It’s a scary time. After all, people are learning to make their own iPhone apps to help their films stand out (something Who Shot Mamba by Brian Spaeth is actually doing really well.) Many filmmakers groan at the thought of learning such a complicated skill, or paying someone who has the skill a lot of…
At PAX we debuted the “How to Play Interactive Fiction” postcard. If somebody is sitting down in front of an IF game for the very first time, this card should give him or her an idea of what commands are likely to work — and what commands are *likely* to work. It’s not trying to…
I was told I needed “followers.” These were people who would sign on to receive my messages, or “tweets,” whatever those might turn out to be. I hummed a few bars from “Mockingbird Hill”–Tra-la-la, twittly-deedee–and sacrificed some of my hair at the crossroads, invoking Hermes the Communicator. He duly appeared in the form of media…
Here’s just a sampling… zecool À la Seton Hill University, chaque étudiant aura son iPad http://is.gd/b7hcR (via @willrich45) afujimura たまんないですね！ RT @Techmeme: And so it begins… Seton Hill University to give all students an iPad (@stevensande / TUAW) http://techme.me/=MFZ 24 minutes ago from EchofonIndritMaraku (Giusto per sottolineare quanto qui siamo indietro) Un iPad in regalo…
I can finally post about this. Seton Hill University will give a new Apple iPad to every full-time student in fall 2010. http://www.setonhill.edu/ipad/The word went out on the SHU campus about an important announcement. The room was packed. A familiar face appeared on stage. The wire-rimmed spectacles on the dancers were a nice touch, as…
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In addition to providing better supervision and overall direction, school-homing has become popular among mothers and fathers who just want to be less involved in the day-to-day lives of their children. “Parents are finding creative ways to make this increasingly common child-rearing track work,” Miller said. “Whether it’s over-relying on after-school programs and extracurricular activities,…
Someone tell me why this industry deserves to survive. Those paydays that New York Times Co. Chairman Arthur Sulzberger and President Janet Robinson received last year are once again coming back to haunt them. The Boston Newspaper Guild, which absorbed more than $10 million in pay and benefit cuts to members last year in order…
RECESS is no longer child’s play. Schools around the country, concerned about bullying and arguments over the use of the equipment, are increasingly hiring “recess coaches” to oversee students’ free time. […] For children in past eras, participating in the culture of childhood was a socializing process. They learned to settle their own quarrels, to…
Allagash At the #pax Get Lamp screening and panel. Don Woods! Steve Meretzky! Infocom forever! http://twitpic.com/1b5yo2 1 minute ago from Echofon Reply Retweet DenisMoskowitz GET LAMP was pretty fascinating. Now watching impessive IF panel. Meretzky is hilarious. 4 minutes ago from Twitterrific Reply Retweet Gingko1 RT @potteryfanatic: Grayshott Pottery Small Conical Lamp…
I’m not at PAX East tonight. (I wanted to be there. I really, really wanted to be there. By my wife said she needed me elsewhere. Enough said.) According to the chatter on Twitter and the blogosphere the interactive fiction panel was standing-room-only, and there’s already a line for seats in tonight’s Get Lamp premiere. Similar:Karate,…
The Times of London will charge readers for Internet access starting in June, News Corporation announced on Friday, putting Rupert Murdoch at the forefront of a movement to erect toll gates on news sites.–NYTimes Similar:A Robotic Dog’s MortalityFascinating video journalism from the Ne…CultureKafka Meets Charlie BrownThis year marks the 100th anniversary of…AmusingTechnical and Literary Writing:…
What drives players to spend forty, eighty, or more hours with a computer RPG? If we look only at the quest journal, where the operations of quest flag logics are exposed to the player, the appearance is of a massive indulgence in the pleasures of the to-do list. And certainly there is some of that.…
Today’s schadenfreude comes from WSVN. Several people had the chance to catch this error. It’s not any one employee’s fault, but the school’s reputation won’t exactly be helped. Further, the school missed the opportunity to make the experience into a teachable moment, and instead apparently chose to make no comment. (It’s never too late, FCC…
Leonardo Da Vinci’s last supper painting Da Vinci’s Last Supper was painted in the 15th Century The food portions depicted in paintings of the Last Supper have grown larger – in line with our own super-sizing of meals, say obesity experts. —BBC Similar:Disability advocates: Don't drop COVID-19 safety measuresWith the lethal threat of COVID-19 on…
I suppose that my face-blindness has made me the person I am. I don’t much like movies or People magazine, not because I’m above caring about movie stars, but because I don’t recognize most of them. I became an addictive reader, an author and an English professor because, in the world of words on paper,…
There’s nothing really new in this story, but it’s still good to see my favorite game genre get some good press. Along with simulated space battles and table-tennis matches, interactive fiction (IF) is one of the oldest of computer-game forms. Though far gone from its commercial heyday in the graphics-impaired ’80s, when it was still…
For once we had the possibility of a global platform from which we had the power to make those in power listen to us. What we have ended up with is nothing more that a digital Madison Avenue and a whole lot of digital garbage that won’t shut up. I would like to hold out some…
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…