‘We’re not interested in making money, although by switching to online-only, we’ll save about $300,000 a year in print-production costs.’” —Canadian Business School’s Journal Opts Out of Print and Onto…
A collaborative online glossary is being developed for the forthcoming book Interactive Fiction Theory. Anyone can edit existing entries or suggest new terms. —Glossary of Interactive Fiction (IF Theory) Emily Short is the editor-in-chief for IF Theory, and I’m the editor of the theory section. The book should be out within a year.
“In 1855 two Portuguese translators, José da Fonseca and Pedro Carolino, produced an English phrasebook so unbelievably bad that it was reprinted for half a century as a masterpiece of hilarity, under the title English as She is Spoke…. I thought it would be interesting to compare Fonseca and Carolino’s translations with Babelfish‘s….” —English as…
“From the comfort of their desktop or laptop, co-eds can add soap and fabric softener that is dispensed by the washing machine. Finally when the wash is done, kids can get an e-mail telling them to come and get it.” —IBM Hooks up Dorm Washers, Dryers to WebForbes)