Some people don’t seem to get it. Here, in 2011, are 15 sites I’ve not featured before, all of which try to prevent you linking to them (usually restricting the “right” to link to just the homepage or else requiring written consent). YOU’RE ALL IDIOTS. I have, of course, linked to them – click the…
Highly-paid superstars aren’t preventing the exodus of TV viewers. The mind boggles that the fight to keep TV news profitable led CBS to pay Couric $15 million a year. That expense would provide an attractive living wage to 150 experienced journalists, or 300 cub reporters in feeder markets. Pelley, a Texan who began his career…
All games, from Starcraft to Scrabble to Angry Birds and beyond, provide players with complex problem spaces to explore in ways that are both fun and challenging. These spaces might take on the tone and texture of an ancient civilization, horror film, intergalactic space station, or mafia headquarters. When designed well, games can evoke a…
A touching, nostalgic look at “Colossal Cave Adventure.” Books are words on a page, sure. We follow along and visualize our own version of things, as much as the author’s descriptions will allow us the freedom to do so. But even the movies can change those, though. Whether we like it or not. And long…
Susan Jeffers had a job like that. She was the copy editor for a few books you may have heard of: “Order of the Phoenix,” “Half-Blood Prince,” and “Deathly Hallows.” Each title, in case you just got back from Mars, begins with the words “Harry Potter and the …” Pretty good gig, was it? “It…
This seems like a line from Catch-22. The driver had minor injuries and was charged with carless driving. — New Port Richey-Port Richey-Hudson News. Similar:Nellie Bly statue to be unveiled at Pittsburgh airport ThursdayIn 1889, Bly became famous for an-around…AwesomeDear readers: Please stop calling us ‘the media.’ There is no such thing.When my students refer in…
When my son was young, I noticed that videgames had taught him that problems are surmountable, so long as you have enough tries. That’s not always true, of course, or practical. We had a chat about things dying, and as I struggled to lightly broach the subject with him I ended up talking about the…
USA Today designed its coin-operated dispensers to resemble TV screens, but today’s flatscreen TVs don’t have rounded corners anymore. The content is getting a refresh, though. That breezy approach has reinforced perceptions that USA Today lacks the intellectual heft and sway of the Times and another national newspaper, The Wall Street Journal. Both those newspapers…
This was by the teacher’s station in Admin 403 today. I went to drop it off at the lost and found, but the campus police office was closed. Instead, I left it in the chaplain’s office, since that seemed appropriate. Similar:Kitchen utensils for my steampunk villain's hideout. #Blender3D. There’s nothing particularly steampu…AestheticsI’m a 12-year-old girl.…
A weblog’s most characteristic feature — the prominence of the most recent entry — has consequences for long-term discussions. But those archives are linkable; a really good blog entry exists in a network of other related posts. Constantly linking to your own ideas can be a form of narcissism, but judicious back-linking can overcome the…
Under the agreement with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, Google would continue to digitise books and sell access online. In return, the company would pay $125m (£76.9m) in royalties every year to the copyright owners of the books being scanned. However, copyright concerns persisted, as the ownership of many of the…
A VCU survey this year found that 43 percent of students said they use mobile devices as their primary way to access the Internet, up from 10.2 percent just two years before. Last fall, 63 percent of freshmen said they own a smartphone and 73 percent expect to have one by next year. Va universities…
I was at a meeting yesterday in our IT department, when I saw a Zaggmate keyboard/case lying abandoned on a table, with no iPad in sight. I guess I must have looked interested in it, because the owner, our VP for IT, happily handed it off to me, and even ran down to his car…
10 Revolutionary iPad Apps to Help Autistic Children | Gadgets DNA. Similar:A masked, socially distant museum visit. So nice to get away from syllabuses and email for… Ford built about a half dozen of the…AestheticsSynchronous Online Classes: 10 Tips for Engaging StudentsEvery time I have taught an online class…AcademiaTo Learn More, This High-Schooler Left The…
My first contribution to the Day of Digital Humanities was not really what I expected. On this Day of Digital Humanities, I ditched a database lesson in my morning writing course, and instead read a hand-written letter about a stack of books. A couple of weeks ago, a colleague handed me a letter sent from…
That reminds me. I have a couple of academic integrity reports to file. The Washington Post has suspended a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for three months for lifting material from another US newspaper. Sari Horwitz, who won America’s top journalism award with a colleague in 2002, was found to have used “substantial” parts of two articles…
A good analysis. Beyond that, $15 per four-week period gives you access to the website and also its smartphone app, while $20 gives you access to the website also its iPad app. But if you want to read the NYT on both your smartphone and your iPad, you’ll need to buy both digital subscriptions separately,…
From the NYT press release, an interesting compromise, that recognizes the value of traffic from search engines and blogs. Full digital access will cost an eye-popping $420/year, or $35/week. Will subscribers have to put up with online ads? All users of NYTimes.com are able to enjoy 20 articles at no charge each month (including slideshows,…
Jeez, kids these days. Not satisfied to merely participate in wildly cool science fairs and competitions sponsored by tech industry giants, now they’re teaching us what we did wrong on our own science fair projects, oh so many years ago. At least that’s what Kevin Temmer managed to do, all in a video which Pearson…
This looks very, very interesting. I may experiment with this in one or more of my classes this term. When we launched the new Google Docs last April, one of the big changes was moving comments to the sidebar and letting people reply to comments. Today, we’re updating comments in Google Docs to facilitate rapid and…