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…
A Blogger Went to CCCC… And Here’s What He Did CCCC (Jerz’s CCCC 05 Notes) The challenging acoustics in the Moscone Center seemed to work in Douglas Dean Hesse’s favor, as he opened his keynote, “Who Owns Writing?” by belting out an African-American spiritual. During the opening session, when Sharon Mitchler asked attendees who are affiliated…
Conference on College Composition and Communication 2005, San Francisco (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) Due to a labor dispute at the San Francisco Hilton, the Conference on College Composition and Communication was moved just a few weeks ago. The Moscone Convention Center made their space available at the last minute, after the organizers determined that a significant number…
“It’s Pi Day because the date is 3/14 — the first three digits of Pi,” said Howard Greenspan, who oversaw a Pi Day Party online with a Pi drop at MathematiciansPictures.com, a Web site that sells Pi paraphernalia. —Jan Paschal —Pi Day Gives Math Mavens Something to Celebrate (Yahoo/Reuters) Seton Hill celebrates Pi Day with a…
—Personalized Google News (Google) A great little addition to Google’s incredibly useful news aggregator. I deleted the “sports” section, and added sections containing keywords that I always find myself googling. The search I created for “weblog” isn’t very useful, but I’ll play with the interface later. There doesn’t seem to be a way for me to…
Our students, especially the ones who are required to be in our classes and are, therefore, required to blog or do whatever else we ask of them, are generally going to be concerned about the grade they get – possibly even more concerned about the grade than about what they learn. —Nancy McKeand —Evaluating Blogging (Random…
The demand is such that the niche has grown from text-based games coded by hobbyists to between 30 and 50 professional audio-game developers who sell 3,000 games a year, experts estimate. Most of these games run on ordinary PCs and are often joystick- or keyboard-controlled. The player dons a pair of headphones, and elements of…
No matter how disgusting, shocking, horrifying or abberant the person, the topic or the interview, your demeanor is ALWAYS one of neutrality. Then, don’t betray that trust – ever. The first glimmer of judgment, shock or negative emotion the person glimpses in you – they’ll shut down. They may keep talking, but not about anything…
Blogging clearly isn’t going to help that proportion of people who aren’t really up to their job, or who are prone to inarticulate flaming, or both. But then, those people tend to have career problems anyhow. Put it another way: not blogging won’t protect you from career-limiting moves, and if blogging provokes one, well, you…
1) How would you describe yourself in 25 words or less? Succinctly. —The Same 10 Questions I Always Ask — with Michael Arnzen (Horror.about.com) My colleague in the office next door gets off to a wisecracking start in this interview. I always enjoy reading his writing. Similar:Wanted in College Graduates: Tolerance for Ambiguity”What answer do you…
“Americans have always been informal, but now the informality of precollege culture is so ubiquitous that many students have no practice in using language in any formal setting at all,” he says. The remedy is “to restore the family dinner table to the teaching of writing – that setting which can be a very rich…
One thing that would improve college teaching immensely would be mandatory drama and speech classes for all new faculty. Forget the expensive technology. Teach them how to use their voices, how to modulate their tones, how to string together an exciting narrative without notes. Teach them to make the passion that is surely inside them…
Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other. We meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that old musty cheese that we are. We have had to agree on a certain set…
I am still trying to sort out how much of the difference with this conference was due to the Hawai’ian setting as opposed to the presence of my kids. Obviously it’s configurational, and in that way it makes little sense to try to distinguish the independent impact of either of those factors in anything except…
Oh blog, me, babe! Don’t miss a word of it! Many a blog has brought love to my door Netted by sparkling poem, or flash of wit – The chatroom kind, of course, and little more. What need of tangled flesh on messy dates The weight of expectation as it starts Its gentle journey southwards,…
OpenOffice.org 2.0 Beta is out and it’s revolutionary: New technology, better interoperability, and even easier to use. But it is still in beta. Tell us what is good and what needs fixing. —Open Office 2.0 Beta I haven’t checked this out, but I’ve been looking for an alternative to MS-Word’s horrible HTML output — something…
Good communication is not necessarily about using an expansive vocabulary. It is about properly using the words and punctuation you already know. —The Commonly Confused Words Test (OK Cupid) It’s a good thing for my sense of professional pride that I scored as an English Genius, though according to the site I got one answer wrong.…
To blend in, I sat at the $10 craps table and started to lose the magazine‘smoney with dispatch. I mean, I had to sit at a table so a Borgata Babe would give me a drink and I could check her out?er, I mean, interview her about the ethical implications of the new weight policy.…
The emergence of cyberbullying has intensified adolescent angst. It allows bullies to unleash put-downs, nasty rumors and humiliating pictures in e-mail and blogs that can strike victims at home and at any time. The damage can be devastating, psychologists say, even as it is not always obvious to parents and teachers. —Jon Swartz —Schoolyard bullies…
Annalee Newitz, a policy analyst at the civil liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation, said employees often “don’t realize the First Amendment doesn’t protect their job.” The First Amendment only restricts government control of speech. So private employers are free to fire at will in most states, as long as it’s not discriminatory or in retaliation…