One of the many interactive fiction events at this now-even-more-awesome event that I cannot attend. The current plan: the main GET LAMP episode at 9:30, followed by a panel on stage of people interviewed for the film, and then some showings of a few more features of the DVD, including the Infocom and Bedquilt episodes.…
The viral clip has been viewed almost 54 million times and gave rise to the catchphrase, “Is this real life?” It was the second most-watched video of 2009, according to YouTube, trailing only Susan Boyle‘s appearance on “Britain’s Got Talent.” It’s also been an unexpected bonanza for the boy’s Orlando, Florida-area family, who, despite some criticism that they exploited their…
By the early sixth century, Western Europe had become largely illiterate, its teachers dead, its students on the run, its libraries turned into kindling. Ireland, however, had just settled down, thanks to a tough old bird named Patrick, a Roman citizen raised in the province of Britain who had been grabbed by Irish slavers when…
This wordle was composed from word frequencies in definitions of “Digital Humanities,” submitted by participants in Day in the Life of the Digital Humanities 2010. About all we can conclude is that the participants know how to repeat the phrase “Digital Humanities” in their definitions. Similar:LEGO turned itself around by analyzing overbearing parents[C]hildren play to…
Penguin recently posted this video to YouTube, explaining that it was an internal training video that was a big hit with the sales force. On YouTube, I posted a comment saying that if it worked on their sales force — that is, if their sales staff didn’t get the gimmick before the midpoint, that actually…
Games tend to evolve enormously over the standard two-year process, with whole missions often culled at a late stage, as playtesting reveals unforeseen fault lines and design issues. Having to recall actors and record chunks of new dialogue to reflect story changes is perceived as an expensive, time-consuming chore – the last thing a hassled…
As an administrator, I worked with other professors and administrators. As an instructor of graduate creative writers and upper-division English majors, I was teaching students who also loved words and writing, students who aspired to be what I was, a published author employed in a bookish field. Believe me, I am no longer preaching to…
“Oh yeah! Scientists I’ve talked to say you cannot overestimate how important HeLa cells have been.” Yet no one in the Lacks family had been informed by Johns Hopkins of the existence of their mother’s cells, until a researcher called in the early 1970s wanting to test the family. “Henrietta’s husband basically got a phone…
Epic Game Design Tour / Final Exam Review from Adam Marshall Smith on Vimeo. Similar:If Google+ Heads to the Grave, at Least It’ll Have DirectionForced Google+ integration in Google Rea…BusinessOkay yes, this affirmation does matter to me and it will go into my annual review for next…Marked 832 AP English essays in a week o…AcademiaStunning…
Similar:Set design for Acts II and III of R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) #blender3dDesignChatGPT took their jobs. Now they walk dogs and fix air conditioners.“In every previous automation threat, th…BusinessEdward Gorey illustrates H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, 1960 Edward Gorey illustrates H. G. Wells’s…AestheticsIn April, 2002, I was blogging about an autistic person's…
Very cool design! Thanks for the suggestion, Jefe! An episode of Star Trek TNG featured a character who carried around a roll-out piano keyboard, but the prop they used looked more like just a piece of cloth. This looks very believable. Similar:Research Before Google Books (from 2006)Me: It took a few days for the spool…
E-books may be getting all of the attention in publishing these days, but the hype overshadows the cold reality of business: E-books are still just a small fraction of the market. James McQuivey, an analyst with the technology research company Forrester, says that’s why publishing is in such a tough place: A revolution may be…
If that doesn’t make you want to read more, there is probably something wrong with you. Dr. Michael Sykes, a San Diego molecular biologist who runs the International Center for Bathroom Etiquette blog says he’s surprised at how long it’s taken for high-tech toilets to hit the U.S. —MSNBC Via Karyssa Blair, who also notes…
Today, programmers, web-developers and designers possess countless different ways to display digital words online, much like an artist with a blank canvas. As words float across our computer screens, code may be considered the underlying thought and form of expression that supports online words, preventing the words from physically or metaphorically “disappearing into [cyber]space” (Richards,…
These are interactive news packages I’ve selected to show to journalism students as we discuss some of the capabilities of Adobe Flash. Many are very recent. —Mindy McAdams Similar:"The threat is no longer simply from government censorship."After using examples from Warsaw and Pra…CultureAbout 30 years after I first saw John Speed’s 1676 map of York,…
Link pointing to blog entry about a different self-referential clip, and also a different (more vulgar) self-referential clip. Similar:Superman Comic about Sympathy and HopeJust in case someone out there could use…AestheticsFake News Is Not the Real Media Threat We’re FacingConservative talk radio predates the Int…CultureHexagons Are the Bestagonshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thOifuHs…AmusingSerious reading takes a hit from online…
I am so looking forward to Jason Scott’s Get Lamp. (Family obligations are keeping me from attending the premiere at PAX East.) Talking to Scott, his passion for the subject and for detail are both formidable. Most of our interview was tangents, and I didn’t mind any of them. Discussing Colossal Cave Adventure, he ran…
When writing a paper in MLA style, prefer brief quotations from your sources, in order to emphasize how the complex connections between the sources support your original argument. In the essay “The Full Title of an Essay Fills Lots of Space” by Maxwell Wordsworth Filler, it talks about how easy it is to bury your own thoughts when…
Dumbfounded citizens from Maine to California gazed helplessly at the frightening chunk of print, unsure of what to do next. Without an illustration, chart, or embedded YouTube video to ease them in, millions were frozen in place, terrified by the sight of one long, unbroken string of English words. “Why won’t it just tell me…
Legendary headlines from years past (some of which verge on the mythical) include “Giant Waves Down Queen Mary’s Funnel,” “MacArthur Flies Back to Front” and “Eighth Army Push Bottles Up Germans.” The Columbia Journalism Review even published two anthologies of ambiguous headlinese in the 1980s, with the classic titles “Squad Helps Dog Bite Victim” and…