“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:In May, 2002, I was blogging about… typefaces in period movies; poets Paul Dirac…
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:Photos inspired by Wuthering HeightsA photographer blogged about taking phot…AestheticsU Michigan's North Quad Complex: A…
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:Princess of…
“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:What's a namber? (archived)Update, December 2024: Sadly, the “what’…CybercultureSeriously, Fuck You, "Kindle Unlimited"I’m just quoting the f-bomb…
He taught ethics classes in California! LA Times —Law School Dean Fired for Plagiarism Similar:Physician: "My career of treating patients has ended"Very painful Reddit thread. CultureRobot wars: 100 years on, it's time to reboot Karel Čapek's RURI was honored to play Alquist in Artisti…BooksDid you share Russian fake news? Facebook, apparently unable to insert items…
“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 State Of Media EmploymentThis is why I require my “new media jour…BusinessWhy are sports in trouble in the U.S.? Because we didn’t…
“[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:11 Problems to Anticipate Before Your Next Website RedesignI’m building a new site for a non-profit…BusinessGIFs, memes and liveblogs: The controversial…
“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:Unearthing a Long Ignored African Writing System, One Researcher Finds African History,…
“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:Fantasticks (Theatre Factory, Oct 18-27) AestheticsJimmy Maher's Appreciation of Infocom's Classic Sherlock Text AdventureI learned a lot while reading this enjoy…BusinessPast Tense, Part 1 (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 3,…
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:We Got A Look Inside The 45-Day Planning Process That Goes Into Creating A Single Corporat…The professionals don’t always spend 45 …BusinessIan Bogost Has…
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:PICT PROUD: PICT actress Carolyn Jerz takes on Viola in Shakespeare’s Twelfth NightPICT PROUD: She’s appeared on our stage…Culture"Dammit Mom, I'm a daughter, not a theoretician!"”Dammit Mom, I’m a daughter, not…
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:Seton Hill's #CIO @PhilKomarny is…
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:On the Hatred of LiteratureGoing back to Plato—perhaps the…
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:Poetry Out Loud…
(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:Essential Journalists: How…
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:The Myth of the Unemployed Humanities MajorStudents who work their way up to leader…AcademiaAmusing Reference…
“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:Fun and Games with Samuel Beckett and Pict.Beckett’s masterpiece Waiting For Godot …CultureI love my students enough to teach them the difference…
“Author Jessica Kingley expressed regret Monday that she had ‘pretty much used up all the hardship‘ from her early life in her recent first novel Bitter Root, leaving her nothing to write about for her follow-up book.” The Onion Similar:Anonymous comment cards from student journalists at the end of the second week. These folks are…
That said, we’ve decided to acknowledge our very favorite Web sites—five each in 10 subject areas—with the Scientific American.com Sci/Tech Web Award. It is an eclectic mix—from the practical to the academic to the downright silly. Among this year’s winners are sites that decode computer acronyms, explain group theory, unravel the genome, track chemistry in…