When a blogger dies, what happens to the blog? “I keep it on my ‘friends’ list just so I can see his name every so often, but I can never bring myself to click on his name. The first year or so after he passed on I visited it with decreasing regularity, until eventually I…
“In 1999, Fanning, a 19-year-old Boston-area hacker from a broken home, stumbled on the idea for making digital MP3 files easy to find on the Net. Teaming up with fellow geeks he knew only through online chat rooms, he crafted a simple technology that allowed millions to swap music collections free of charge. The operation…
What if “pi” were a recent discovery? How would journals publicize it, and how would the educational system absorb it? “Once the discovery had been reported in a contemporary journal, mathematicians could be expected to begin using and citing Archimedes? constant… While the term Archimedes? constant would become increasingly familiar even to school children, scientists…
“In my opinion, the application forms for humanities Ph.D. programmes should carry the warning: ‘Enter at your own risk.’ The fine print should read: ‘The risks include poverty, shame, humiliation, and clinical depression.’ You will of course find no such warning on the graduate-school application forms. And incredibly enough, even at this stage in the…
“My how times have changed! These days you hear nerd talk spewing out of everyone’s mouth! … Is it computer technology that’s made nerds of us all? Or perhaps it’s because we really do work for those former “losers” now.” Peter Bagge —The Nerd-ification of AmericaReason) I feel the same way about Star Trek, which…
When I found this in my in box it made my day. It’s a report from a former student who is now a techical writer: “Recently, one of your articles came up in my department at Unisys. Each month, my colleagues across the country and I receive a departmental ‘e-zine’ that includes links to technical…
“It is rare for a pregnant woman to vanish. But Peterson’s case likely received extra media attention from the start because she was from the same town as another well-known missing person and homicide victim — Chandra Levy, the Washington, D.C., intern who had an affair with then-Rep. Gary Condit.” —Eerily Similar Case [Missing Pregnant…
I’m a little behind in blogging Elwyn Jenkins’ response to Dan Gillmor’s Making the News. Here’s what Elwyn says: “Writing, that you see here in this [Elwyn’s] weblog, is not journalism. This is more about pedagogy than it is about journalism. This is about organizing information — some bloggers do that by simply amassing a…
“It may sound like sexual prejudice, but it seems that men’s much-debated ability to navigate slightly better than women applies in virtual environments as well as the real world. And on average, says Microsoft computer scientist Mary Czerwinski, men are quicker to create a mental map of an environment and orient themselves within it.” —Women…
“Unfortunately, I never actually heard the protester’s name pronounced, just caught him spelling it out for others and jotted it down in my notepad. | I wrote the story for Sunday’s paper, tucked the quote down near the bottom, filed it to my editors in Charleston and blithely went about my life, unaware that this…
“Fancy media on websites typically fails user testing. Simple text and clear photos not only communicate better with users, they also enhance users’ feeling of control and thus support the Web’s mission as an instant gratification environment.” Jakob Nielsen —Low-End Media for User EmpowermentAlertBox) There’s nothing stunning in this post, but it’s presented in the…
WebCT, like Blackboard and Jenzabar, is a content-management tool for online education. It sets up a password-protected space where students and teachers can present their materials. Laura Gibbs writes: “[O]ne of the major themes of the WebCT presentation was that ‘you don’t need a website anymore – not like you used to!’. Hmmmmm….. since when…
“The writing skills college instructors most want from incoming freshmen–proper grammar and usage–are considered least important by high school English teachers….Among six writing skills, grammar and usage were taught the least by more than 700 high school English teachers surveyed during a national curriculum survey ACT conducts every three years.” Rosalind Rossi —Grammar Valued More…
“The Institute for Interactive Journalism helps news organizations use innovative computer technologies to develop new ways for people to engage in critical public policy issues.” —The Institute for Interactive JournalismJ-Lab) Fascinating approach to journalism as telling, showing, and doing. The site features a “balance-the-budget” game and information about awards for innovative journalism. This site isn’t…
“The one thing that everyone who has studied college education can agree on is that students learn more when they work in groups. Yet colleges don’t build infrastructure to support this. A university will spend hundreds of $millions on dormitories, i.e., places for students to drink beer and sleep together. Why is there is no…
“The most common password was ‘password’ (12 per cent) and the most popular category was their own name (16 per cent) followed by their football team (11 per cent) and date of birth (8 per cent).” John Leyden —Office Workers Give Away Passwords for a Cheap PenRegister) Similar:Journalist flexes in story about Trump Media accountant…
“Investigators now have the strongest evidence yet that the space shuttle Columbia’s left wing was critically punctured during liftoff, when falling debris started the fatal chain of events that led to the breakup of the shuttle when it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere…” —Shuttle Doomed at TakeoffABC News) Similar:Controlling behavior of HQ CEO hijacks what should have…
“King County prosecutors and sheriff’s detectives asked the editors at the Eastside Journal, now called the King County Journal, to run a fake story about a staged arson to make Sherer believe an accomplice had carried out his plans. The newspaper complied.” —Ethics of Paper’s Fake Arson Story Debated Seattle Times) Woah! When does the…
“Retail employees who sell violent video games to minors would face a $500 fine under a bill passed by the Washington state Senate.” —Peddle a Violent Game [to Minors], Pay a Fine Wired) A tiny news item. I added “to minors” in the headline, because this tiny news item seems much more flame-worthy without it.…
“Although bell curve distribution is still considered normal, a surprising number of economic and social phenomena now seem to follow a different arc. Instead of being high in the center and low on the sides, this new distribution is low in the center and high on the sides. Call it the well curve.” Daniel H.…