$100 Laptop Working Prototype Unveiled

—$100 Laptop Working Prototype Unveiled (One Laptop Per Child) Similar:Kristin and Haley's Discussion on Poe's "The Raven"I gave my literature students 30 minutes…AcademiaFacebook Puts a Downer on UpworthyFacebook Inc. changed its newsfeed algor…BusinessFlying Saucer Irony AmusingHemingway: The First Draft of Anything… Facebook.AmusingData-Related Deaths, 1960-2019 (Excluding Fatalities Caused by Misreadings, Typographical … DesignFirst time experimenting with depth of…

WordsEye: An Automatic Text-to-Scene Conversion System (PDF)

— Bob Coyne and Richard Sproat —WordsEye: An Automatic Text-to-Scene Conversion System (PDF)AT&T Labs — Research) The text in the caption is what told the computer to assemble these objects in this order. Of course, someone had to tell the computer how to draw these objects, tag each object so that the computer knows where…

Schools crack down on inappropriate blogs

Illegal or inappropriate blogging or social behavior over the Internet is now a violation of District 128’s student code of conduct at both Libertyville and Vernon Hills High Schools and can lead to denial of extracurricular student privileges. —Ed Collins —Schools crack down on inappropriate blogs (Sun Times) According to the article, the new school code…

The Game Within the Game

In essence, it was classic libel against video games: That they encourage isolation, with each player staring glassy-eyed at the evil, hypnotic screen. The irony here, of course, is that these complaints were coming from players who themselves were spending hours staring at their own computer screens while they played Second Life. Dig it: People…

Disseration Zork

>look You are on a red leather sofa facing a very large and very tempting flat-screen TV. A sheltie puppy is chewing through your shoelaces. There is a laptop in your lap. You have five Word documents open. >look at Word documents They are titled “Chapter 3 The Ubicomp Games”, “Chapter 4 The Pervasive Games”,…

Games with no pictures? Yes, they really did exist

Early on, the visionary geeks among us at these institutes of higher education realized that these computing machines were great for games, and a whole lot more fun than a slide rule. These side projects took on a life of their own, and resulted in the popularity of games like “Adventure” and “Colossal Cave.” —Tom…

Friendster lost steam. Is MySpace just a fad?

Youth and alienated populations are inclined to spend more time going through identity development processes because they are trying to “figure out who they are.” Blogs and profiles are particularly supportive of this. Of course, blogs require having something to say while profiles let you write yourself into being via collage. People do grow out…

For students, eMail already is outdated

“Students have told us that eMail is still valuable–mainly for storing and transmitting documents and for communication with adults,” said Julie Evans, chief executive officer of the nonprofit group NetDay. “IM is more valuable to them because it is instant, and they can speak with multiple people at the same time. I believe that this…

In Search Of A Better Life, Teen Moves Downstairs

According to Jankowski, the move offers the opportunity to escape an oppressive regime. “Mom and Dad watch everything I do,” Jankowski said. “But now, I’ll be able to hear them coming down the stairs. And, if I’m slick about it, I’ll be able to sneak out the basement window and, like, party.” Across the country,…

Christie's to hold "Star Trek" garage sale

Trekkies will be setting their phasers to “bid” this fall when Christie’s holds the first official studio auction of memorabilia from all five “Star Trek” television series and 10 movie spin-offs. —Christie’s to hold “Star Trek” garage sale (Reuters) I’m proud — or, more accurately, nerdy enough — to say I recognized every one of the…

Pope John Paul II and jerz

—Pope John Paul II and jerz My sister sent me a link to the Amazon.com page for this book… I’m honored. Similar:Why ‘Cats’ the Movie Fails So FlamboyantlyI can’t seem to get into superhero movie…AestheticsDissecting a Frog: How to Write a Humor PieceAnalyzing humor, as E.B. White famously …AmusingThe daughter (giving the piggyback ride in…

This Blog will self destruct in less than twelve hours

But even still I wrote about work inbetween pictures of me drinking, opiononated rants on creationism and conservation, I use the words cunt and twat and fuck. I joke about kicking babies and coat hanger abortions. I wax poetic about spring breaks past and Zombie movies. Once I made it up to the meeting they…

Second Life Land Deal Goes Sour

In what might be a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, a Pennsylvania lawyer is suing the publisher of the rapidly growing online world Second Life, alleging the company unfairly confiscated tens of thousands of dollars worth of his virtual land and other property. —Kathleen Craig —Second Life Land Deal Goes Sour (Wired) Similar:Can you tell the difference between factual…

The Kircher Code

Sure, Leonardo studied birds in order to design a flying machine. But if you built it and jumped off the side of a mountain, they’d be scrapping you off the bottom of the valley. Of course very few people could have painted “Mona Lisa.” But hell, anybody can come up with a device permitting you…

The Games Nobody Lines Up to Play

Casual Game: The Game uses a special wireless-control wand covered with buttons. Using this control, your job is to scan through a large number of audio-visual “entertainment streams” to find the one you enjoy the most. Once you’ve picked one, you can control the volume of the audio, the brightness of the screen and, for…

Write how you speak

If you’re stuck, shut down the word doc you’re working on and start again, from scratch, in an email (putting the name of a close friend in the “To:” field can help). —Matt Weston —Write how you speak (Business Bricks) While I don’t think the adage “write how you speak” applies universally, it makes good sense…

Key & Compass – IF Games Index

—Key & Compass – IF Games Index This is an incredibly efficient, beautifully constructed index to interactive fiction games, with icons indicating platform, awards, and additional information. I wish I could click on the award icon and be taken to a list of other games that shared the same award. Actually, clicking on any icon…

Future Tech

The disasters that have occurred so far have been on the local or regional level. They have been horribly damaging to lives and properties in the regions in which they occurred, but they have not been the paradigm-shifting harbingers of doom that the pessimists, like Kunstler, continually warn about. In fact, so far the pessimists…

It's all about me: Why e-mails are so easily misunderstood

First and foremost, e-mail lacks cues like facial expression and tone of voice. That makes it difficult for recipients to decode meaning well. Second, the prospect of instantaneous communication creates an urgency that pressures e-mailers to think and write quickly, which can lead to carelessness. Finally, the inability to develop personal rapport over e-mail makes…

The Exhausting Job of Teaching

Even though I had to use many strategies to sell semiconductors in Silicon Valley, it was nothing compared to the brain power I’ve had to use to teach a subject to college students well. A decade ago, I found advertising challenging. Dreaming up new ways to sell a product or service to corporate executives was…