"Whilst it is obviously the case that the main reason subscription now represents 30% of Salon’s revenue is because overall revenue has fallen so dramatically, that doesn’t stop [CEO] Michael [O’Donnel] portraying it as a triumph. That is talent." (22 Jan) Dictionary of the Future [Review]: "’Words are artifacts of culture,’ says Hanft, and in…
Think twice before sending a tartly worded e-mail or prepare for a battle of near-biblical proportions like the one being waged on Chicago computer consultant Bernard Shifman. —Resume Vaults [Chicago] Techie into Spam Battlefield (Chicago Trib) Similar:Today's Computer Displays Distort Pixel Art Designed for 1980s CRTsAs a kid, I remember studying my CRT dis…AestheticsElon Musk…
Yes, that’s 1889. —History of Video Games since 1889b> (GameSpot) Similar:How PatrioticAmusingWhy Is Othello Black?To us today, the word “black” carries wi…Culture‘Unexpected item’: how self-checkouts failed to live up to their promiseBusinesses still fret over these issues,…BusinessOperation War DiaryOne hundred years ago today, Britain dec…CultureLego signs multi-million-pound deal with BBC to create Dr Who setThe…
"What venerated ‘alpha geeks’ and lowly ‘smurfs’ share is a tendency to talk about people as if they were machines. To be ‘uninstalled’ means being fired or dismissed, whereas a ‘plug-and-play’ refers to a new employee who fits in without any additional training." (Rebuttal: Don’t Tweak the Geeks) —When the Geeks get Snide (NY Times;…
"They may love capitalism. They may have no interest whatsoever in political theory. But they believe that Marx was always right and always good." English professors? Hardly. —Marx, Money, and Mysticism after Mao (Partisan Review) Similar:UPDATE: BREAKING: 'Star Wars' Returns — 'Episode 7' Slated For 2015 And More Movies Plann…The moment in Attack of the…
“This bridge will be a massive undertaking: the Rhine is a wide, deep, and fast-moving river. My engineers and I have devised a way to build the bridge in such a way that the stronger the current, the more secure the bridge will be.” —Bloggus Caesari (Julius Caesar’s Weblog) Similar:The Hidden Feminist Messages in 'Schoolhouse…
; trendy young dot-com refugees come begging. (WashPost) —Boring, grey-haired government contractors are hot Similar:Awesome 1935 Soviet Movie Deploys Saxophone-Controlled Robots to Crush Tophat- and Bowler-…I wish I understood Russian, so that I c…AestheticsInternet Explorer and Murder Rates: More Fun with Causation and Correlation IE.png – mlkshk.AmusingTales from the Antiquities Theft Task ForceA shot of Kim…
“i was a 20-something dethroned dotcom ceo that went to work the counter at mcdonald’s” [scott heiferman didn’t cut it as a dot-com CEO, and apparently doesn’t know how to use the shift key, either.] Similar:How exactly do bridges bridge? How do rivers rive? How much detail does my model of #medie…How exactly do bridges…
"Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same colour as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated…" wrote Hemingway in his 1952 novel, The Old Man and the Sea. Gregorio Fuentes was Hemingway’s friend, and probably the inspiration for the story. —Hemingway’s "Old Man"Dies at 104 (BBC) Similar:The hidden billion-dollar…
“Once ejected into space, wouldn’t the flattened, living-room-sized, and extremely solid panes of trash that result from such a primitive, unidirectional trash compactor pose serious hazards for Empire starships in the vicinity?” —On the Implausibility of the Death Star’s Trash Compactor (McSweeney’s) Similar:‘A slow-motion disaster’: Journalism museum in talks about possible building saleLast year, SHU…
A teenager has attracted international attention for developing a glove that can translate sign language into printed text. —Glove Lends the Deaf a Hand (USA Today) The article suggests that a glove that reads finger positions will free deaf teenagers from needing the services of adult interpreters. Yet sign language is a rich and complex…
"The practice of using the secret Word format for interchange impedes the growth of our community and the spread of freedom. While we notice the occasional annoyance of receiving a Word document, this steady and persistent harm to our community usually doesn’t come to our attention." Richard Stallman —We Can Put an End to Word…
This is the time of year that college departments hiring new faculty members whittle down to two or three promising candidates, from the dozens or even hundreds of applicants. (A candidate for a UWEC English department job is interviewed towards the end of the article.) —The Tightening [Adacemic] Job Marketb> (Chronicle) Similar:The Alot is Better…
: "Nowadays, art that prompts ‘controversy’ usually has one thing in common: it’s bad. Bad in conception or bad in execution, and frequently bad in both." Lileks —Does the Pope S– In the Woods? Similar:Industriousness. Self-improvement. Thrift. And orange slime. The girl amusing herself on our 70m …AestheticsPost-publication review as an efficient alternative to pre-publication…
"If Einstein had died as a child, someone else would have discovered General Relativity; if Beethoven had died as a child, the Opus 111 Sonata would never have been written." Dennis Dutton —What is Genius? (Philosophy & Literature) Similar:A Video Game About Changing What Happens In Shakespeare's HamletElsinore is a game where you play as…
"With the rise of search tools that unerringly bring you to the page you want, the need for a highly specific domain name — one that a casual Web user would be able to guess — has practically disappeared." Dan Gillmor —"’Google Effect’ Reduces Need for Many Domains"b> (SiliconValley.com) Similar:You don’t hate millennials. You hate…
(Abstracts due Feb 7) "We’re looking for essays that shed light on the history of interactive fiction, especially if they discuss how IF has evolved technologically and in its conventions; essays that teach and illuminate the craft of IF, including but not limited to puzzle design, world building, characters, prose style, and atmosphere; and essays…
A student project on why Microsoft is evil includes this parody of the Alcoholics Anonymous "12 step" program. Sammy Carranza —12 Steps to Stop Using Microsoft Similar:Text Wrangler Discontinued (Free Mac Text Editor)I still miss Notepad++, a Windows tool o…Current_Events10 Developer Tips To Build A Responsive Website [Infographic] – ReadWrite The first thing to think…
A clueless fellow looking for a job in information technology sends out his resume in a mass mailing. Bernard Shifman, an unrepentant spammer, then threatens to sue practically anyone who even mentions the incident. Pete Moss documents what is most likely the end of Mr. Shifman’s career. —Bernard Shifman is a Moron Spammer Similar:Udacity's Sebastian…
From a blurb on the National Coalition against Censorship webpage: Jan Carroll’s weblog offers a substantial amount of collected poems written in response to September 11; articles on poetry and politics; interviews with poets about September 11; and musings on the role of art and aesthetics in times of tragedy.” [Jan created her poetry weblog…