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:The Best Way to Start an Academic PaperBoth of the following writing samples de…AcademiaThe Story of Rolf and the…
“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:Appreciating the production values and so-stupid-it-might-be-brilliant comedy in Avatar: T…The…
“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:The Random Pulp Science Fiction Title Generator from Cornelius Zappencackler's DERANGE-O-L…From Thrilling Tales (where…
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:I just found an abandoned blog draft, dated 2011, on economics in early computer games.…
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:Wet Book…
“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:In August, 2001 I was blogging about… Broken Links and Poor Information Ar…AestheticsThey grew up in a…
He taught ethics classes in California! LA Times —Law School Dean Fired for Plagiarism Similar:Term grades submitted. Homeschool son graduated. Time to breathe.AcademiaTwitter is testing a tool for reporting fake & offensive contentIt’s risky to get your news from a socia…Current_EventsI'm no longer surprised, but still want to document.This is really noteworthy. Today the Pre…Current_EventsSeton…
“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:Timeline of Donald J. Trump's Statements on Coronavirus OutbreakCultureSeton Hill Virtual Commencement Fall 2020 AcademiaTroy Sterling and the Active and Passive VerbsJerz > Writing…
“[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:Three-dimenstional PrintersA new generation of three-dimensional pr…DesignDetailed Articulation of Feet in Unity3DI’m following a lot of tutorials, and co…AestheticsSummer Project: Responsive…
“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:Me waiting for students to drop by during office hours. AcademiaWhy Were…
“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:Could We Just Lose the Adverb (Already)?I can’t really get myself that worked up…CultureI'm really enjoying seeing how my students are responding to Hamlet.As part of a class assignment,…
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 don’t need more STEM majors. We need more STEM majors with liberal arts training.A chemist celebrates the liberal arts. …AcademiaNorth Sea cod: Is…
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:Storage Wars Sued By Its Star; Show Is Faked And Execs Were Confronted By Cast, Court Pape…”Reality TV” star is shocked — shocked …AmusingWhy I Resist Web Redesigns (And Maybe You…
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:The Best Halloween Costume 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:The false link between Amy Coney Barrett and 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:When is the…
(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:U.S. Public Wary…
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:Woman Yelling at Cat About Academic Argument: an evidence-based defense of a non-obvious p…See: Academic…
“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:PrimeStage's 1984: "It was very true to the book," says Peter.Five of us went to see PrimeStage’s 1984…BooksDid you see that guy’s…