I Hate Phones

“There are two types of people — those who prefer to communicate via e-mail, and those who prefer the phone. What the phone people don’t realize is that their need for information means that they’re going to interrupt someone else’s day to get that information. E-mail, on the other hand, is just as quick and…

Blogging for Dollars

“If recent rumours are to be believed, AOL is getting ready in the next month or so to add blogging to the home-page services it offers users.|It is a sign of how far these regularly updated pages of web links with personal comment have come in the past five years.” —Blogging for DollarsThe Age) Hrmm.…

Jennifer Stood There, Quietly Ovulating

“Your task is to write the first line of an imaginary novel. Your goal is to make it hilariously bad…. Maximum sentence length: 25 words.” (Deadline: 14 April 2003) —Jennifer Stood There, Quietly OvulatingAdam Cadre) Adam Cadre, who started the Lyttle Lytton contest as a reaction against what he sees as the increasingly lengthy and…

Cool 2B Real Home Page

“Cool-2B-Real is about real girls like you! Whether you’re in school, playing sports or just having fun, strive to be the best you can be! Real girls are ‘keepin’ it real’ by building strong bodies and strong minds… and they’re feeling great about themselves!” Brought to real girls everywhere by the award-winning experts in girl…

What Do Ya Call It

“I want to invent a word which describes the experience of following all those links on the sidebar of someone’s blog. Yeah, I know blogrolling exists. But that’s just for making the links. When I visit DFWblogs or Grumpy Girl , I get hooked on all these fascinating blog names (ethnic lounge, not so girlie,…

More Fallout Over Greek Game Ban

“Game importers and Internet cafés remain vulnerable. Police are cracking down on players of Counter-Strike, Age of Empires, and digital backgammon and chess. More than 50 people have been arrested and face up to three months in prison and 5,000-euro fines.” —More Fallout Over Greek Game BanWired) Similar:Disagreement Hierarchy: Arguments, ranked from name-calling to the…

Forget Moore's Law

“In its relentless pursuit of the power curve of Moore’s law, at the expense of the much less interesting price curve, the entire electronics industry may be unknowingly trapping itself in a giant and attenuated version of the dot-com bubble–living years into the technological future, only to be painfully snapped back to the human and…

Creative Player Actions in FPS Online Video Games: Playing Counter-Strike

“When you play a multiplayer FPS video game, like Counter-Strike, you enter a complex social world, a subculture, bringing together all of the problems and possibilities of power relationships dominant in the non-virtual world. Understanding these innovations requires examining player in-game behavior, specifically the types of textual (in-game chats) and nonverbal (logo design, avatar design…

Most People Kiss the Right Way

“Over the next two and a half years, Güntürkün recorded 124 scientifically valid kisses in public places across the United States, Germany and Turkey.” —Most People Kiss the Right WayNature) The story cited above is a puffy little version of an academic article called “Adult persistence of head-turning asymmetry” Similar:Please use the microphone at public…

STS-107 "Columbia" Loss FAQ

I got an e-mail from Bob Mosley, compiler of the Columbia loss FAQ, which called to my attention the latest updates to the Columbia FAQ resource, which was assembled rapidly by scores of volunteers on the day of the incident, —STS-107 “Columbia” Loss FAQsci.space.*) Similar:Let He Who Is Without Sin #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5,…

Homepage Real Estate Allocation

“A homepage really has two main goals: to give users information, and to serve as their top-level navigation for information that’s inside the site…. [S]ample sites allocated less than half the screen space to useful pixels.” Jakob Nielsen —Homepage Real Estate AllocationUseIT.com) Similar:Granting a Student SuperAdminGoddessOMGWhatHaveIDone Network PrivilegesI should probably not grant a student su…AcademiaReading Game/Text:…

Online Role-Playing Fits the Bill

“MMRPGs are pervasive virtual environments populated by human-controlled digital people from around the globe. | Players develop characters, work towards goals, solve puzzles and engage in social fluttery. They’re the visual marriage of text-based adventures and chat rooms, and women are flocking.” Alex Krotoski —Online Role-Playing Fits the BillGuardian) Interesting… while Slashdot just posted a…

Britain's Official Dossier on Saddam Plagiarized?

“[T]the bulk of the nineteen page document was copied from three different articles – one written by a graduate student.” —Britain’s Official Dossier on Saddam Plagiarized?Channel4.com) Similar:Students Are Using ChatGPT to Write Their Personal Essays Now: AI can replicate the shape …Students say they appreciate AI’s abilit…AcademiaPope Leo XIV names AI one of the reasons…