(book review) : “…the activity stilled, the cars, houses and workplaces buried beneath layers of volcanic ash, the artefacts of a single moment preserved. What could we learn…?” —Imagine Silicon Valley Buried Like Pompeii Similar:Boston bombings: Social media spirals out of controlA thoughtful analysis. Problem-solver…CultureBritish Politician begins reciting colonial-era Kipling poem in in Myanmar templeAfter…
“Much web design has suffered from an over reliance on graphic design principles. Too many graphic designers have tried to force the Web to be what it is not…” —Information Architecture vs. Graphic Design (New Thinking) Similar:A former student contacted me to share her thoughts.A few years ago, I told myself I would s…AcademiaOpen Access…
“My cookies, cakes, and brownies are always the highlight of our church bake sales, and everyone says so,” said parishioner Connie Barrett, 49, openly committing the sin of pride. —All Seven Deadly Sins Committed at Church Bake SaleSatire from The Onion) Similar:PICT’s ‘Oliver Twist’ Offers a Different Kind of Holiday PunchThe first review I’ve seen.…
“From Oklahoma City to New York, we’ve turned violent human loss into epic narratives of suffering and patriotism. Does this help people heal or hurt them?” —Trauma Culture (Salon) Similar:Three challenges for the web, according to its inventorA letter, published a few weeks ago, in …BusinessGoogle Autocomplete Still Makes Hateful Autocorrect SuggestionsThe top suggestion for…
An informal 1998 survey by John Rhodes yielded the following advice: create your content first, then design your website; keep your design simple; use proper grammar. —How to Gain the Trust of Your UsersWebWord) Similar:Unearthing a Long Ignored African Writing System, One Researcher Finds African History, by…Not only is this a fantastic story about…Academia‘Tentacles squelching…
“For a game that is so unfair, stylistically inconsistent, and frustrating, it has been tremendously influential. This was the first of its kind — using words to create a rich simulated world. Nobody had seen anything like it; it spread quickly across the Internet.” Dennis G. Jerz [Recently updated.] —Colossal Cave Adventure Similar:I actually don't…
—All Your Usenet Are Belong to Wesley Crusher Similar:Hide and Q (TNG Rewatch, Season 1, Episode 9) Riker, buffed up by Q, grants desires of the…Rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generatio…AmusingAnother 10sq cm of a beautiful #steampunk control panel for a personal #neovictorian #blen…AestheticsCaptain Gearhart found some stairwell problems on his latest #Unity3D tour of…
Google has extended its history of newsgroup postings all the way back to 1981. “Most who posted to Usenet back in its glory days were probably unaware that they were creating an archive documenting the most significant moments of the late 20th century.” —Google’s Gaggle of Discussions (Wired) Similar:About that Cough, Rough, Pony, Bologna MemeDo…
How many Internet memes can you cram into one weblog posting? —All Your Wesley Crusher Are Belong to Taliban Similar:Disruptions: Texting Your Feelings, Symbol by SymbolBeing a word-oriented thinker, I don’t h…AestheticsBogus hit-and-run story about Vice President Kamala Harris created by Russian troll farm, …A healthy respect for the free press and…Current_EventsA fleet of drones…
“If the poet’s own performance is too perfect—if she seems to get every bit of substance out of the poem—then maybe she didn’t put enough in to begin with.” Adam Hirsch —Hearing Aid : Sometimes poetry should be seen but not heard (Slate) Similar:Remember Who The Enemy IsGood article on Catching Fire. (I haven’…BooksJournalist Nellie…
“The World Trade Center attack inspired a lot of Web-publishing of independent, personal accounts.” What can weblogs and online diaries teach us about online journalism? —What does Sept 11 teach us about online journalism? (TheMorningNews.org) Similar:Man Infected with Ebola Misinformation Through Casual Contact With Cable NewsOn the other end of the link, the New Yo…AmusingBeatrix…
Uh… no. That already is college.com. —“This will be college.com. Contact us.” Similar:How to spot video and photo fakes as Russia invades Ukraine – PoynterIn the first hours of the Russian invasi…Current_EventsA Successful Failure: The TI-99/4A Turns 40My family had one of these when I was 12…AwesomeMultimodal Composing, Sketchnotes, and Idea GenerationUsing the mixed media…
A medical student was scanning the dense prose on the copyright page of his textbook, when he read the word, “congratulations”. He now owns a ’65 Thunderbird. —Read Your Textbooks! (Boston Globe) Similar:Writing School Papers: Does Your First Version Say It All?My colleague Mike Arnzen talked about th…AcademiaThe false link between Amy Coney Barrett and…
“Why bother to code a clever and long-lived virus when a stupid one that spreads for an hour or two gets just as much attention from antiviral experts and the media?” (Uh-oh! An anti-virus company’s marketing flack warns that Goner is coming back! Better pay big bucks to the anti-virus companies, to protect you from clicking…
“Sitting by the window of his study on a summer day in the early 1930s, a thin-faced Oxford professor let his mind wander from correcting papers and into a world that would become Middle-earth.” Pamela S. Turner —Visit the Birthplace of Middle-Earth (CSM) Similar:from “The Poet” by Ralph Waldo EmersonThe poets made all the words,…
A flashback to the Silicon Valley excesses of 1998, before the bubble burst: “There are headhunters who handle only Cobol programmers from Singapore, and headhunters who specialize in luring toy-company executives, and, I’ve recently learned, a headhunting firm that helps other headhunting firms hunt for headhunters.” Po Bronson —Is the Revolution Over?Wired) Similar:Trump and JFK:…
Wil Wheaton, the actor whose Star Trek character inspired the newsgroup alt.ensign.wesley.die.die.die, has long been geekdom’s favorite whipping boy. “But now, thanks to a self-coded, shamelessly dorky website, many of the same folks who loathed Wheaton on the show are finding out he’s a whole lot like them in real life.” —Wheaton’s Trek to Respectability…
Wild America – a short story by Jayne Loader. Welcome to Wild America! Do you need instructions? YES You are living in the richest kingdom in the world, where others have found fame and fortune, though it is rumored that some who enter here are never heard from again. Where would you like to begin…
(short story by E.M. Forster, 1909) I want to see you not through the Machine,” said Kuno. “I want to speak to you not through the wearisome Machine.” “Oh, hush!” said his mother, vaguely shocked. “You mustn’t say anything against the Machine.” “Why not?” “One mustn’t.” —The Machine Stops Similar:Why Do…
“In a study of readers who read either a simulated literary hypertext or the same text in linear form, we found a range of significant differences: these suggest that hypertext discourages the absorbed and reflective mode that characterizes literary reading.” (Miall and Dobson) —Reading Hypertext and the Experience of Literature (Journal of Digital Information) Similar:Emily…