My high school experience was very analog. I had been word-processing most of my school papers and doing some recreational coding/hacking since I was in middle school (around 1982), but didn’t start using email until I went to college (1986), and then only sparingly until I left the country for grad school. So it was…
I periodically get emails from former students who thank me, several years after a class is over, for challenging them in a way that prepared them for life after college. I don’t get so many grateful comments while the students are still in college. I don’t blame my students, but a certain proportion does seem…
Yes, the NYT multimedia “Snow Fall” was wonderful, and my new media colleagues are excited by it. But it took 11 staff members 6 months to publish. Is this really what new media journalists should emulate? How can I scale this down to the classroom? The future of journalism is about speed, volume, rough and…
The New York Times debuted a new multimedia feature Thursday so beautiful it has a lot of people wondering — especially those inside the New York Times — if the mainstream media is about to forgo words and pictures for a whole lot more. Unlike a standard words-on-page article that doesn’t diverge too much from print in the design department,…
The population of e-book readers is growing. In the past year, the number of those who read e-books increased from 16% of all Americans ages 16 and older to 23%. At the same time, the number of those who read printed books in the previous 12 months fell from 72% of the population ages 16…
After Hours – Why The Star Trek Universe is Secretly Horrifying Similar:A 40sq cm section of a #steampunk control panel. #blender3d #blender3dartAestheticsSamaritan Snare (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season 2, Episode 17)(Rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generati…DramaAnother lovely variation of a #steampunk control panel. #blender3dart #neovictorian #desig…AestheticsWhat if the DC rioters had been Black? I think we know…
A touching bit of balanced storytelling, without editorializing, via selection of quotes and telling descriptive details. “I know dads that say they ain’t their kids. I see dads being disrespectful of the mothers. And I see ones who take other men’s kids to football games because they know their fathers aren’t around,” said Mr. McManus,…
My friend Anastasia gave me a home-made lip-balm kit for my 10yo daughter. A blizzard the day after Christmas was the perfect opportunity to stay home and try it out. Similar:Memorizer (Memorization Tool)A Midsummer castmate shared a link to th…CybercultureSnow White: The Musical Opens Fridayhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiIRCoHoN…AestheticsMillennials Shy Away from Voice MailI was happy a few years ago when…
So, late Friday, we reported on how the Republican Study Committee (the conservative caucus of House Republicans) had put out a surprisingly awesome report about copyright reform. You can read that post to see the details. The report had been fully vetted and reviewed by the RSC before it was released. However, as soon as…
30 Web Designs Featuring Vintage Style Typography. Similar:Carolyn Jerz featured on Tap Titans TodayI love watching my daughter perform. Her…AestheticsWhy Do So Many People on YouTube Sound the Same?So it turns out the “YouTube voice” is j…CultureSarah Polley: ‘It took me years to see how responsible Terry Gilliam was for my terror’The little girl from…
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Performers Ali Kidder-Mostrom (L) and David Coupe perform a fight scene as a translation of their dialogue is projected on a screen during a performance of “A Klingon Christmas Carol” in Chicago, December 20, 2012. —A Klingon Christmas Carol Similar:Fantasticks (Theatre Factory, Oct 18-27) AestheticsFBI: 'Exercise Caution and Attempt to Verify Information Through Appropriate Official…
Something else has changed, too, beyond the proliferation of screens. Today, I don’t think—and I’m almost afraid to write this, because it’s like the tolling of some great bell—today I don’t think the amateur’s best effort is good enough. We as internet users have less patience and less charity for janky, half-broken experiences. (Which is…
Unexpected consequences, when a developer slims the size (in terms of data) of the YouTube video-watching page from 1.2M down to under 100kb. Having just finished writing the HTML5 video player, I decided to plug it in instead of the far heavier Flash player. Bam! 98KB and only 14 requests. I threaded the code with…
Reaction to the cover: – Newsweek’s last print issue has just a hashtag on the cover. Like using your final breath to ID the killer. @sacca – Newsweek’s last cover: one more flippant stunt. Ooh! A Hashtag! I’m proud to have worked there 1985-93. @jswatz – Glad to see @Newsweek going all digital! Love the…
My 10yo daughter Carolyn played Annie in a Stage Right! Greensburg production Sunday. I was delighted to play President FDR. Here is a clip from our longest scene together, the Annie Cabinet Scene. Similar:Nerdling spots typo in space exploration textbook.PersonalDowntime with the boy.PersonalMy 20-year-old Java Program Is Was Broken!So a harmless little Java program I…
Similar:Forward is the officers' wardroom. To the right is an airlock. Left leads to the on-call o… Aesthetics"A Mushroom at Last… A Mushroom Forever"I asked my 10yo why she was moping. “…AmusingPopcorn MakerI’ll have to look into this. Popc…AestheticsIt’s so heartbreaking seeing the amount of disinformation being spread by elected official…It’s so heartbreaking seeing…
Creative Bloq. Similar:Now that I have polished so many details, I'm working on more selective lighting. #steampu… AestheticsFirst page of a student’s Texture project. (This made me laugh.) This clever freshman writing student…AcademiaA day after using an apparently altered hurricane map, Trump defends his Alabama claimIt was Mr. Trump who used a black Sharpi…Current_EventsLooks like…
Nearly everyone reported so many things wrong in the first 24 hours after the Sandy Hook shootings that it’s hard to single out any one news organization or reporter for criticism. Among the news outlets that wrongly reported major parts of the journalistic building blocks of “who, what, where, when, why and how,” were CBS, The Associated…
With so many unanswered questions, TV correspondents were left to set the scene and to convey the impact in words that continually failed them. However apt, the phrase “parents’ worst nightmare” became an instant cliche. And the word “unimaginable” was used countless times. But “imagine” was exactly what the horrified audience was helpless not to…