In 1982, testifying in front of Congress before the Supreme Court had ruled, MPAA President Jack Valenti said, “I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.” —John Borland —FAQ: Betamax–tech’s favorite ruling (ZD Net) A good primer…
Writing liberated the life of the text from the moment of performance. It allowed the poet to reflect on and manipulate traditional forms and subject matter. Recording the chronicles of oral culture led to the development of prose, a purely written use of language. By the fifth century, the transition of Greek society from oral…
This Yahoo! Search service finds content across the Web that has a Creative Commons license. While most stuff you find on the web has a full copyright, this search helps you find content published by authors that want you to share or reuse it, under certain conditions. —Yahoo! Creative Commons Search (Yahoo!) Slashdot is aflutter with…
Gray, a part-time worker at the Clackamas County library information network and the Tigard Public Library, sold at least $10,000 worth of library materials online in the past six months, according to the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office. According to Jim Strovink, a sheriff’s office spokesman, Gray would check out books, then tap into the library…
Appearing as part of a sextet of high-profile directors promoting 3-D and digital cinema at film industry convention ShoWest on Thursday, Lucas said he hadn’t yet committed to a precise schedule but hoped to have the first film ready for the 30th anniversary of the original “Star Wars” movie in 2007 and that he would…
An international study of about 100,000 15-year-olds in 32 different developed and developing countries suggests that the drive to equip an increasing number of schoolchildren in the UK with computers may be misplaced. In a report to be given at the conference of the Royal Economic Society in Nottingham this week, Thomas Fuchs and Ludger…
About 36 million Americans—or 27% of internet users—say they download either music or video files and about half of them have found ways outside of traditional peer-to-peer networks or paid online services to swap their files, according to the most recent survey of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. […] Current file downloaders are…
Readers are using aggregation services like Google News to save time and find news they’re interested in from one location. But the digital melting pot of news has raised questions about the need for standards that go beyond technology. —Stefanie Olsen —Tough week prompts closer look at how Google gathers its news (SFGate.com) Similar:Robot Dramas:…
Visiting the Four Seas During the 4Cs (Jerz’s CCCC 05 Notes) On my last night at the Conference on College Composition and Communication (known as “the 4Cs”), after the blogging special interest group, some of us walked through Chinatown in the light rain. What did I spy but a restaurant named “The Four Seas.” I ogled…
[University of Florida] students will not be able to forward their university mail to another account, such as America Online or Hotmail, beginning in the Fall after a technology committee decided in private that too many students weren’t receiving important university messages. —Stephanie Garry —[University Forbids Email Forwarding] (Independent Florida Alligator) Similar:Journalism isn’t dying. But it’s…
Update, December 2024: Sadly, the “what’s my namber” service has not been operating for some time. I’ve changed the first link to the Wayback Machine’s cached page. What’s a namber? A namber is a word that acts as a mnemonic for a number. For example, 65 is drum, and 181 is push. A namber address…
Don was sitting at a booth toward the back and waved as he saw me come in. The half-empty glass in front of him indicated that he’d gotten a head start on happy hour. It also portended the tone of our conversation. “You hear that Arthur Miller just died?” he asked as I slid into…
Public, Private, Political: Social Theories and Blogging Practices (Jerz’s CCCC 05 Notes) The first panel I attended, Wednesday evening. Lanette Cadle, Bowling Green State University, presented “Their Own Space: Adolescent Girls and the Personal Weblog.” “At Livejournal, girls rule.” 67% are women, and the site features over 2 million active blogs. Yet women are under-represented in…
Calling All Bloggers — Friday Special Interest Group (Jerz’s CCCC 05 Notes) Friday evening’s “Calling all Bloggers” special interest group, organized by Charles Lowe, was an energetic and productive hour. I facilitated a breakout session on institutional blogging, where we discussed ways that blogs might be useful for building an instructional archive to be used by…
The Maltese Falcon: Questions I Wish I had Asked My Father (Jerz’s CCCC 05 Notes) This was a personal and literary reflection by Jo Hammett, the daughter of noir detective novelist Dasheill Hammett. The novel and movie The Maltese Falcon are set in San Francisco, so a conference session on the subject seemed appropriate. After the…
Breaking the Cycle of Hate: A Teacher’s Journey (Jerz’s CCCC 05 Notes) I met Sondra Perl on the shuttle ride from the airport. She told me her presentation would be on her experience talking about the Holocaust with writing students in Austria. Since Seton Hill has a National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education, we exchanged cards…
Writing Teachers Writing New Media (Jerz’s CCCC 05 Notes) “What did you guys do to earn walls?” -overheard during the (long) setup for this presentation. Hoping to find an opportunity to continue the discussion of the intellectual property issues Lawrence Lessig raised on Thursday, I attended “Writing Teachers Writing New Media,” where three young presenters from…
Finally getting around to blogging some notes about sessions I’ve attended. I don’t know if the overall quality of the conference has improved or if I just really know how to pick ’em, but all the sessions I’ve attended so far have been great. The first session I attended was “Evaluating Academic Weblogs: Using Empirical…
Since blogs became the next big thing, an increasing number of companies have come to see them as the next great public relations vehicle — a way for executives to demonstrate their casual, interactive side. But, of course, the executives do nothing of the sort. Their attempts at hip, guerrilla-style blogging are often pained —…
In 1992, IF enthusiast Volker Blasius started the IF Archive, which brought together remaining text adventure files and fans from across the Internet. Paul O’Brian, who runs a newsletter for IF fans, says the archive brought text gamers together. “The fact that people can go to one predictable, reliable space … has given the community…