Brain-Dead Teen, Only Capable Of Rolling Eyes And Texting, To Be Euthanized

via Brain-Dead Teen, Only Capable Of Rolling Eyes And Texting, To Be Euthanized – YouTube. Similar:The history of Tetris randomizersA pleasantly detailed analysis of how th…CybercultureWe'll Always Have Paris (TNG Rewatch: Season 1, Episode 24)Rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generatio…MediaAn unreal Mars skylineThat awesome image showing Earth, Venus …AestheticsWhat a great time everyone had at…

Hackers and Makers

A longer-than-usual introduction to a reading assignment in my “Media and Culture” class turned into a useful opportunity to reflect. We are all busy people; yet somehow, many people who say they are too busy to take on another task spend hours reading, interpreting, and debating Harry Potter; some post stop-motion Lego spoofs; some do…

Zombie Code and Extra-Functional Significance | Play The Past

Useless code and comments in code—these are the zombie figures of software. They serve no purpose in a program’s execution, but they exude what Mark Marino calls extra-functional significance. They have meaning beyond the program. They speak not to the machine or the compiler, but to a different audience, another reader. In software development, that…

Tantalizing Details for Colossal Cave Adventure Enthusiasts

The most detail I’ve ever seen about Will Crowther’s other creative projects; here, in a conversation dated 1996, he discusses “different ‘adventures’”, and reveals that he wrestled with many of the same challenges that interactive fiction programmers faced through the 1980s and on to the present. I have at various times made different “adventures.” Two…

Facebook can be used to predict academic success, job performance | ZDNet

A good example of correlation. (Simply changing your Facebook content won’t automatically make you a better worker or student, but certain Facebook details do correspond to achievement in the offline world.) Researchers spent about 10 minutes looking at photos, wall posts, comments, education, and hobbies on Facebook profiles, while answering personality-related questions including whether the…

Bag a Bot Day

At midnight tonight, participants in the FIRST Robotics Competition must stop working on their robots and seal them up in a plastic bag. Here’s the working bot my son’s team built. Pretty good for a rookie team.     Similar:If I don’t hang my own artwork on the walls of my #steampunk fantasy ship-of-the-line, who…AestheticsFormer…

Wonderful Performance of Raymond Scott’s “Powerhouse”

Fantastic composition, deeply embedded into the brains of any kid who grew up watching Looney Tunes. Raymond Scott recorded “Powerhouse” on this day 75 years ago. Similar:To Learn More, This High-Schooler Left The ClassroomNick Bain, 17, was in class one day when…CultureMy colleague @crissycp once again left an amazing Irish soda bread in the break…

Gamasutra – News – Second Life developer acquires experimental game studio LittleTextPeople

LittleTextPeople, founded by writer Emily Short and Maxis veteran Richard Evans, has so far focused on the development of software that replicates complex social interaction. For instance, among its internal technology is a simulator that models social behavior and individual personalities. —Gamasutra – News – Second Life developer acquires experimental game studio LittleTextPeople. Similar:Do Cultural…

You are standing in a field. There is a meme here.

Via David Thompson Similar:Literature Is Not Data: Against Digital HumanitiesMean technology. Mean, mean technology. …BooksUpdating a villain's lair in #Blender3D. Still a work in progress.AestheticsThe Most Epic Demo in Computer History Is Now an OperaThis is nice, but what I really want to …Aesthetics"The Nightmare of Prince Prezelsky"Leigh, Peter, Carolyn and I had fun reco…Amusingxkcd:…

Twitter / Search – “couldn’t remove your contacts” – All Tweets

Twitter / Search – “couldn’t remove your contacts” – All Tweets. Similar:FBI launches flurry of arrests over attacks on journalists during Capitol riotImagine that. Nearly six months after t…Current_EventsIn May, 2000, I was blogging about the 'I Love You' virus, hacking URLs, PG Wodehouse, and…In May, 2000, I was blogging about …AcademiaI accidentally started a…