Satisfied Amazon Customer

The other day I was searching Amazon for a digital edition of the poems of Emily Dickinson, and was pleased to find a digital edition for a few bucks. I know that Project Gutenberg has a decent edition of the original publication of the version her family first published, but the first publication changed her…

Not as Web Savvy as You Think

Researchers also asked students questions about websites they chose. After using Google to get to a website, this interaction occurred between a researcher and a study participant: Researcher: “What is this website?” Student: “Oh, I don’t know. The first thing that came up.” “Search engine rankings seem extremely important,” Hargittai said. “We found that a…

Groundswell: How People With Social Technologies Are Changing Everything

We use the metaphor of a ladder to show this, with the rungs at the higher end of the ladder indicating a higher level of participation. —Forrester Similar:PR Pop Quiz: Intro to Crisis ManagementPop quiz for public relations 101. Sc…BusinessThe Post-Coding Generation?I knew the command line well, and very o…CybercultureQpid (#ST:TNG Rewatch, Season 4, Episode 20)…

Rihanna to star in Universal's 'Battleship'

Director Peter Berg is expected to soon begin shooting the live-action tentpole based on Hasbro’s naval combat board game. —Variety Boggle. Trouble. Sorry. Similar:Meet the 12-year-old boy who makes games instead of going to schoolTurning on the anti-clickbait filter: Ho…CultureShe was accused of faking an incriminating video of teenage cheerleaders. She was arrested…Madi Hime is…

Blender 2.53 Beta Released

The Blender Foundation has announced its release of version 2.53 beta. Blender is a free, open-source 3D animation and game design package. I’ve taught it in the past in my New Media Projects course, but no student has ever chosen a Blender creation for a term project, and some of my textually-minded English majors have…

Is The Game Industry A Happy Place?

No, the awesome mascot-based space platformer you cheerily sketched on graph paper when you were supposed to be focused on math homework is not going straight to production. No, in fact, there are not a million page views at the ready for your exhaustive essay on the themes of Silent Hill 2. You will probably…

Almost there…

There is a documentary film on text adventures here. Paths lead off in all directions.>get GET LAMP Similar:Son Doong Cave in Viet Nam Featurers Skylight, JungleAs a fan of Colossal Cave Adventure, I’m…AestheticsHypertext as a Teaching Tool — Brown University Poetry Classroom 1974This short film documents an early attem…AcademiaSeton Hill Virtual Commencement Fall 2020  AcademiaSkin…

Should Journalists Learn Programming Skills?

How very apt… the answer comes in the form of a flowchart. (10000words.net) Similar:On Instructional Technology and Face-to-Face Interaction CybercultureCaptain’s Holiday (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season Three, Episode 19) Picard’s Archeologica…Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break….AmusingHow Facebook is killing comedy (and other indie content creators)Facebook has monetized access to online …BusinessHave you been "workslopped" by a…

The art of slow reading

Still reading? You’re probably in a dwindling minority. But no matter: a literary revolution is at hand. First we had slow food, then slow travel. Now, those campaigns are joined by a slow-reading movement – a disparate bunch of academics and intellectuals who want us to take our time while reading, and re-reading. They ask…

Unpublished Twain Autobiography Rails Against YouTube, BP, War In Afghanistan

Editors of the long-awaited autobiography of Mark Twain said Tuesday they were surprised to discover the unedited manuscript of the forthcoming book contains lashing, in-depth criticism of the website YouTube, the recent BP oil spill, and the ongoing military action in Afghanistan. —The Onion Similar:Memories of Toronto Yonge Street EncountersI arrived in Toronto in 1992…

What's Really Going on Behind Murdoch's Paywall?

In a desperate attempt to preserve the financial integrity of journalism size of his revenue stream, media mogul Rupert Murdoch recently put content at the UK TImes and Sunday Times behind a pay firewall. The information-wants-to-be-free crowd can’t wait to see this experiment fail. A Murdoch and Fleet Street veteran with whom I’ve been corresponding…

Updating my "Writing About Interactive Fiction" page

Creating interactive fiction (a genre also know as “text adventures”) means writing computer code that represents objects and behaviors, while also creating interesting characters, a compelling plot, and maybe a few narrative surprises, all of which can be assembled for a reader to experience in multiple different ways. The resources that follow are intended to…