The LA Times technology blog critiques the new Google Reader interface. For example, let’s say we have a news article that we like. Well, might as well click the “like” button, right? OK, now we’ve told the Internet that we think it’s cool, and we can see a list of strangers who also think it’s…
Talk about penny wise and pound foolish! NASA admitted in 2006 that no one could find the original video recordings of the July 20, 1969, landing. Since then, Richard Nafzger, an engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland, who oversaw television processing at the ground-tracking sites during the Apollo 11 mission, has been…
Amazing! Similar:The super-rich ‘preppers’ planning to save themselves from the apocalypse This was probably the wealthiest, most…BusinessNew Facebook Notifications Alert Users When They Not Currently Looking At Facebook “We hope these helpful new alerts will …AmusingWhy Our Brains Make Us Click on ListsThe article-as-numbered-list has several…CultureBob Dylan's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speechhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TlcPRla…CultureStudents Produce Breathtaking 3D Simulation…
A great interview, on Adventure Classic Gaming. Was something like Adventure inevitable? That’s a tough question, but I think probably so. I’d say that the real wild-card here is not Adventure but rather Adventure‘s inspiration, Dungeons and Dragons. You just can’t exaggerate the importance of D&D to all of the many storygames that have followed it.…
A bit predictable, but still enjoyable. Similar:Sherlock Holmes and The Woman (WAOB Live Virtual Performance)I was happy to play Watson. The daughter…BooksLoved part 2 of Romeo and Juliet @thepublicpgh #pptplaytime (Next week: Tartuffe)CultureAmazon’s Tactics Confirm Its Critics’ Worst SuspicionsThis week, as part of a contract dispute…BooksOuttakes from “Once on This Island” promohttps://youtu.be/QlMJuogD9to AmusingEditorial: Video Games…
Wired has a good piece about the value of local reporting. “In every town in America, almost, you have reporters going out and doing humble jobs and turning over rocks every day and seeing what’s under them,” says John Carroll, the former editor-in-chief of The Los Angeles Times, a man who led his newsroom to…
And you thought the secrets to academic success would involve sensible stuff like “Study for two to three hours for every hour of class” or “Keep up with the readings” and “Meet all the deadlines your prof sets.” But those won’t help you game the system, which is the strategy Don Asher presents as the…
Clearly by “Them” the sign means “dogs,” but the since the sign refers instead to “Your Dog,” so it was already in need of some attention even before this alteration took place. Via Bryan Alexander. Similar:The crisis in local journalism has become a crisis of democracyThe paucity of reporters has triggered a…CultureWriting Computer Games with…
The following started out as routine e-mail feedback on a freshman essay, but I thought it came out well enough that I might want to use it again. I don’t want this to get buried in my existing handout on thesis statements, so I figured I’d just post the good bits here. A good academic…
I missed this when it came out a few weeks ago. At Hopkins, Knudson uses Twitter as an extension of the classroom, asking students to raise questions, hold discussions online, keep up with breaking news and share links to interesting stories. She believes the limited number of characters allowed is a useful way to remember…
A website will re-create the 1969 moon mission in real time (allowing for the 40-year time lag). http://wechoosethemoon.org/ Similar:A salute lost to historyHistory is complex and baffling and fasc…CultureComputer scientist Leslie Lamport to [Brandeis] grads: If you can’t write, it won’t comput…I like introducing my English majors to …Academia20 Things 20-Year-Olds Don't GetI expect my…
First, there is a general increase in use of Facebook and a general decline in use of MySpace across the board. In 2007, 79% of the study participants were using Facebook while in 2009, 87% of the sample reports doing so. In contrast, while in 2007, 55% of the group reported using MySpace, in 2009,…
She said the manhole she fell in to was left open and unattended with no warning signs or orange cones. She said two workers with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection failed to secure the area as they prepared to flush the sewer. “It was just really gross and it was shocking and…
Post office boxes! Post office boxes! My face hurts from laughing. New Live Poll Allows Pundits To Pander To Viewers In Real Time Similar:Astronauts cloaked Klingon space patch: Star Trek-inspired emblem revealed The current commander of the Internati…AestheticsInto the depths of code. Algorithmic archaeologies and cave fantasies in video gamesThe full article (by Angelo Careriis)…
Older words also making their debut as a result of renewed interest online: sock puppet (a false identity used to manipulate opinions in online forums) and fan fiction. (Via Guardian) Similar:The Course of True Fun Never Did Run Smooth: A Midsummer Night's Dwarf Fortress ReflectionI am in rehearsals to play Oberon in a c…CultureFalse equivalency…
The gradual, and almost invisible, transformation of many “liberal arts colleges” to more comprehensive institutions is similar to another gradual trend that has reshaped the composition and the work of the American academic profession. Over the past three decades, colleges and universities have replaced tenure-track faculty positions with part-time and full-time term-contract positions — a…
A roundup of the initial reactions, via BBC: “One of Google’s major goals is to take Microsoft out, to systematically destroy their hold on the market,” said Mr Enderle. “Google wants to eliminate Microsoft and it’s a unique battle. The strategy is good. The big question is, will it work?” At the popular blog, TechCrunch,…
I have to make a conscious effort to say “Grand Theft Auto” when I’m talking about the game. An excellent group blog begins its afterlife. Grand Text Auto, for six years (May 2003-May 2009) a single blog with six co-authors (Mary Flanagan, Michael Mateas, your very own Nick Montfort, Scott Rettberg, Andrew Stern, and Noah…
I tell my kids steampunk bedtime stories about the adventures of Captain Rod Gearhart and the Magnificent Blimpship. Since I also enjoy playing with Blender 3D, it seemed natural to make these clockwork heart decorations. (My wife offered detailed pointers to tweak the one on the right.) Similar:Serving at midnight breakfast.PersonalA former student working in…
At the recent Computers & Writing conference, I found myself, in the Q & A during several sessions, strongly advocating coding skills as a 21st-century core literacy. (See Ian Bogost, Procedural Literacy. In the following reflection, I talk mostly about my use of Inform 7, but I also touch on Scratch.) Here at Seton Hill,…