“People thought what they had was an address book for an e-mail program, and Google decided to turn that into a friends list for a new social network,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, an advocacy group in Washington. “E-mail is one of the few things that people understand to…
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 Falling Man — 9/11 Suicide PhotographPowerful, painful essay. Worth revisitin…CultureThe Media Bubble is Real — And Worse Than You ThinkIn the early 20th century, print journal…CultureHey there, chaotic world in academia and beyond, could you settle down just a bit so I can…AcademiaYou are standing in a field. There is a…
[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:Ratified 100 years ago today, the 19th Amendment, proposed by Illinois Republican James R…CultureRobot Dramas: Autonomous Machines in the Limelight on Stage and in SocietyA thoughtful overview of robots in cultu…AestheticsQuantum's King Lear at Carrie Blast FurnaceThe…
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:"The face of the last man on Earth." #alquist #rur #robots #capek #virtual #theater Gettin…AestheticsSoldiers of the Empire #StarTrek #DS9…
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:Another corner building. Designed and textured. Needs an interior. #blender3d #design #ae…Another corner building. Designed and te…AestheticsFired for Making a Game: The Inside Story of I Get This Call Every DayHe knows that…
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:“People are much more frightened than they are bigoted,” making his economic message reson…No actor says “My character does this an…BusinessUnmarked assignments. Major drafts came in over the weekend so I lost some ground but I kn…PersonalSome editing and cropping makes this cartoon a perennial. EthicsAnother 10sq…
Fascinating software study of the Doom iPhone port.http://fabiensanglard.net/doomIphone/index.php Similar:Yes, I spent the last hour designing this brutalist pen holder for a virtual production of…AestheticsWhat Borges Learned from CervantesBorges reinvented Don Quixote as a playf…BooksA Colorado town's newspapers were stolen after a story about rape charges at the police ch…I’m sure the good-apple cops will fairly…Ethics‘Aims’:…
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:Top deck of a #neovictorian #steampunk cruiser needs an airlock at the top of the spiral s… AestheticsThe Defector (ST:TNG Rewatch; Season Three, Episode 10) Cold War Brinksmanship, via Shakes…(Rewatching…
Pee-wee Gets An iPad! from Pee-wee Herman Similar:Kids Turn Bratz into Star Wars Rey DollsSometimes, I catch myself thinking there…AestheticsWhat does a professor do, other than lecture for a few hours a week? Wow, this response! 😮 We really do hav…AcademiaHomeward (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 7, Episode 13) Worf's foster brother interferes w… Rewatching ST:TNG…
“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…