Even for those who love books enough to persevere with reading without e-ink will soon face another problem with the awesomeness of the iPad. The device does so many different things so well that there’s a constant urge when you’re using one to do something else. Two or three pages into a book, you’re already…
I just posted a new handout, introducing students in my “History and Future of the Book” course to Vannevar Bush and his memex. I’ll probably tweak that handout a bit more, but it’s quitting time today. In 1946, Vannevar Bush published “As We May Think” (I assigned it in EL236, but I’m not assigning the…
“As We May Think” has been constantly cited ever since, a development that has been analyzed by Smith (1981), who noted that the article has been used as a symbol for a number of different concepts. However, references to it often have little substance. The paper has become a fashionable icon of modern information science,…
Similar:2001: A Space Odyssey – Discerning Themes through Score and ImageryIncredibly detailed close reading of the…Aesthetics30 years later, Sierra's Laura Bow mysteries are still a treasureWhen I was in college and grad school, a…CultureHow Fake News Happens: It's simple! A governor tweets a Fox News graphic from a story that…How dare President Biden be invoked…
The world’s first copyright law was passed by the English Parliament on 10 April 1710 as ‘An Act for the Encouragement of Learning’. The Queen Anne Statute, as it is known, marked the beginning of modern copyright law. Professor Gillian Davies, author of ‘Copyright and the Public Interest’, describes it as ‘the foundation upon which…
PIXELS by Patrick Jean from ONE MORE PRODUCTION on Vimeo. Similar:Crossfire #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 13) Odo's feelings for Kira complicate…Rewatching ST:DS9 Odo meticulously ar…EthicsA quick Sunday visit to #fortligonier with my history-loving son.A quick Sunday visit to #fortligonier wi…CultureOh dear, George Lucas! Why the Star Wars universe is going from bad to…
Responding to Apple’s most recent legal agreement governing the way apps are developed for the iPhone. Some popular apps have been written in Adobe Flash and converted to work on the iPhone; this is cumbersome, but at least it lets designers use the Flash skills they already have. I have no love of no love…
I was a sophomore in college when Star Trek: The Next Generation aired. Most of the guys in my suite watched the premiere episode, and then sampled a few after that. Then, the guy who owned the TV wanted to watch basketball instead, and after a few attempts to find a place to watch Trek,…
Today the most consistently pleasurable pursuit in my life is playing video games. Unfortunately, the least useful and financially solvent pursuit in my life is also playing video games. For instance, I woke up this morning at 8am fully intending to write this article. Instead, I played Left 4 Dead until 5pm. The rest of…
The graders working for EduMetry, based in a Virginia suburb of Washington, are concentrated in India, Singapore, and Malaysia, along with some in the United States and elsewhere. They do their work online and communicate with professors via e-mail. The company advertises that its graders hold advanced degrees and can quickly turn around assignments with…
Neal Stephenson’s Diamond Age (1995) features a fantastic interactive book that educates a neglected guttersnipe, turning her into a capable, intelligent independent heroine. The iPad doesn’t quite match the vision of that book, but this video is still amazing. Similar:In 2019, I have a college student who annotates readings like this!I asked students in my…
At a faculty senate meeting, the provost announced that all faculty on an annual contract will receive iPads before summer break. She asked us all to come up with a meaningful way to incorporate iPads in at least one course in the fall and one course in the spring. The iPads are not just for…
“Those big, heavy textbooks that kids go around with in their backpacks are going to be a thing of the past,” said Mary Ann Gawelek, vice president of academic affairs at Seton Hill, which is giving iPads to its 2,100 students and 300 faculty members beginning this fall. —Wired But we don’t have 300 faculty…
Jason Kottke uses standard Latin typesetting dummy text to express his opinion of the technology media’s coverage of the iPad. Hilarious! Lorem iPad dolor sit amet, consectetur Apple adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua Shenzhen. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud no multi-tasking ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip…
It’s great to see the more current interactive fiction works getting critical attention. The “text adventure” genre has come a long way from mazes and inventory puzzles; these works emphasize the literary effects that can only be generated by manipulating the player’s sense of agency. This study examines how themes, conventions and concepts in Gothic…
A pre-release critique of the tablet culture. Compared to other kinds of information that computers process today, text has an exceptionally small footprint. With the arrival of the tablet, we have crossed a critical threshold: Where text is concerned, we effectively have infinite computational resources, connectivity, and portability. For decades, futurists have dreamed of the…
Yes, it’s stunning to watch the spinning images in the table of elements ebook that comes with the iPad. But what does the brave new world of ebooks hold for educational and nonfiction authors? In order for electronic books to live up to their billing, we have to fix a system that is broken: getting permission…
What would our lives be like, in the post-newsprint world, without important cultural expressions like this? Similar:She’s on her way to the @thepublicpgh for two shows today as Margot in Dial M for Murder.She’s on her way to the @thepublicpgh fo…AestheticsCNN reports Biden's dog was "involved in another biting incident"CNN’s headline: “Bidens’ dog Major invol…Current_EventsDelightful…
The iPad is mentioned a couple times during this feature on how wonderful Seton Hill University is. Just kidding. Seton Hill is mentioned twice about a minute into the clip (after the advertisement). Similar:The Whole Internet Hates MeAmusingQuick visit to see my mother and siblings.AestheticsGiven a chance to explain his support for a YouTuber who…
The digital photography course that SHU’s journalism students are supposed to take typically fills up, so that students can’t take the course until they are seniors. That rather defeats the purpose of requiring the course — I was hoping that students who take the course will be able to take photos for the student paper…