MIT will offer its courses online for free: “This ‘OpenCourseWare’ initiative represents a radically different approach to digitizing, marketing and globalizing education.” —Brave New World for Higher EducationTechnology Review) Similar:Television is Now the Second Screen for Kids with TabletsOf course, not all kids have tablets, an…CultureHarvard University says it can't afford journal publishers' pricesRobert Darnton,…
(CNet) :”Sometimes they were raw, sometimes they were pretentious and sometimes they were flat-out wrong–I’d dare say that many times it was all three combined!–but the information was fresh and real and unmediated by any intervening institutions.” Charles Cooper —When Blogging Came of Age Similar:Stunning, bleak unemployment chart from the front page of the New…
(SiliconValley.com) “Via e-mails, mailing lists, chat groups, personal Web journals and non-standard news sources, they received valuable context that the major American media couldn’t, or wouldn’t, provide.” Dan Gillmor —Webloggers Offer View Media Can’t Similar:Latest on Napster(See also: Digital Hollywood- No Resolut…Current_EventsStage Right's production of 'Secret Garden' is heart-tugging showIn the Stage Right production, the…
Of course, you can’t trust everything that you find on the Internet…. weblogs and e-mail chains are also responsible for spreading hoaxes: “Is it true, for instance, that Osama bin Laden profits directly from sales of gum arabic, a food additive? Or that radio DJs are forbidden to play more than 150 popular songs now?” …
“Every time he excuses his own refusal to observe the rules he dictates to everyone else on the grounds that he ‘knows his audience’, take one drink…. Every time he quotes statistics from an unrelated study to prove a point about Web usability, take one drink.” Jakob Nielsen Drinking Game Not that I’m condoning the…
“In which we take apart the news and put it back together all wrong.” A collection of short stories composed by re-arranging the words found in front-page news stories. Shelly Jackson —Front Page News Similar:R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) Full Play (via Zoom)All 3 acts and the epilogue to R.U.R. (R…BooksPrimeStage's 1984: "It was very true…
Imagine 50 people getting together to write a 20,000-line epic poem, on time and on budget. Software programmers have an added constraint — it has to run! —Software Development as Community Poetry Writing Similar:In August 1999 I was blogging about Poohsticks Bridge, penmanship, Archimedes, and ebooksIn August 1999, I was blogging about …Books‘WarGames’ and Cybersecurity’s…
“These angry radicals who have now declared war on the West emerged from a movement we financed and armed. Then it turned against us.” LA Times —The Warnings Were on Page 1 Similar:IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE — Berkeley Rep audio productionSinclair Lewis’s 1935 anti-fascist novel…CultureThis Is How Tyranny Begins (Robert Reich)As the faculty advisor to…
From the user license for Microsoft FrontPage 2002: “You may not use the Software in connection with any site that disparages Microsoft, MSN, MSNBC, Expedia, or their products or services…” Ed Foster (I don’t have FP 2002, so I can’t check this. –DGJ) —A Punitive Puppeteer? Similar:That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant…
“The popular image of the computer hacker seems to be part compulsive programmer preferring the company of computers to people, and part criminal mastermind… But this is at best only half the story.” Gisle Hannemyr —Technology and Pleasure Similar:A Brief Tour of the Digital Delights of the Folger Shakespeare LibraryBut luckily for you, one does…
“By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions, by abandoning every value except the will to power, they follow in the path of fascism, Nazism and totalitarianism. And they will follow that path all the way to where it ends in history’s unmarked grave of discarded lies.” George W. Bush —The President’s Speech Similar:Tips…
, the captain gave an inspirational speech over the loudspeaker, and concluded: “Now, since we’re a family for the next few hours, I’ll ask you to turn to the person next to you, introduce yourself, tell them a little about yourself and ask them to do the same.” Wash Times —Aboard Flight 564 Similar:The Importance…
Many modern idioms are mechanical: “she has a screw loose,” or “he broke down crying”. Every culture has its in-jokes and specialized language. The Jargon File defines computing terms such as “404 compliant” and “kluge“. Similar:This Is Not a Book: Thomas Jefferson & Apple's App StoreHumanities professors from the Universit…AcademiaMargaret Atwood: English lessons teach us…
“Ever since Stalin and the Nazis, reality has transcended fiction.” (BBC) —Playwright Arthur Miller on Terrorism Similar:Why scientists should care about artMy artsy daughter loves stories about sc…ArtMasks serve many purposes. How sad that they’ve become politicized. I’ve seen the original meme on my so…Current_EventsIf you like to play with words, good newsI wish there…
‘‘Hello,’’ a man’s voice, not my husband’s, said. I had no idea whom I’d called, but I had finally gotten through to New York, to news. NYT Magazine —Talk to Me Similar:Oedipus Tyrannos (Oedipus Rex) — Brief IntroductionMy first lecture screencasts for my newl…AcademiaAugust Wilson Trifecta (Two Trains, Ma Rainey and Fences on the same…
“The freedom we have enjoyed in the states has been unusual in world history and may be becoming more unusual.” (BBC) —Novelist John Updike witnessed the WTC Attack Similar:Addressing Our Biases: Medieval BathingDid medieval people bathe? If you alr…CultureLecturing is So Much Easier than Leading a DiscussionLecturing is So Much Easier than Leading…AcademiaSalman Rushdie: how…
10:19 a.m. To: Dad Call Kozue [my wife] and tell her I’m fine. We evacuated my office and I’m walking somewhere. War zone. Jonathan Segal —Another Eyewitness Account Similar:Trump, halting his own policy: "I didn’t like sight of families being separated." No fake news here. This is why journ…Current_EventsCopy Of The Scarlet Letter Can't Believe…
The Internet has succeeded in becoming a tool that many regular people turn to in lieu of alternatives for communicating and for finding information. It has become a new, often-used tool in their personal toolbox. Dan Bricklin —The Internet is Now a Dominant Tool for Regular People Similar:We Need to Talk about the Burgeoning Robot…
Large collection of links to the World Trace Center tributes that have sprung up after the towers came down. —www.derrickito.com Similar:Feature: History Lesson: the treasured past of LucasArts point and clicksI played more of the Sierra point-and-c…CultureNASA astronaut: Russians were ‘blindsided’ by reaction to yellow suitsI posted a while back about the yellow a…AestheticsMicrosoft lays…
“Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don’t think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake. Our neighbours have faced it alone and I am one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them kicked around.” Gordon Sinclair, 1973 —The Americans Similar:Encyclopedia…