“Writing software should be treated as a creative activity. Just think about it — the software that’s interesting to make is software that hasn’t been made before. Most other engineering disciplines are about building things that have been built before. People say, ‘Well, how come we can’t build software the way we build bridges?’ The…
It’s not ‘cat sat on the mat or ‘Peter and Jane’ writing. Almost anything – from leaflets and letters to legal documents – can be written in plain English without being patronising or over-simple. It doesn’t mean reducing the length or changing the meaning of your message…. It’s not about banning new words, killing off…
“[T]he best news sources have always felt like a rich, somewhat mysterious pageant. And in many ways, this is an exciting experiment. Lately I’ve been visiting Google News several times every day, to see how the media world looks through the emotionless eyes of an algorithm.” William Powers —The Play’s Not the ThingThe Atlantic) Similar:Farewell…
“Consumers are often baffled at the price tag attached to what appears to be little more than a mass of paper, cardboard and ink. A whole host of factors, including the size of the book, the quality of paper, the quantity of books printed, whether it contains illustrations, what sort of deal the publisher can…
“Is it possible that we have actually come to the end of fairy tales as an available, rather than an archival, entertainment? Fairy tales, however many times they are transformed, depend in some part for their effect on an air of sincerity, of urgent seriousness. For the not merely wise but wised-up children of this…
“The link is the basic element of hypertext, and researchers have long recognized that links provide semantic relationships for users. Yet little work has been done to understand the nature of these relationships, particularly in conjunction with the purposes of organizational/informational Web sites. This paper explores the semantic and rhetorical principles underlying link development and…
“The project was developed by the BBC to create a computer-based, multimedia version of the Domesday Book, marking the 900th anniversary of the 1086 archive. But the snapshot of in the UK in the mid-1980s was stored on two virtually indestructible interactive video discs” which, just 15 years later, were so obsolete they were illegible…
While the websites that traditional journalists tend to read and cite are written mostly by men, most people who are even vaguely familiar with weblogs would have little trouble finding good ‘blogs written by women. “Was there really a gender gap in Blogville? The answer, I soon learned, was complicated. And it was wrapped up…
“Costing me money? I don’t pretend to be an expert on intellectual property law, but I do know one thing. If a music industry executive claims I should agree with their agenda because it will make me more money, I put my hand on my wallet–and check it after they leave, just to make sure…
“I was at the mall today and I was waiting forever in line to tell you what I want for Christmas,” wrote Nichole, 8, from Tucson, Arizona. “So I really like that I can e-mail you right away without lining up. Well except for after my little brother.” Steve Kettman —Dear Santa: You’ve Got E-MailWired)…
“A TextArc is a visual represention of a text-the entire text (twice!) on a single page. Some funny combination of an index, concordance, and summary, it uses the viewer’s eye to help uncover meaning.” W. Bradford Paley —Text Arc (Literary Concordance/Word Association Thingy)TextArc.org) Extremely cool visual/spatial representation of an entire text… I want to play…
Young scholars have expressed their rapture for the Bronze Lullaby, the Taco Bell Cannon, Beethoven’s Erotica, Tchaikovsky’s Cracknutter Suite, and Gershwin’s Rap City in Blue. In defining musical terms, they also demonstrate that they know their brass from their oboe. Music sung by two people at the same lime is called a duel; if they…
“Put your hands in your laps. Close your eyes and ask yourselves: Is the e-mail I’m about to send necessary? And if not, is it at least fun? If you cannot answer yes to either of those questions–don’t hit that send button.” Stanley Bing Bing offers an interesting list of guidelines, on which I’ll comment……
JENNY JONES: Boy, we have a show for you today! Recently, the University of Virginia philosopher Richard Rorty made the stunning declaration that nobody has “the foggiest idea” what postmodernism means.[…]JENNY JONES: Tell us how you think postmodernism affected your career as a novelist. ALEX: I disavowed writing that contained real ideas or any real…
“[A] new trend is oxygen-fortified drinks to replenish your body with oxygen. It shouldn’t surprise you that breathing works better. Oxygen best enters the bloodstream through the lungs, not the stomach. You would need to drink about a litre of oxygenated water every 30 seconds to get a deep breath’s worth of extra oxygen, and…
“These are desperate times, and desperate times call for desperation. Therefore, it is with a heavy heart that I am duty-bound to alert America to the clear and present danger posed by Mel Brooks. I first became suspicious of Mr. Brooks when the Enron scandal broke. My suspicions only grew as other examples of “aggressive…
Have you ever noticed that the letters “Tri” in cursive look an awful lot like “Fu”? Patricia Breen apparently didn’t when she designed this “???ck or Treat” Christmas ornament. —They Should Have Used Another Typeface (Nieman Marcus) This is better than the urban legend about the Nieman Marcus cookies. Similar:Rebound Rumble, FIRST Robotics 2012 GameIn…
Most of my students probably know about my odd fascination with the Gund toy “Rainbow Hector.” My sister sent me the above link, which includes a story about a musical group in Trinidad, which includes a member named Gary Hector, who has a 10-year-old daughter named… you guessed it… Rainbow. (See the caption at the…
“I confess I sometimes don’t know whether to be happy or depressed when I dip into Sims world. Sometimes you get the sense that these Sims fanatics are compensating online for the needs that aren’t met in their real lives…. But the other and more positive sensation you get in Sims world is that some…
“Would I open a huge document-say a PDF book chapter from Amazon? I don’t know. What do I want on my computer versus what do I want bookmarked access to? I don’t know. Here’s what I do know: I need help in managing my attachments and getting more value from the megabytes of media material…