The anthrax scare will likely encourage greater use of e-mail. “If you’re connected to the Internet—and, duh, you wouldn’t be reading this if you weren’t—probably your e-mail-to-snail-mail ratio overwhelmingly favors the former.” Steven Levy —The End of Snail Mail? (MSNBC.com) Similar:Rip Van WinkleCertain it is, that he was a great favor…AcademiaPlagiarism Today Plagiarized in a…
“Traditionally, each company has had to design and implement all of the services it wanted to offer its website users. This approach leads to incredible waste, unprofitable websites, and lowered usability…” [Jakob Nielsen is talking about e-commerce, not personal home pages.] —The End of Homemade Websites (UseIT.com) Similar:Letter Grades Deserve an 'F'In a points-based grade…
(satire from The Onion) “Have a long history of experience in the field you’re applying for and glowing recommendations. Either that, or print your résumé on really nice, heavyweight ivory paper.” —Job-Hunting Tips Similar:Academic Writing BluesTwo days ago my problem was that I had n…AcademiaThe Journey That Changed Geoffrey Chaucer’s LifeHis status as a deputy…
“The Apostrophe Protection Society was started in 2001 by John Richards, now its Chairman, with the specific aim of preserving the correct use of this currently much abused punctuation mark in all forms of text written in the English language.” —The Apostrophe Protection Society Similar:In "World Drama" I'm adding the absurd, optimistic "The Skin of…
There’s way too much information online. What really matters to readers is quality, not quantity. Gerry McGovern —The Need for Editors on the Web Similar:Liberal Arts Majors Are the Future of the Tech IndustryMy sister the computer programmer benefi…AcademiaMultitasking while studying: Divided attention and technological gadgets impair learning a…Fairly early in the semester, I can…
Metadata “collects critical information such as heading, summary, author name, date of publication, classification, keywords, etc…. Without metadata a document is left floating in a cyberspace filled with 550 billion other documents. The chances of it being found by the right person at the right time are greatly diminished.” Gerry McGovern —Why Metadata is Important…
“Coming very near the bottom of an official list of religions put out by the [U.K.] Statistics Office, Jedi Knight is known by the code 896. Heathen comes in at 897. Followed by Atheist at 898 and lastly None with 899.” Kieren McCarthy —Jedi Knights Achieve [Sort of] Official Recognition as Religion (The Register) Similar:Cardassians…
“[T]he Internet story has come to an end.” Reuters —Silicon Alley Reporter Magazine Closes (Wired) Similar:High Schooler's Fake Story of Stock Riches Fools New York Editors”If your mother says she loves you, chec…BusinessGames as Text and K12 Social Studies Rather than training students to ident…CultureApple’s new diverse emoji are even more problematic than beforeThis author…
“a cybernetic process whereby people in power deepen their dominance by using online communication to negotiate for the consent of the subjugated.” Mike Dorsher —Hegemony Online (UWEC) Similar:Why We’ll Never Live in SpaceAs much as I love escapist science ficti…BusinessAdam Savage’s 10 Commandments Of MakingAdam Savage took a few minutes today at …AestheticsPlaying video games…
“The Argument: A dying human being is like an automated spacecraft leaving the Solar System and entering interstellar space. Do we leave this world and arrive at another world?” Poetry by Jonathon Vos Post —Valedictory on Software Similar:In Ferguson, Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery gives account of his arrestComedian Robin Williams and actress Laur…CultureThe quest…
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:William Shatner: My Problem With Twitter's Verified AccountsAt age 84, William Shatner (most famous …CybercultureMuseum of Endangered SoundsImagine a world where we never again hea…Aesthetics"What Teachers…
(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:Stop trying to figure out if screentime is good for studentsPro-technology…
(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:"Daddy, I'm sick of your tears."”Daddy, I’m sick of your tears.” –my 11…CultureOrson Scott Card Builds an EmpireVideo games are a…
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:A Career-Aligned Major Isn’t EnoughI’ve taken over teaching the English dep…AcademiaI Don’t Know Why Everyone’s in Denial About College Students Who…
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:Pagers, Pay Phones, and Dialup: How We Communicated on 9/11For much of the day, those aboard Air Fo…Culture50 Years Ago: The World…
“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:Happy Easter 2020 CultureFacebook shrinks fake news after warnings backfireIn its efforts to combat the spread of f…BusinessStephen Greenblatt's The Swerve racked up…
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:If You Ever Find a Link to ThoughtCatalog, I'm…
“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:Teachers finding games give a leg up on learningThanks for the link, Dana. Experts sa…CultureGIFs, memes and…