On a platform before a crowd of curious onlookers, the scientists eagerly ripped open a box of CDs containing data from a newly released million-second-long exposure taken by two cameras onboard the Hubble telescope, and struggled to transfer the data to nearby computers as they answered a multitude of questions shouted out by reporters and…
Nobody won. Nobody even came close. But that didn’t stop organizers of the DARPA Grand Challenge from declaring an unusual race across the Mojave Desert a spirited success. —Marsha Walton —Robots fail to complete Grand Challenge (CNN) We’re safe, for a little while longer, from the robot rebellion that will inevitably overwhelm us. Similar:For Two Months,…
A story in a campus paper has alarmed administrators of one of journalism’s highest awards, prompted a crackdown by the university and sparked a debate over journalism ethics, privacy and freedom of the student press. —Michael Weissenstein —Student Article Sparks Ethics Debate (Newsday/AP) Hmm… I think the faculty member was probably out of line. I think…
The effects of music on performance on a computer-mediated problem-solving task were examined. Participants completed the task in anonymous dyads as they were exposed to either Classical music, Punk music, or No Music. Results indicate that those in the Classical music condition performed better on the problem solving-task than those in the Punk music or…
I Want My Jerz. Tough on Dirt, Gentle on Jerz. Today’s Jerz, Since 1903. The Appliance of Jerz. When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Jerz. Hope It’s Jerz, It’s Jerz, We Hope It’s Jerz… Make Fun of Jerz. —The Advertising Slogan Generator (The Surrealist) About that last one… Huh? Similar:Text, Speech, Machine: Metaphors for…
Can you identify the candybar by looking at the cross section? Make a guess and click on the cross section to find the answer. —Name that Candy Bar (Science Museum of Minnesota) I gave up chocolate for Lent, so naturally I’m tormenting myself on this site. Via Page’s Page. Similar:Phantasms (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 7, Episode…
For decades, elementary schoolbooks have maintained that the Great Wall of China could be seen from space – but now the books are being rewritten. —China ends Great Wall space myth (BBC) Similar:Trump Fires Senior Adviser’s Son From Transition for Sharing Fake NewsTrump senior adviser’s son, who used a t…Current_EventsGrading the MOOC UniversityThe MOOC classrooms are…
The first student chooses State University. Immediately, word spreads across campus, and high-fives are exchanged all around. “She’s a fine young woman,” exclaims a top university official. “And what stats! A 1520 on the SAT. A 4.0 GPA, including several advanced placement courses. She will boost the status of our chemistry department in a way…
Last year I was previewing a textbook that I was about to use in a Human Development course I was teaching. The book was the usual flamboyant montage of facts, grids, and pictures, but then I suddenly ran across a most unusual sentence. It read, ?As a folksinger once sang, how many roads must an…
You’ve probably seen, heard or even used the term “spamming” to refer to the act of sending unsolicited commercial email (UCE), or “spam” to refer to the UCE itself. Following is our position on the relationship between UCE and our trademark SPAM…. Let’s face it. Today’s teens and young adults are more computer savvy than…
In the 20th Century, making the news was almost entirely the province of journalists; the people we covered, or ?newsmakers?; and the legions of public-relations and marketing people who manipulated everyone. The economics of publishing and broadcasting created large, arrogant institutions — call it Big Media, though even small-town newspapers and broadcasters exhibit some of…
The day is saved when the Enterprise arrives, along with its commander, Adm. Janeway (Kate Mulgrew (news)), and the doctor (Robert Picardo (news)) from the “Star Trek: Voyager” TV series. —Vegas ‘Trek’ attraction could revive franchise (Hollywood Reporter) Urk! Since when did Janeway command the Enterprise? Her ship is the Voyager. The technical details of this…
What woman could resist a wedding proposal in the form of a brand-new computer? Johnson popped the question by etching the message, “Will you do me the honor?” into the side of the machine.Photo: Courtesy Michael Johnson —With This Rig, I Do Thee Wed (Wired) Found via Work in Progress, where Julie Young prays, “Let…
Miss Dyson, a student careers adviser, thought she was sending a private email to Alex Hewson, her boyfriend. By accidentally clicking on the “reply all” command, however, she distributed it to everyone on his original recipient list. The message went to 30 friends of Mr Hewson, a PR executive with the firm Carat International. Many…
The conference provided a compressed picture of some of the intellectual activity going on in video game studies today. In a short summary, it was clear that early attempts to define the discipline or ague against a sort of “academic colonization” were hopeless. The ideas flowing into the area of video game studies from all…
David Thomas sent me some pictures of me from the Princeton conference… he promises more photos (and, if he hasn’t had second thoughts), a long blog post soon. Update: David’s Princeton video game conference notes are up now. Here is the lineup for session 2. (Note the joysticks in the foreground.) Dennis Jerz / You…
I intentionally tried not to post about this (I guess I am meta-posting now) for a simple reason: this is not the way that a scholar discussion should take place…. This is not how this game is played. If anybody has to respond about what has been said at a conference, that should be made…
Blips, bloops and beeps emit from the room that houses the exhibit, where a dozen video-arcade games from the late 1970s and ’80s are lovingly arranged in chronological order, each lit with a single spotlight. Three free tokens, good for one game play each, are included with museum admission. Additional tokens may be purchased for…
those in the humanities tended to distrust the technology, and those in the sciences often considered humanities-applications to be wasteful of a precious resource. Specific kinds of projects, however, were more readily assisted by 1960s technology, even if character-sets were inadequate because computer-printers had either an all-uppercase or upper-and-lowercase character-set that was designed to represent…
The Critical Study of Computer Games: A Brief IntroductionJerz’s Literacy Weblog) Part of: Princeton Video Game Conference reflections. While I mostly wrote those conference reflections for the benefit of game theorists who weren’t able to attend the conference, if you’re new to the subject, you might appreciate a general introduction. Over the past few years,…