Just finished watching a two-part episode of classic Star Trek. I know all the old episodes backwards and forwards, since as a kid I made audiocassette tapes of the after-school reruns, and listened to them over and over. (The writers were never confident that the special effects would be any good, so a character always…
I keep a silly personal blog devoted to a six-legged toy that both my kids have outgrown but which still amuses me. I sometimes use that blog, and that toy, in classroom activities, and occasionally students develop an affection for what I called a “hectopus” (combining “hexagon” with “octopus,” though I concede “hexapus” would have…
Just as early filmmakers couldn’t have predicted the level of ongoing interest in their work more than 100 years later, who can say what future generations will find important to know and preserve about the early history of software? While the notion that someone might go diving into some long outmoded version of Word might…
RT @THATCampPGH: @DennisJerz Registration is open for #THATCamp #Pittsburgh! Spread the word…. Similar:Tweet: Came around the corner and saw my kids huddled on…Came around the corner and saw my kids h…TweetsTweet: For an anatomy project, my #geekling made a Vulcan…For an anatomy project, my #geekling mad…TweetsHello, there, mini.Hello, there, mini. Let’s restore you fr…TweetsYes, I…
Every second is a deadline, every instant is a potential publication. Mistakes like this happen, and a healthy organization focuses on how to fix the system to avoid the problem, rather than on whom to blame. It looks as though they’ve fixed it, but for a glorious 16 minutes this was the Chicago Tribune homepage.…
If I can get the English majors in my news writing class interested in the statistics unit, I’ll be very happy indeed. “When I first realized that I had signed up to be in what is essentially an English class with only accounting majors, I expected the conversation and discussion of the books we read…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40MbeApiXXI Here are some clips from a heartfelt, belty ballad that my daughter and her good friend will be singing this weekend in “13: The Musical.” They’ll each be playing the part of Patrice (the protagonist’s love interest) on different nights. The song is “The Lamest Place in the World.” We spent a fun afternoon…
Lest you think this is just a complicated revenge scheme against my mom (which, let’s be clear, it is), it’s this exact phenomenon that keeps driving Facebook’s user engagement numbers down. Far more than the fears about future employment, more than the creepy coworker who “likes” all your bikini pictures, it is the fear of…
You dont actually get hired by Amazon. Almost everyone is employed by a staffing service. First though, you have to kill an hour and a half of your time filling out an application online and taking insane personality test. Im not sure why they have such a lengthy test Ive filled out a lot of…
I can’t summon up actual nostalgia for the postal service. Telegrams were always a much a better plot device: “It’s a telegram from my Aunt Sadie, you know, the one I’ve never mentioned before but whose pet allergies would no doubt disrupt Junior’s new dog-walking business. It seems she’s in town, but she doesn’t say…
This is certainly a joke, but it’s funnier than the original: You probably remember KTVU’s royal eff up with reading obviously fake Asian names for the pilots of the Asiana crash. Names like “Wi To Lo” and “Ho Lee Fuk”. It looks like a Korean news agency is having some fun at KTVU’s expense. After…
No big surprises here, but this blog post does a good job explaining why doing well on multiple choice questions does not prepare students for college. I took this sample AP test and Googled the 40 questions exactly as written. It took about 2 seconds to find the answers – and that was checking a…
“Police have cornered the suspect who reportedly put as many as 25 words on single line of this text. If caught, he faces… … a lengthy sentence.” Via Cheezburger Similar:The ballroom of my #steampunk fantasy space cruiser is now a less lonely place. Thanks to watching many, many YouTub…AestheticsWhy We Fall for Fake News and…
In the restaurant parking lot after dinner (thanks, Grandma Pat) I mentioned to Carolyn that today is National Dance Day. She rarely needs much encouragement to perform. Similar:Loved part 2 of Romeo and Juliet @thepublicpgh #pptplaytime (Next week: Tartuffe)Culture“The Cowherd Who Became a Poet,” by James Baldwin. (Read by Dennis Jerz)Inspiration can come to those…
“Peter, if black holes aren’t a good conversation starter at the picnic, what else might you try?” “Superstring theory?” That’s my boy. Similar:Why ‘Cats’ the Movie Fails So FlamboyantlyI can’t seem to get into superhero movie…AestheticsA Successful Failure: The TI-99/4A Turns 40My family had one of these when I was 12…AwesomeExplaining Twerking to Your ParentsI…
To stash her Lemonheads and Smarties. http://t.co/Fr1luEpZ2b Similar:How Are Websites Made?This one chart is actually the punch lin…AmusingThe daughter experiences her birthday cookie AestheticsText, Speech, Machine: Metaphors for Computer Code in the Law : Computational CultureOn my to-read list once I post midterm g…BusinessMe, contemplating the implications of maybe doing a socialize this weekend.PersonalIn January…
This one is #3, “Man Lurking by Fence.” 19 Book Cover Clichés. Similar:Inverted Pyramid, #SharpieGate edition Context: Sunday, President Trump twe…Current_EventsBound Together by an Historic Moment I was a young faculty member teachin…CultureColorful variations of an upholstered desk chair for my fantasy #steampunk #blender3d proj…AestheticsMy Shakespeare students are off peer reviewing their term paper rough…
In her new novel, Codecrafter, Sandbothe constructs a fantasy world to introduce programming possibilities to young readers. Programming is sorcery, and code makes spells. The novel focuses on Tagglinde, a young daughter of a lord, and her entry into the world of sorcery through learning programming, and using her knowledge of programming to defeat her…
For me, it’s an upgrade from 16 to 32GB. Also, I tried out a mini & ended up preferring the portability to the large screen. @textfiles Similar:Maybe I'll just delete these QUARTER OF A MILLION spam comments.Not kidding — 254,460 spam comments in …CybercultureHabits for happiness: tips for looking on the bright side of lifeHabits…
Hello, there, mini. Let’s restore you from your backup and get to work! Note to self: next time, before handing in iPad, take screenshots of the icon configuration. (I’m glad I blogged my goodbye to the old model, because I can reconstruct the home screen from that photo.) Similar:Former student: "I remember sometimes being annoyed…