IF as a genre, fundamentally unchanged for more than twenty years, evolved in a world of gaming where graphics were non-existent and words were the sole medium of expression. The game described locations, objects, and actions in text, and the player controlled the story’s protagonist by typing commands in English (or any other natural language…
—Weblogging Software Leader Six Apart Acquires LiveJournal (Biz Yahoo) There’s really nothing quotable in this rather dry press release, but I’m linking to it as a reference anyway. SixApart is the company that makes MoveableType, the software I use for blogs.setonhill.edu. An increasing number of my students are familiar with the LiveJournal style of personal blogging…
The X-Monkey comes from a line of monkeys originally bred by the military for the purpose of driving tanks. It’s a good fit, because the modern Apple sedan is actually a tank in a fancy shell. The X-Monkey’s only drawback is that he can only drive a car from Apple. Show him any other vehicle,…
Anders Jacobsen is offering to donate $1 for every blog posting a link to his page and the following tsunami relief organizations. You can add mine to the list, Anders! I tell you what I‘ll do. I‘ll add my own $5… —Okay, I’ll Bite [Tsunami Relief Links] (Wordmunger) Link-whoring with a social conscience. This I like.…
A few months into my new job as a “new media journalism” teacher at Seton Hill University, a small liberal arts school in southwestern Pennsylvania, I was at a fancy on-campus dinner event, where the university president was working her way through the crowd, laying on the charm. I heard her relate a slightly off-color…
At the Marine base several miles southeast, high-speed wires snake down hallways, through doors and out windows. The Navy engineers play “Half-Life 2.” At the gym, where seven Playstations get heavy use, Marines wage “Madden NFL 2005” tournaments. “Neverwinter Nights” reigns in the public affairs office. —Troops stationed in Iraq turn to gaming (MSNBC/AP) Similar:Return to…
While the number of new blogs is rising, readership is growing even faster. —Dan Gillmor —A Medium Coming Into Its Own (Dan Gillmor on Grassroots Journalism) Gillmor is commenting on a datum from a new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Similar:Google's Super Bowl Ad: A Romance in SearchI didn’t watch the game,…
Ultimately, it became very clear that the most active and influential members of the project–beginning with Jimmy Wales, who hired me to start a free encyclopedia project and who now manages Wikipedia and Wikimedia–were decidedly anti-elitist in the above-described sense. Consequently, nearly everyone with much expertise but little patience will avoid editing Wikipedia, because they…
Leading British computer games maker Peter Molyneux has been made an OBE in the New Year Honours list. The head of Surrey’s Lionhead Studios was granted the honour for services to the computer games industry. —Call of honour for UK games maker (BBC) OBE = “Order Of the British Empire”. The article’s last paragraph: “Being an…
Crichton doesn’t like the idea that someone else is better placed to make judgments than he is. He seems convinced that global warming is largely an invention of careerist scientists abetted by a partisan press. And he seems to find something smug and stifling, if not dishonest, about consensus: “the work of science has nothing…
According to the United Nations, as of 2002, 70 percent of the world’s nations were holding multi-party elections. Fifty-eight percent of the world’s population lived under a fully democratic system of governance. Both of these figures are at their highest points in human history. The Freedom House (search) think tank gave 89 countries containing 46…
IN THE span of 18 months, Isaac Newton invented calculus, constructed a theory of optics, explained how gravity works and discovered his laws of motion. As a result, 1665 and the early months of 1666 are termed his annus mirabilis. It was a sustained sprint of intellectual achievement that no one thought could ever be…
The MASSIVE database (last updated on 12-7-04) contains information on over 1700 science and math songs. Some of these songs are suitable for 2nd graders; others might only appeal to tenured professors. Some songs have been professionally recorded; others haven’t. Some are quite silly; others are downright serious. —MASSIVE (Math And Science Song Information, Viewable…
You awaken to news of a morning traffic jam. Leaving home early for a doctor’s appointment, you nonetheless arrive too late to find parking. After waiting two hours for a 15-minute consultation, you wait again to have your prescription filled. All the while, you worry about the work you’ve missed because so many other people…
Bloggers at the scene are more deeply affected by events than the journalists who roam from one disaster to another, said Xeni Jardin, one of the four co-editors of the site BoingBoing.net, which pointed visitors to many of the disaster blogs. “They are helping us understand the impact of this event in a way that…
The recent popularity of “eBaying” — the sale of seemingly fictive “property” within MMORPG — has raised numerous questions about the nature of MMORPG play. In particular, many have asked why players choose this practice, and how it might affect the game. This paper addresses these issues by examining some of the motives that drive…
Mr. Komarnitsky gave radio interviews to stations as far away as Australia. Web sites from NYTimes.com to geek hangout Slashdot.org linked to his site. An Associated Press item about his site was picked up by newspapers from Los Angeles to Columbia, S.C. As of midday Monday, according to Mr. Komarnitsky, the “Web cam” was asked…
If you could assign a reading list to the world, what books would you want people to read, and most importantly, why? —Moira Richardson —Calling All Readers! Contest! (Literary Tease) I’m still recovering from whatever it is that has struck me down this week… but Moira’s blog entry got me thinking. Even though Moira’s original post…
GM famously learned this lesson in the early 1980s with the introduction in Mexico and Spain of its Chevy Nova coupe. “No va” in Spanish means “won’t go.” —What’s in a name? For cars, everything (Detroit News Auto Insider) And the editors at The Detroit News Auto Insider area about to learn a lesson about urban…
I’ve Been Sick… (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) I finished posting all this semester’s grades just before the annual Christmas Mass and faculty/staff lunch on the 21st. That’s the most organized I’ve ever been, when it comes to grades. I was feeling very proud of myself, and very happy to be here at Seton Hill, doing a job…