The technical term is “deep packet inspection,” a process by which universities can examine the contents of electronic files that pass back and forth on their networks to see if they contain copyrighted material like the latest M.I.A. single or an episode of Gossip Girl. It’s the equivalent of requiring institutions to steam open and…
My provost sent this link to the English faculty, inviting us to share our responses. My father succinctly summarized his feelings about my choice to dedicate my 20s to writing fiction. “You’re not living in the real world,” he said. I reacted with a young man’s defensiveness, but in retrospect his assessment seems less critical…
CMJ_Ewoks.mp3 (2 min 10 sec; 2.2Mb) The audio is a little over 2 minutes long. Listen to my daughter’s final tearful, generous, heart-felt wish for George Lucas, and then take a look at the chronology below. Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (1985) Howard the Duck (1986) Similar:Pictures only hint at her passion and can't capture…
An informative review of Crystal’s Txtng: The Gr8 Db8, a book I need to put on my reading list. I’ve said many times that I’ve *never* encountered a student who absolutely cannot switch between txtspk and standard English. Thus, to unpack that double-negative, I think students can and do regularly make the shift between social…
When I went off to college (late 80s) I bought a handful of very cheap classical music cassette tapes, simply because I needed some music I could listen to on headphones to drown out the noise in the dorms. I’ve also got a CD of classical marches, but again the reason is practical — I…
Renowned scientist Stephen Hawking is going to unveil a remarkable clock that has no hands and shows time with the help of light. Known as the Corpus Clock, the machine has been invented by and designed by Dr John Taylor for Corpus Christi College Cambridge for the exterior of the college’s new library building. The…
What my students and I are talking about in Writing for the Internet often intersects with current events and ongoing issues. Here are a few such issues and reflections. Palin’s Private E-Mail HackedBloggers have alleged that David Kernell, 20, is the one who has claimed responsibility for breaking into the Alaska governor’s e-mail account. (Background…
We don’t have cable TV in my household. Rather than pay the cable bill every month, we buy a few DVDs when they hit the bargain bins, or we just check them out of the library. My wife also makes regular trips to Blockbuster. I’m not a TV-free purist. I’ve even browsed through websites giving…
In many ways, things have never been better for book readers. Amazon puts reviews at your fingertips, we have easy access to out-of-print titles through eBay and efficient inter-library loan services, and tons of out-of-copyright classics are only a click away. But as this NYMag article (“The End“) spells it out, the publishing industry is…
Peter (age 10, having just read another book on the Civil War): Daddy, what do you know about William TECK-um-suh Sherman? Me: Te-CUM-suh. Not much. Other than during the Civil War, he lead a march to the sea that split the Confederacy into north and south sections, which pretty much led to the end of…
A random observation that floored me, reminding me just how different today’s Internet is from the trusty, dusty, crusty home PCs on which I first learned the command-line interface. Today’s front page of The New York Times is over 129 kilobytes of code alone, with another 461 KB of supporting code, give or take. That’s…
Vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s private Yahoo e-mail account was hacked, and some of its contents posted on the internet Wednesday. (Wired) Was Palin’s personal account fair game because she has been accused of using her personal account to conduct public business? If there really is damning evidence in that account, and a judge delivers a…
The Commonwealth of Virginia announces plans for a free, open-source physics textbook. The Virginia Physics “Flexbook” project is a collaborative effort of the Secretaries of Education and Technology and the Department of Education that seeks to elevate the quality of physics instruction across the Commonwealth. Participating educators will create and compile supplemental materials relating to…
Good editing skills and random, candid video = 2 minutes of awesomeness. This is why I love the internet. Takes just a tad too long to get started — give it about 45 seconds before you decide to bail out. You’ll be hooked by the second time you see the flip-flops. Via. “Ah-ah-ah ooh, ah-ah,…
Thanks, Karissa, for sending this collection of reasons why it makes sense to be careful when you post photos online.. 5. Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum What do you do with a drunken pirate? Throw her in the brig–or, if you’re Millersville University, deny her a teaching degree. That’s what happened to…
At the beginning of last semester, when I called roll in a class that included a student with the last name “Gearhart,” I have been telling steampunk bedtime stories to my kids (Peter, 10; and Carolyn, 6). Each night, after my daughter has finished the tooth-brushing and prayer-saying, in total darkness I try to advance…
I should admit to myself.. that SD card reader is gone. It’s gone. I didn’t lose any important data, but it was a 2G card. Sigh. Similar:The Girl Wins the Upper Division Monologue in the 25th Annual Pittsburgh Public Theatre's …CulturePie, anyone?PersonalWhat are you eating at midnight breakfast?PersonalIt's exam week, and at the moment I…
I haven’t seen the ads in question, but thought this InformationWeek commentary was blogworthy. “Some may wonder what Jerry Seinfeld helping Bill Gates pick out a new pair of shoes has to do with software,” Microsoft concedes. No, probably everyone who watched the ad is wondering what shoes and Seinfeld have to do with software.…
Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines (a government website that identifies research backing up good web design practices). Similar:The Last Outpost (ST:TNG Rewatch. Season 1, Episode 4) Riker shouts from a cliff while Fer…Rewatching ST:TNG after about a 20-year …CultureHow Mickey Mouse Evades the Public DomainI get my fill of Disney pretty quick. In…BusinessEveryone Should…
A wonderfully expressive, almost wordless essay on language, problem-solving, and code.The Synonym Problem (See also Jono DiCarlo’s “These Things I Believe” — a humanist manifesto about computer code.) Similar:Trump’s war on the media is driving students to journalismTwenty-one-year-old political science st…AcademiaThis is what audience members are saying about Prime Stage Theatre’s production of The Out…https://youtu.be/y_yXrOdB-oE…