Update: This feature no longer seems to work. WEB APP Write or Die Online Word Goal Time Goal —-5 min10 min15 min20 min30 min48 min1 hour1 hr 15 min1 hr 30 min2 hours Consequences: Gentle ModeNormal Mode Kamikaze Mode Electric Shock Mode Grace Period: ForgivingStrict Evil Similar:The Dadliest DecadeThe eighties, at least, were…
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The first thing to think of when building a responsive site is simplicity. Web designers love to show off that they can design the hell out of a website. They fall in love with their code and all the cool things that it can do. “I think the challenge for me is to use…
“Iffy Cloak of Darkness” is based on the “Cloak of Darkness” specification — a very simple pattern, designed to help programmers compare the strengths and weaknesses of various coding environments. “Cloak of Darkness” is not going to win prizes for its prose, imagination or subtlety. Or scope: it can be played to a successful conclusion in five…
“Scratchy Cloak of Darkness” is based on the “Cloak of Darkness” specification — a very simple pattern, designed to help programmers compare the strengths and weaknesses of various coding environments. “Cloak of Darkness” is not going to win prizes for its prose, imagination or subtlety. Or scope: it can be played to a successful conclusion…
Great example of satire. Blogging this so I can find it the next time I need a contemporary example (and when I want to start a class discussion about gender). You know how it is, right, ladies? You know a guy for a while. You hang out with him. You do fun things with him—play…
Wonderfully detailed analysis of two ground-breaking works of interactive fiction. I regularly assign “Photopia” and “Galatea,” but in our media projects course we never have time to analyze the works in this detail. I never did use a walkthrough for “Galatea,” so I am sure I missed lots of it. Last time I looked at…
As a big fan of Richard Scary, I really wanted to see how postman Zip delivers Betsy bear’s birthday letter to grandma, but this is almost as good. Singularity Hub. Similar:The "Best" E-mail Signature Is Actually the WorstI have no particular opinion about how t…Business"The Machine Stops" by E.M. Forster (a reading)https://youtu.be/mppsaL4MEXU https://…BooksYouTube distortion after…
My Ouya arrived — a Kickstarter-funded gaming console. I have never been a console gamer. Lately, I haven’t even been a PC gamer — when I have the time I would much rather create in Blender 3D or, in the past year or so, make a video. But the principle behind the Ouya — that…
Maybe it’s not the super-robots we need to fear, but the ones just good enough to displace one worker’s salary. Consider the automated checkout line at your local grocery store. It makes more mistakes than a human clerk, it is harder to use, and it is slower because of the rotating error light that loves…
The Stanford marshmallow experiment is a famous study that linked the willingness to delay gratification (children were told they could have one treat now, or two if they waited about 15 min) to a range of positive life outcomes. Many of my students who can’t resist checking their phone in class or during one-on-one office…
“You don’t like to think about a holocaust, but it’s quite possible,” he said. He referred to the long-standing belief among many anthropologists that H. sapiens exterminated Neanderthals with superior weapons and intellect. For a long time, there seemed to be no other explanation for the rapid disappearance of Neanderthals after H. sapiens arrived in…
Half of hiring managers say wearing attire ill-suited for an interview was one of the biggest mistakes they saw. Others include lack of eye contact (33%), checking phone or texting (30%), fidgeting (26%) and bad posture (22%). Other interview horror stories? Nearly half of hiring managers (44%) said showing up late or on the wrong…
You might wonder why we flip out over stress the importance of accurate grammar and usage. Well, there are a couple of reasons … You look silly or unprofessional when you don’t get it right. Don’t think the proofreading police aren’t watching. They are. And they never sleep. Great writers not only struggle with their…
I wrote my undergraduate honors thesis on the plays of Sam Shepard. I took my first-ever date (hi, Maria) to see Shepard in The Right Stuff. He’s dressed in country clothes – a checked shirt and a nondescript jacket – and, unlike most writers, he has an outdoors complexion; a lived-in face. But what’s most…
With a big Hollywood movie now in theaters, some recent printings of the book have abandoned the classic cover in favor of one that ties in more closely with the film. So high school students working their way through the summer reading list this year will be hard pressed to find a copy without Leondardo…
The possibilities of combining Civil War re-enactment and steampunk fantasy role-playing are mind-boggling. Just imagine Rhett Butler steam-flying Scarlet out of Atlanta. The American Civil War brought about great advances in the use of technology in warfare. Balloons, railroads, ironclad ships, and even a submarine were demonstrated throughout the conflict, and new ideas were constantly…
This nerd’s geek heart grew three sizes today. Ubernerds are restoring the Gallileo set piece from the original Star Trek. Dedicated fans are giving new life to the shuttlecraft used in the original “Star Trek” television series. Two “Star Trek” fans are a couple of weeks away from fully restoring the last surviving large set…
I just noticed that a few days ago, a Wikipedia user uploaded a photo to the bio for computing history legend Will Crowther. The caption reads “Will Crowther in fall of 2012 in the Shawangunk Mountains.” A bit of Google-fu leads to several photos showing Crowther is still climbing (the hobby he had long before…
I am not a big fan of traditional slide-show lectures. This is in part because I am not a visual learner, but also because, as a writing teacher, I can see how easily a slide show can fill time without actually informing, persuading, challenging or moving the audience. Students who create slides that summarize what…