See also my resources on interactive fiction (text adventure games), programming in Inform 7, making games in Scratch, and coding hypertext stories in Twine.
“Alongside the boom, however, there have recently been a few faint signs of backlash. As increasing hordes take on the task of trying to keep new sites looking nice, sounding original and free from banalities, more hordes just seem to fail.” —Blah, Blah, Blah and Blog (Wired)
Kathleen, I wanted to do this in this most potentially embarassing way possible, and I figured doing it here and now, in front of a quarter of a million strangers was as good a way as any. CmdrTaco —Geek in Love (Slashdot)
“It may sound far-fetched, but a U.S. federal court will hear preliminary arguments next week to determine if this most elemental of Internet activities is the business property of a lone company, protected in the form of a patent.” —British Company Claims Patent on Hyperlinks (Wired)
"Calling the theological giant’s stranglehold on the religion industry ‘blatantly anti-competitive,’ a U.S. district judge ruled Monday that God is in violation of anti-monopoly laws and ordered Him to be broken up into several less powerful deities." —Judge Orders God to Break Up into Smaller Deitiesb> (TheOnion)
(Word Circuits): Hypertext poetry by Stephanie Strickland —The Ballad of Sand and Harry Soot
Kaycee Nicole, an attractive student dying from leukemia, shared her ordeal via on online diary. Her mother started a companion diary. Web surfers became close friends with this family through email, chatroom, and even phone conversations. The New York Times even quoted Kaycee about college life. When she finally died, her online friends grieved like…
"[T]he search and directory firms have put their futures in question by flouting time-tested business practices that require an absolutely clear separation between editorial content and advertising." Hal Plotkin —Doom Ahead for Search Engines That Charge (SF Gate)
Yahoo recently ran a story about a man suffocated by a stripper’s breasts… but it was a hoax first published in a tabloid. You may have heard recent reports about the airliner passenger stuck to a toilet seat. (MSNBC, BBC, CNN) Note that no names or dates are given. It’s a hoax. (Unless it’s a…
(CLA) is a fellowship of individuals who share experience, strength, and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem with clutter and help others recover. The only requirement for membership is a desire to eliminate clutter and bring order into our lives. (via Remarked Bookmarks) —Clutterers Anonymous Ironic: when I was an…
"Most weblogs are drivel, banal sh*t written by angst-ridden teenagers and adults sharing feelings, thoughts, and mind-numbing details about their daily lives that provide little insight into anything or anyone. But the gems can be found amongst the long-since abandoned or forgotten sites." John M. Grohol —Psychology of Weblogs
The link above goes to the web version of a powerpoint presentation. Dennis G. Jerz —I Found it On the Internet: Teaching Students to Locate, Evaluate and Cite Online Sources
A prayer before surfing: “Almighty and eternal God, we beseech thee that, through the example of Saint Isidore, bishop and doctor, during our journeys through the Internet we will direct our hands and eyes only to that which is pleasing to thee and treat with charity and patience all those souls whom we encounter. Amen.”…
Think twice before sending a tartly worded e-mail or prepare for a battle of near-biblical proportions like the one being waged on Chicago computer consultant Bernard Shifman. —Resume Vaults [Chicago] Techie into Spam Battlefield (Chicago Trib)
"What venerated ‘alpha geeks’ and lowly ‘smurfs’ share is a tendency to talk about people as if they were machines. To be ‘uninstalled’ means being fired or dismissed, whereas a ‘plug-and-play’ refers to a new employee who fits in without any additional training." (Rebuttal: Don’t Tweak the Geeks) —When the Geeks get Snide (NY Times;…
“i was a 20-something dethroned dotcom ceo that went to work the counter at mcdonald’s” [scott heiferman didn’t cut it as a dot-com CEO, and apparently doesn’t know how to use the shift key, either.]
; trendy young dot-com refugees come begging. (WashPost) —Boring, grey-haired government contractors are hot
"The practice of using the secret Word format for interchange impedes the growth of our community and the spread of freedom. While we notice the occasional annoyance of receiving a Word document, this steady and persistent harm to our community usually doesn’t come to our attention." Richard Stallman —We Can Put an End to Word…
"With the rise of search tools that unerringly bring you to the page you want, the need for a highly specific domain name — one that a casual Web user would be able to guess — has practically disappeared." Dan Gillmor —"’Google Effect’ Reduces Need for Many Domains"b> (SiliconValley.com)
A clueless fellow looking for a job in information technology sends out his resume in a mass mailing. Bernard Shifman, an unrepentant spammer, then threatens to sue practically anyone who even mentions the incident. Pete Moss documents what is most likely the end of Mr. Shifman’s career. —Bernard Shifman is a Moron Spammer
A student project on why Microsoft is evil includes this parody of the Alcoholics Anonymous "12 step" program. Sammy Carranza —12 Steps to Stop Using Microsoft