”You Don’t Understand Our Audience”: What I learned about network television at Dateline NBC

John Hockenberry, a former NBC journalist who now works at MIT, reflects on what he says is the increasing irrelevance of TV journalism. Some of my most promising “New Media Journalism” students are interested in a broadcast journalism career, taking on internships and entering graduate school, and they all know why I prefer to get…

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

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Blade Runner's Influence on Videogames from 1UP.com

1up: Ten years ago, Westwood released its point-and-click adventure game adaptation of Blade Runner. Blade Runner was, if nothing else, a towering achievement in terms of evoking the original film’s memorable aesthetic. The game’s mo-cap sprites moved against dim, smoky noir backdrops; every exterior shot felt exhilaratingly accurate, while interior locations were ominous and claustrophobic.…

Maze War (1973), Spacewar! (1962) and Tennis for Two (1958)

Video games didn’t start with Pac-Man (1980), Space Invaders (1978), or Pong (1972).   Similar:Jeff Bezos Plan for News: The Washington Post Becomes an Amazon ProductFor the past few months, a group inside …BooksUmberto Eco and his legacy in open-world gamesI read “The Name of the Rose” during the…BooksThat Class Where Stanford Profs Projected Hundreds…

SPACEWAR – by Stewart Brand – Fanatic Life and Symbolic Death Among the Computer Bums.

Great 1972 Rolling Stone article about a foundational computer game. Reliably, at any nighttime moment (i.e. non-business hours) in North America hundreds of computer technicians are effectively out of their bodies, locked in life-or-Death space combat computer-projected onto cathode ray tube display screens, for hours at a time, ruining their eyes, numbing their fingers in…

Reindeer in the Snow II — Blender3D

The new clip improves on last night’s version, I’ve added blinking eyes, improved the nose glowing effect, and moved one of the legs a bit. Update: Here’s the file if you’d like to use it. Reindeer.blend Similar:'Little Mermaid' brings new music to the Andersen fairy tale – Pittsburgh Tribune-ReviewThe story line is similar to the…

Reindeer in the Snow — Blender3D

I’ve been using Blender3D for about two years now. Here’s a little Christmas animation I whipped up. That’s supposed to be sparkly glowy things coming from his shiny nose, but it looks more like a puff of breath. I’m pleased with the head motions. I’ve got the eyes rigged up so they can blink and…

Baby Jesus statue gets GPS for Christmas

AP: A baby Jesus statue here is getting a Global Positioning System for Christmas. The statue, part of a nativity scene, will be equipped with the device after the previous statue went missing, even though it had been bolted down. “I don’t anticipate this will ever happen again,” said Dina Cellini, who oversees the display,…

SR.com: Front-page photos help capture thief

Spokesman Review: “Our editors (Wednesday) night noticed the similarities in the two photos,” said Paul Emerson, Tribune managing editor. “We are not crime-stoppers here. It is just a weird coincidence. If it did solve a crime, I’m glad it happened. I have seen nothing like this in my 26 years as Tribune managing editor.” A…

Yum executive Hearl will retire

News Digest: After a 2006 shake-up at Yum, an executive named Hearl rose to the top position. But now Hearl is out, replaced by someone named Eaton.  Yum executive Hearl will retire Eaton to be new development chief By Alex Davis alexdavis@courier-journal.com The Courier-Journal Yum! Brands announced yesterday that the company’s chief operating and development…

Wikipedia's Technological Obscurification: Three ways Wikipedia keeps 99% of the population from participating

The special coding Wikipedia has developed for its user-edited pages is powerful. Some shortcuts are simple and elegeant — you just put [[square brackets]] around words to make them into links, and clicking on the link will automatically either take you to an existing page, or let you create a new one. But as Wikipedia…