IF Quake

—IF Quake (Loonyboi) I wonder whether everyone who claims to have downloaded it and played it is in on a grand April Fool’s joke, so I’ll just let you decide for yourself. Similar:The Myth of North America, in One PaintingFascinating art history — a thoughtful …AestheticsDax (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 1, Episode 7) Jadzia Dax faces…

An Ounce of Brains

Hand over hand, he slid it up past the sinus that sphinctered and wheezed wetly around the plastic, and Jimmy grinned when the jug fogged with his breath, proving he’d made a tight seal. This egged him on as the tube caught for a moment against the back wall of his sinuses — a dull…

Harking back to good old texts

The text adventure lives on as a result of a network of websites and Usenet groups, and each year this small community gathers to hold the IF competition, in which amateur entries are subject to peer review. Dennis Jerz, associate professor in English and new media journalism at Seton Hill University, Pennsylvania, says interactive fiction…

Commercial E-Paper Display

“[T]he world’s first consumer application of an electronic paper display module in Sony’s new e-Book reader, Librié, [is] scheduled to go on sale in Japan in late April. This ‘first ever’ […] display utilizes E Ink’s revolutionary electronic ink technology which offers a truly paper-like reading experience with contrast that is the same as newsprint.”…

Remembering the Old Lions

I look at my students: some barefoot, others wearing hats and dressed in clothes they could easily have slept in, and I think how the college classroom has become an adjunct of the dorm bedchamber. Sometimes, when I begin classes, I get the impression that the students resent my interrupting their conversations. Few of them…

Working the Workshop

Too often, writers workshop their egos, instead. It’s human nature, especially if your story is on the table and everyone’s talking about it. But to get the most out of a writer’s workshop, you need to think of the story on the table as your car, and everyone around the table is a mechanic looking…

Dominique (Interactive Face)

—Dominique (Interactive Face) (Alterfin) A great link from The Goreletter. I wish the eyes would follow the mouse cursor. Similar:Twelfth Night Cast Photo (Prime Stage, May 3-12)My daughter can hardly stop talking abou…AestheticsSupport the arts in your community! @geyer_pac Hello Dolly!AmusingBing’s A.I. Chat Reveals Its Feelings: ‘I Want to Be Alive. 😈’In a two-hour conversation with…

Does your weblog own you?

43.75 % My weblog owns 43.75 % of me. —Does your weblog own you? Hmmph. I thought it would be more than that. One question about dating really doesn’t apply to me. Similar:The elements, in haikuEach element of the periodic table gets …AmusingTechnical and Literary Writing: What’s the difference? « DekonztruktschonIn an advanced new media…

Old School Moveable Type

—Old School Moveable Type (MGK) Real moveable type. Ever since I investigated the meaning of the name of the character “Shurdlu” in Elmer Rice’s The Adding Machine, I’ve had a longing to learn how to use an old-fashioned printing press — one that actually presses the paper. As much as I love the power of “push-button…

Back from San Antonio

Throughout the conference I went to several sessions on blogging. I’m not convinced, however, the presenters who claimed to be blogging are actually blogging. They’re using blogging software, their students use blogging software, but I’m not convinced that using the software is the same as blogging. For example, does posting writing prompts for students constitute…

Three-headed Frog… not!

The BBC news item, Puzzle over three-headed frog (originally titled “‘Warning’ over three-headed frog”) spawned this story that swept the news media and the weblog circuit over the week following March 5th 2004. Briefly: staff and pre-school children at the Green Umbrella day nursery, Weston-super-Mare, UK, found the above. After they’d taken photos and a…

Tale of two video game worlds: Online consoles soar, PCs stumble

Today, those never-ending online “massively multiplayer” games like “EverQuest” have matured into mainstream, vibrant attractions, drawing hundreds of thousands of paying customers – male and female. But their growth appears almost stagnant compared to the popularity spike for multiplayer online shoot’em-ups and other mostly war-themed fare geared toward users of console systems, led by Sony…

Citizen Kubrick

He was the greatest director of his generation. Jack Nicholson’s “Here’s Johnny!” Lolita’s heart-shaped sunglasses. The Dr Strangelove cowboy riding the nuclear bomb like it’s a bucking bronco. And on and on. So many images have implanted themselves into the public consciousness, surely because of the director’s ever-burgeoning attention to detail. “Why don’t you just…

A Eulogy for HyperCard

Since it was initially packaged with every Mac shipped, it’s likely the majority of buyers used it as a quicky Rolodex, if anything. But HyperCard’s biggest win was a very low entry threshold for those who wanted to build their own ‘stacks’ – combinations of user interface, code, and persistent data. There were plenty of…

Do You Know the Way to San Jose

I‘m looking at a dead pigeon laying on the sidewalk, headless, and I wonder: ?What am I doing here?? —David ThomasDo You Know the Way to San Jose (Buzzcut) So begins David’s coverage of the Game Developer’s Conference, where the most interesting-sounding panel seems to be on “serious games“. I can’t seem to figure out how…