The author of the first commercial computer game (“Adventureland,” 1978) leads a lively discussion on narrative, copyright, and violence. He also describes his first night playing EverQuest. UWEC English Festival. —Scott Adams: Storytelling in Computer Games Similar:Hemingway: The First Draft of Anything… Facebook.Amusing“I don’t know how that Jerz guy thinks he’s going to procure an…
“It won’t be a large book, but you can write a small book and get acquainted with the basics of how to write a book.” [But see this discussion thread: “Theory: Write a web-book in a day“] —How To Write a Book in 10 Days Similar:How not to attract women to coding: Make tech pinkJust…
“Without links, you might as well pile all the billions of documents on the Web into one huge container. Link management is therefore an important part of running a Web site.” Gerry McGovern, ClickZ —Broken Links and Poor Information Architecture Design Similar:Multimodal Composition: Every time a student submits a narrated PowerPoint, a puppy cries.AcademiaEpilogue to…
Helvetica Bold Oblique was the big winner at Tuesday’s 73rd Annual Fonty Awards, taking home 11 statues, including those for Best Sans Serif and the highly coveted 2001 Best Font prize. Satire from The Onion —Helvetica Bold Oblique Sweeps Fontys Similar:In March 2000, I was blogging about Palm V computers for the Navy, NCAA banning…
Dimitri Sklyarov is an unlikely poster boy for American freedom. The Russian programmer was arrested after he spoke at the “Def-Con” hacker convention in Las Vegas about a program, offered for sale by his employer Elcomsoft, which cracks the encryption in Adobe’s e-book software. The Irish Times —Confusion Over Free Speech and Copyright Similar:Google responds…
“While the lack of interest in buying electronic books may baffle some big publishers, the tepid demand comes as no surprise to some bibliophiles.” NY Times (requires free registration) —Forecasts of an E-Book Era Were, It Seems, Premature Similar:TARDIS from today's 3D printing class.AestheticsWill ChatGPT Kill the Student Essay? Universities Aren’t Ready for the Answer…
He taught ethics classes in California! LA Times —Law School Dean Fired for Plagiarism Similar:In an Unpredictable Job Market, How Should People Think About College Majors?I tell my students that if what they wan…AcademiaHomage to PoeMichael Dirda offers a thoughtful assess…BooksUniversity disavows chocolate milk, concussions studyThe University of Maryland on Friday dis…AcademiaHow To Get Students…
“Handwriting is a basic skill that serves us all our lives. Unfortunately, a problem that primarily affects boys is rarely on anyone’s list of educational priorities.” Christina Hoff Summers —The Write Stuff Similar:The Dog and the Oyster (Aesop Fable)I always enjoy my visits to the studio. …SpeechTales from the Antiquities Theft Task ForceA shot of Kim…
“[O]nce you have observed that the other is typically portrayed as lazy, dirty, stupid, crafty, womanly, passive, rebellious, sexually rapacious, childlike, enigmatic and a number of other mutually contradictory epithets, it is hard to know what to do next apart from reaching for yet another textual illustration of the fact.” London Review of Books —The…
Too much information? “[T] this weed in our informational landscape has just sprouted–it is only about 50 years old. Up until then, more information was almost always a good thing.” David Shenk —Data Smog Similar:I touched up an intro to hypertext essays from 2000.When I initially wrote this introduction…CybercultureNASA's Perseverance lander brought some Easter eggs…
“Log onto almost any college Web site and you’ll see the same beautiful students talking about their beautiful campuses and how much they learn. But there are no numbers, no studies, no objective measurements.” —Wash. Monthly —What Do the US News Rankings Measure? Similar:Lining up for Honors Convocation 2016. #setonhillAcademiaTraditional Reporters and Data-driven Analysts Both…
“Hey, all you crafty, capable women wearing chunky, horn-rimmed glasses (this year) and doing your brainy chick thing…” Hank Stuever, Wash. Post —Velma Rules — Jinkies! Similar:Play-Doh was Originally Wallpaper CleanerThe story of Play-Doh began when Kutol, …BusinessThesis Critique Activity: Another Use of a Class-edited Google DocA few weeks ago, I had students in my…
Failed to Practise What It Preached The magazine that chronicled the excesses of the dot.com revolution did not spot the extravagances that led to its own downfall. Mark Tran —Industry Standard Similar:NASA! Mars!! Panorama!!! Video!!!! Audio!!!!!New video from NASA’s Mars 2020 Persever…AwesomeJeff Bezos Plan for News: The Washington Post Becomes an Amazon ProductFor the past…
Include Your Children when Baking Cookies New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half —Real Headlines Similar:Terms of ServiceFascinating example of new media journal…AestheticsSenior Tech #1: How To Master TextingIt’s funny because it’s true. http://…AmusingJust wrote the first ending to my in-progress journalism game (created in Twine)3,486…
Despite the technological hoopla, nobody’s paying attention to e-books but the courts. “Digitizing the printed page has put the very nature of books up for grabs, unleashing heated battles among writers, readers, librarians and technologists over who should control electronic books.” Chicago Tribune —E-Books Solving a Problem Consumers Don’t Have. Similar:Westmoreland County Air Show 2012…
Not-Work: “CNN acts like they’re the network of record in Millennial America, just because of their award-winning Gulf War coverage. That was so 10 years ago, and people only watched because there was no MSNBC back then.” The Onion —CNN Should be Named the Crappy News Similar:Where is the comma in "God Rest Ye Merry,…
At first, Huck Finn said “as if” instead of “like,” “wasn’t” and not “warn’t,” and described a night sky “sprinkled”–not “speckled”–with stars. A new edition of the American classic traces Mark Twain’s efforts to refine the speech of his most famous character. LA Times —A New Read on Huck Finn’s Distinctive Voice Similar:Edward Gorey illustrates…
(Watch them instead.) “Create a few alternative designs, show them to a group of users, and ask which one they prefer. Wrong. If the users have not actually tried to use the designs, they’ll base their comments on surface features.” Jakob Nielsen —First Rule of Usability? Don’t Listen to Your Readers. Similar:The First Programmer…
At a graveyard near where Beatrix Potter (author of the “Peter Rabbit” stories) spent her youth: “Names on headstones included Mr Nutkin, Mr McGregor, Jeremiah Fisher, Tommy Brock – and even a Peter Rabbett.” BBC —But what about Jemima Puddle-Duck? Similar:Charlie and the Chocolate Factory / Willy Wonka Lesson Plans Through our local theater school,…
“A modern language changes when we change it, and the metaphor that makes it autonomous only obscures our real task, which is to consider just how and why we change it.” Mark Halpern Similar:Part of my daily routine is practicing German for about 15m per day. With no particular pr…EducationYou know the Arsène Lupin story…