“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:You, Too, Can Have a Viral Tweet Like Mine: Demystifying Poetic MeterSaving for the next time I teach “Intro…
“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:Weaving: Breathing: Thinking: The poetics of Emerson's NatureText derives from texere, which means “t…AestheticsIn…
“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:An unreal Mars skylineThat awesome image showing Earth, Venus …AestheticsRemember Who The Enemy IsGood article on Catching Fire. (I haven’…BooksLincoln’s last play; or, the continuing fascination…
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:The Gift of the Magi (by O. Henry; read by Dennis Jerz; We Are One Body Audio Theatre)I recorded this oral…
“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:Unity Normal Problems…
—All Your Usenet Are Belong to Wesley Crusher Similar:Vulcan mind-melds from Star Trek: The Original Series, in the order that I can think of th… With Dr. Simon Van Gelder in Dagger …PersonalStar Trek TOS Main Theme but it never gets to the Main ThemeArrgh! This is sooo stressful! (Some gre…MediaTrials and Tribble-ations #StarTrek #DS9…
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:Masked, vaxxed, and settling in to watch…
How many Internet memes can you cram into one weblog posting? —All Your Wesley Crusher Are Belong to Taliban Similar:Attribution, Editorializing and DefamationIn the Nightly Noodle Monthly, former No…Current_EventsBetween static hand-coded HTML pages and modern content-management systems, there used to …When I started my blog in 1999 (by addin…Cyberculture'Island of the Blue Dolphins' woman's cave believed foundFor…
“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:What can you do with an English Major?AcademiaHey there, chaotic world in…
“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:I didn't exactly set out to achieve this goal, but it's not hard to do the minimum to keep…EducationLiberal arts…
Uh… no. That already is college.com. —“This will be college.com. Contact us.” Similar:What can you do with an English Major?AcademiaYour Students Learn by Doing, Not by ListeningToday one of my students gave a final pr…AcademiaStoryNexus: building your own adventure gamesIf you’re a veteran gamer you’ll remembe…CybercultureUnity Normal Problems (Importing an object from Blender 2.8b)I had a…
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:Lego-Building Tween Refers to "The Hobbit" TextMy daughter, having just received a hand…AestheticsSweaters from Rover?From Awful Library Books. For more schad…BooksA quick primer…
“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:Star Trek: Voyager Premiered 20 Years AgoI remember wanting to like Voyager…
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:The Importance of…
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:Poetry Stimulates…
“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:Last…
English studies after Sept 11: What’s the point? “The theoretical models that have dominated English and the related disciplines in the last two decades are especially effective tools (along with the institutional factors that have always existed) for creating demoralization.” Lisa Ruddick —The Near Enemy of the Humanities is Professionalism (Chronicle) Similar:As a student journo,…