July 20, 1969: astronauts from Apollo 11 visited  the lunar surface. The Atlantic. Similar:Can we hope to understand how the Greeks saw their world?Fascinating contemplation of color perce…AestheticsDiamonds Are Bullsh*tI did propose with a diamond ring, for w…BusinessEmotional Intelligence Needs a RewriteI’ve recently processed and absorbed my …EssaysBottled Authors: the predigital dream of the audiobookThere…
I’ve taught an online “Video Game Culture and Theory” course about four times now. This fall I’m getting ready to teach my first online section of an American literature survey that I’ve taught multiple times before. Because Seton Hill is a very high-tech school, I have few technical worries, but it will be different teaching…
This book explores the relationship between living, code and software. Technologies of code and software increasingly make up an important part of our urban environment. Indeed, their reach stretches to even quite remote areas of the world. Life in Code and Software introduces and explores the way in which code and software are becoming the…
A certificate of debt, found in a regional archive, attests that Mittenwalde lent Berlin 400 guilders on May 28 1562, to be repaid with six percent interest per year. According to Radio Berlin Brandenburg (RBB), the debt would amount to 11,200 guilders today, which is roughly equivalent to 112 million euros ($136.79 million). —Reuters.com. But…
Because, as we all know, headlines spring suddenly into existence, like Athena from the brow of Zeus. It can’t be the journalists who choose certain stories that fit the public’s desire to read about family tragedy. —MISSING IN IOWA: Grandmother: ‘It’s absolutely no family’ – CNN iReport. Similar:Could We Just Lose the Adverb (Already)?I can’t…
There are two varieties of fairy tales. One is the literary fairy tale, the kind written, most famously, by Charles Perrault, E. T. A. Hoffmann, and Hans Christian Andersen. Such tales, which came into being at the end of the seventeenth century, are original literary works—short stories, really—except that they have fanciful subject matter: unhappy…
Yes, the Mars rovers are cute and wonderful, but I do feel bad that my kids didn’t have the space shuttle program to look forward to, as I did. Okay, the dramatic music and the studio lighting on the talking heads may be a notch or two over the top. But there’s no argument from…
The serious-faced TV anchor introduces a live crime report about a destructive Walmart flashmob: “Channel Four’s Emily Turner spoke with our crime analyst about how dangerous these situations can really be.” Emily Turner, looking equally serious, while standing in front of a completely featureless background that doesn’t even have the Walmart logo in frame, says…
Some useful-looking journalism resources. These training modules have been put together to offer ongoing help to journalists in transition states, post-conflict countries, and areas where the media is still developing. The only condition for using these modules is that you let us know if you spot any typos. Many have been written on planes, in departure lounges and in…
We’ve scoured the web in search of the best Blender tutorials out there and compiled a list of 45 of the most epic we could find. This collection includes a variety of tutorials covering everything from modeling and animation, to rigging and VFX. So grab a coffee and savor the Blender goodness! —45 Epic Blender…
What is the nature of news on YouTube? What types of events “go viral” and attract the most viewers? How does this agenda differ from that of the traditional news media? Do the most popular videos on YouTube tend to be videos produced by professional news organizations, by citizens or by political interest groups or…
Computers are pretty dumb, but they’re dumb fast. Computers are near-omnipotent cauldrons of processing power, but they’re also stupid. They are the undisputed chess champions of the world, but they can’t understand a simple English conversation. […] [On SHRDLU:] Every human sentence had to be transformed into a logical syntax that represented its meaning. The…
In the past few days, I’ve read a few of those head-shaking “you won’t believe how poorly college students write” essays, which always make me uncomfortable. They typically quote student “mistakes” out of context — maybe the assignment was to brainstorm or take risks, rather than produce polished gems; maybe the student is not a…
There’s a lot of interest in infographics nowadays, but doing them correctly — and making them look simple — is not easy. From 9to5 Mac: Nielsen released smartphone purchasing data yesterday that depicted Apple grabbing more than a third of the total smartphone market in the most recently surveyed month. Android was over 50 percent. That is almost…
Even though I got it for free, a Bamboo stylus is not cheap, meaning that I worried about the cost of replacing it if I lost it, so may have used it less frequently. Deciding whether the convenience of using the stylus is worth the risk of losing it ets up even more mental effort.
So it would seem then that the solution should involve either becoming more careful, which would require more effort, or getting a supply of cheaper backups, so that losing any one stylus is less of a big deal.
This Colorful Stylus Bundle is priced at about $1 each.
[caption width="300" caption="The little stubby ones are awkward, but better than a finger. They work just as well as $20 models." align="aligncenter"]
[/caption]This sounds like a brilliant way to repurpose antiquated technology and improve pedestrian life. The city has converted 10 public pay phones in three boroughs – Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens – into free Wi-Fi hot spots, infusing a blast of modern technology into some of the city’s most notably outdated infrastructure. The project is considered…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L1XI8zzsZA My daughter is thrilled to be part of this talented cast. (She plays young CMHWHLB.) Similar:Mars Is a Hellhole: Colonizing the red planet is a ridiculous way to help humanity.Some of Elon Musk’s stunts have caught m…BusinessPreteen Acting Scene Version 2 – YouTubeI had a free evening and a copy of Blend…DramaA certain potions…
Today, I managed to get in a couple of hours of web development and PR/social media work that is stretching my skills a bit. The new pack of iPad styluses I ordered from Amazon has shipped. I’m caught up in the online faculty development class I’m taking. My inbox is brimming with opportunities to collaborate and connect…
If brass lanterns or slathering-fanged grues mean anything to you, you might want to look into Inklewriter. I teach a text-adventure (“interactive fiction“) unit in my “New Media Projects” course. My mainstay for that unit is Inform 7, a robust tool with loads of examples and a user community that I know well (through my…
Although I do use both Twitter and Facebook, I often regret putting time and energy into a walled garden, sparking and contributing to conversations that happen elsewhere, and not on my blog. In many ways, hosting conversations on Twitter and Facebook are superior to letting people post comments on my blog (because I get literally…