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:Keeping it classy. My 20yo son encounters the fruit-eating scene from the 1996 point-and-c…PersonalIt's Friday night in July, and I'm jamming with my fall course preps.The dean sends me…
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:Newspaper For Sale: The Growing Threat of News Deserts in Western PennsylvaniaAs circulation has declined, local newsp…Business1,000-pound rosary sends heavy message: PrayThe rosary that retired quarry worker Be…AestheticsFBI Raids Star ABC News Producer's HomeIn April, the FBI…
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:How to Keep Students Writing in the Age of AI Tools In a writing-intensive class, studen…AcademiaMisplaced Auto-playing ABC Video Clip (with No Pause Button) Diminishes the Value…
Groklaw has a good analysis of the recent Harry Potter Lexicon smackdown. Fair use good, too much verbatim copying bad. The fact is, Rowling and her editor led the defendant on with praise of his website work, such that there was a suggestion by him that he might be the editor of the official encyclopedia,…
A financial researcher comes across a six-year-old article about United Airlines. Thinking it is a current news story, he summarizes it, then republishes the summary out of context. Within 10 minutes, a mass panic hits shareholders who are responding to his summary. More than a billion dollars evaporates into thin air. Tribune Co. said Wednesday…
Great news for those interested in the first draft of history. (Not-so-great news for those worried about Google’s increasing control over so many kinds of information.) C|Net Google is making searchable, digital copies of old newspapers available online through partnerships with their publishers, the company said Monday. Under the ad-supported effort, Google will digitize millions…
Most gamers have never heard of Braunstein. Sad but true. In the hierarchy of self-awareness you’ll find the circle of gamers who know what D&D is (a very, very large circle), then inside of that is the circle of gamers who know what Greyhawk is (large but smaller), and inside that the circle who knows…
Great little vignette highlighting the perils of live TV reporting. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell demonstrates the perils of live television as she gamely tries to report from the Republican National Convention during the midst of a major balloon drop in this clip that’s amusing the chattering class the day after the two-week convention marathon has come…
A former student sent me a link to a Republican spoof of FaceBook, BarackBook. It’s an interesting piece of new media campaigning, where the RNC has created an entire Facebook parody displaying the social network of Barack’s friends. I know you go to great lengths to remain unbiased in the classroom (which is awesome!) but…