I haven’t visited Aint It Cool News in a long time. I give Harry Knowles kudos for being who he is and not hiding behind any kind of mask, and I also recognize he’s not writing for the minivan-and-mortgage demographic. Still… I wasn’t prepared for this. (Spoilers!) I fall out of love with ANDY because…
“I think he thinks you’re drowning,” the husband said to his wife. They had been splashing each other and she had screamed but now they were just standing, neck-deep on the sand bar. “We’re fine, what is he doing?” she asked, a little annoyed. “We’re fine!” the husband yelled, waving him off, but his captain…
I don’t get to say much, but I’m honored to find myself associated with such company. The following dialogue was fabricated in order to illustrate the viewpoints of Vannevar Bush, K. Eric Drexler, and Dennis Jerz, and how they relate to the website created by TJ Chapp for Engineering Professional Development: Engineering applications to web…
Recently, while getting the kids ready for bed, my wife picked up the mouthwash, twisted off the lid, and handed the bottle to our daughter. Carolyn, 8, stared in shock. “You didn’t do the dance!” Carolyn has dexterous little fingers that love to pry things apart. When we added mouthwash to the bedtime routine a…
Results: Books Faster Than Tablets The iPad measured at 6.2% lower reading speed than the printed book, whereas the Kindle10.7% slower than print. However, the difference between the two devices was not statistically significant because of the data’s fairly high variability. Thus, the only fair conclusion is that we can’t say for sure which device…
Nearly one in five (19%) who have an account no longer visit Facebook or are using it less. Of the group that are saying goodbye to Facebook (), 45% have lost interest, 16% are leaving because their parents are there, 14% say there are “too many adults/older people” and 13% are concerned about the privacy…
Students almost universally hate close reading, and they rarely wind up understanding it anyway. Forced to pick out meaning in passages they don’t fully grasp to begin with, they begin to get the idea that English class is about simply making things up (Ah yes–the tree mentioned once on page 89 and then never again…
A great collection of bite-sized interpretations. On “Richard Cory”On “Miniver Cheevey” On “They shut me up in Prose”On “Because I could not stop for Death” Similar:Silicon Avatar (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 5, Episode 4) Grieving scientist mom wrecks…Rewatching ST:TNG Riker does some ser…CultureThe intelligence coup of the century: For decades, the CIA read the encrypted…
Wonder Woman to finally start wearing pants “It’s a look designed to be taken seriously as a warrior, in partial answer to the many female fans over the years who’ve asked, ‘how does she fight in that thing without all her parts falling out?’” said incoming series writer J. Michael Straczynski. “It reflects her origins…
I keep forgetting that I can’t use my iPad to blog with MovableType. The WYSIWYG editor does not work, and I can’t even seem to paste a URL when using the text editor. At any rate, this is a Flash video from USA Today. Similar:The Homecoming (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 2, Episode 1) War hero…
Similar:Over time, Google has made paid ads harder to spot In 2007, Google changed the long…BusinessIgnorance Meets an Invisible DisabilityI’m sure my young, healthy-looking frien…CultureIce Cream and Sharks Scene: writing classroom.  …AcademiaJerz Nerdcation 2013On a visit to the Washington DC area for…CultureBing’s A.I. Chat Reveals Its Feelings: ‘I Want to Be Alive. 😈’In…
My son has finally found a math textbook he enjoys. A few years ago, he was happy to play Timez Attack, which was really the first 3D game he had played. Now my daughter is ready to learn her times tables, but we’ve been playing Fate and Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Star Wars and Dungeons…
The command line will live on as long as authors and readers keep enjoying fiction made with it. But many have pointed out there is a huge market of readers (print and digital) and casual gamers who ought to love all this free IF, but sadly, they aren’t exactly flocking to it. One reason must…
I’ve been blogging about the climate change issue for some time now. Here’s the latest, which responds to the exposure of private e-mails in which a climatologist is accused of acknowledging deliberately tweaking the data in order to make a stronger environmental case. [N]ot only did British investigators clear the East Anglia scientist at the center…
Graham of Daventry posted to my blog, with news that the fan-produced Kings Quest, non-commercial sequel has risen from the dead. http://tinyurl.com/2em59… The first release date is scheduled for mid-July. Similar:Jerz and Daughter Teach Scratch (Digital Storytelling Tutorial)In the past I have posted tutorials for …CybercultureLocal news is the building block of a national democracy.Yesterday,…
“[T]here’s leaning left, and then there’s behaving like an idiot.” —Jeffrey Goldberg (The Atlantic) quotes an unnamed Washington Post source on the resignation of Dave Weigel, who until today covered the political right on a blog for the Washington Post. Weigel came under fire for blowing off steam in an online forum, where he invited…
This document is a code of best practices that helps U.S. communication scholars to interpret the copyright doctrine of fair use. Fair use is the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances–especially when the cultural or social benefits of the use are predominant. It is a general right that applies…
Tomorrow afternoon, about 110 full-time students in SHU’s Writing Popular Fiction MFA program will be given their university-provided iPads. In addition, the Seton Hill University Griffin Technology Advantage program includes MacBooks for all incoming undergraduates, as well. I’ll be observing WPF student teaching demonstrations Thursday through Saturday, so I’ll get an early look at how…
Since Seton Hill is giving iPads to all full-time students, I have been looking at the comparative features of several eBook readers. Right now, the Kindle app for the iPad looks good, because it offers notes and highlighting, but it lacks an iintegrated pop-up dictionary, which severely hurts is usefulness to student readers. I like…
Insanely detailed analysis of the computer interface designed for Star Trek: The Next Generation. Bracercom.com The LCARS Frame Here are the common fame structures, notice I did not segment it but kept it continuous for the number of segments in a frame is up to the number of options you want your application to display…