This eagerly awaited restored version of Fritz Lang’s silent classic uses what it said to be nearly an hour of footage long thought to be lost.This is one of the the most important film archival discoveries in history, as surprising as if the missing ending of “The Magnificent Ambersons” were found. —Roger Ebert According to…
Valentines for Journalists. Similar:The daughter experiences her birthday cookie AestheticsProfessoring. With an(other) apple pie cupcake.I touched up and board-ified a presentat…AcademiaJJ Abrams announces fourth rebooted Star Trek movie“We are thrilled to say that we are hard…Current_EventsThe End of Headphone Jacks, the Rise of DRMWhen you plug an audio cable into a smar…BusinessGoogle Trends: blog, Twitter,…
[O]n this chilly morning, as bus No. 92 rolls down a mountain highway just before dawn, high school students are quiet, typing on laptops. Morning routines have been like this since the fall, when school officials mounted a mobile Internet router to bus No. 92’s sheet-metal frame, enabling students to surf the Web. The students…
Walter Frederick Morrison, the man credited with inventing the Frisbee, has died at the age of 90. —Guardian Similar:My crowd simulation handles 2000 capsule NPCs at 130fps. I’m really pushing my coding skil…AestheticsLetter of Recommendation: Fanny PacksWhat other accessory ensures the safety …CultureDuring World War II, Literature Reigned SupremeBooks symbolized freedom. Posters of 194…BooksFamily, I…
Interesting examination of role-playing, illusion, identity, and power in Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave, one small branch of which was the inspiration for the 1976/7 computer game Colossal Cave Adventure. In the middle decades of the nineteenth century, Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave was a popular tourist destination for travelers from around the United States and beyond. The cave…
Zach Whalen is turning his dissertation into a blog-web-thing, in the hopes of developing a book-thing. In whatever form it takes, it’s an interesting approach to a textual study of video games. This study asks how the design and configuration of text in videogames contributes to their textuality. I argue that videogames are texts in…
There’s a dissertation in here. All I have the energy to do today is imply a connection. Using a police state to market technology in 1984: Using a police state to market technology in 2010: Similar:Essay on meaning of a life grounded in the liberal arts @insidehigheredFor David N. DeVries, the critical think…AcademiaBusiness is the…
None of this is a surprise to me, but I’m glad to have statistics to back up my impressions. A very small handful of students whose first introduction to online social networking was the SHU blogosphere, before blogs went really mainstream around 2005, are still blogging here, after they have graduated. In 2003-2005 it was…
I didn’t watch the game, but I did catch the buzz about this ad. Yes, I did tear up. (Wired has details.) Similar:Assembling wall units to bake into a texture atlas. Teacup is a freebie from polyhaven.co… AestheticsBlind-accessible audio adventure Grail to the Thief seeks crowdfundingGrail to the Thief stars a thief from th…CultureAnother section…
It is dangerous to use local weather events (such as a heavy or light winter) to make judgments about global climate. With that caveat, I’m blogging the following because I’ve noted a shift in the online discussion about “global warming,” or the more general “climate change”. This essay does a good job exploring the events…
Coming up… we’ll tell you whether you’ll be impaled by sharp, radioactive icicles hurled by mobs of rampaging robots in your neighborhood. But first, people panicking, filling up three shopping carts of toilet paper and canned food. Hear the techno-pop pulse of our theme music, and know that you’re being conditioned to think of us…
Here’s hoping I left gas in the snow-thrower. Similar:Opening night of Sive.PersonalSharing a root beer float with your dad doesn't fix everything that's wrong in the world, …AestheticsIncoming Seton Hill Students Pick Up Their MacBooks and iPads TodayI find it impossible not to be cheerful …AcademiaReport to bay 3, where tea will be served as…
Fascinating software study of the Doom iPhone port.http://fabiensanglard.net/doomIphone/index.php Similar:‘WarGames’ and Cybersecurity’s Debt to a Hollywood Hack After finishing his synopsis, Reagan…Cyberculture''The Balloon Hoax'' by Edgar Allan PoeWhen steampunk was speculative fiction, …AmusingOrson Welles Radio Play "War of the Worlds" at 75 The New York Times reported “Many Fl…CultureFacebook Spot-tests New Local News FeedI have no…
Our first few readings in my freshman writing course were personal essays, with a clear narrative. We read an academic paper today, and there’s another assigned for Friday. A few students are already reporting feeling a little lost in the detail. I gather this is because they are used to reading textbooks, where all the…
I wish I’d seen this a few weeks ago, before my Video Game Culture and Theory class ended, but it’s still a welcome find. Similar:Figured out how to configure my iPad as an external monitor for my laptop. Much more effic…Cyberculture5 of the Fiercest One-Liners in HistoryYes, the Spartans’ one-word response to …CultureMemory of Wrestler…
Pee-wee Gets An iPad! from Pee-wee Herman Similar:Write instructions for busy grouches.Updating the graphic for a writing hando…AcademiaSmall Changes in Teaching: The Last 5 Minutes of ClassI just ordered the book Lang mentions in…AcademiaHow a billionaires boys’ club came to dominate the public squareThe world’s richest man, Elon Musk, atta…BusinessThe Ongoing Obsession with Shakespeare’s True IdentityI’ve…
“One of the deepest questions in this field,” Nass says, “is whether media multitasking is driven by a desire for new information or by an avoidance of existing information. Are people in these settings multitasking because the other media are alluring–that is, they’re really dying to play Freecell or read Facebook or shop on eBay–or…
I know, I know: Amazon relied on those $9.99 prices to give it a head start in the digital books market. And raising prices to the $12.99 to $14.99 being talked about could certainly slow sales if consumers don’t bite. But here’s the thing: it’s not as if Macmillan is only raising prices for Kindle.…
I usually carry a digital voice recorder with me. In most states it’s legal to record a conversation if all parties consent, although Pennsylvania law requires that all parties to a conversation be notified that a conversation is being recorded. “It is always legal to tape or film a face-to-face interview when your recorder or…
For the one-credit journalism class that I teach every semester, I’m teaching a unit on editorial writing. Students will take a leisurely 10-chapter journey through Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace. It’s the first time I’ve taught a whole unit focusing on sentence-level phrasing. The class meets once a week, for just one hour,…