Imagine yourself creating a game with a world for other people to inhabit on your own computer. It is a world without sounds or visuals. Now, put yourself into the textual world and imagine yourself in that world and living through the game. Laura L. Hogue —Text-based computer game lets players interact with story. Similar:Student:…
The point is not that we should add stories to our sites to ensnare narrative-starved readers. The point is that the reader’s journey through our site is a narrative experience. Our job is to make the narrative satisfying. Mark Bernstein —The Narrative Web Similar:We're Teaching Books That Don't Stack UpOur provost sent this link to…
“Roget’s Thesaurus… should be roundly condemned as a crucial part of the engine work that has transported us to our current state of linguistic and intellectual mediocrity. Simon Winchester What’s another word for “thesaurus”? Similar:The College Fear FactorWhat happens in a literature discussion …AcademiaAncient Sea Rise Tale Told Accurately for 10,000 Years”It’s quite gobsmacking to…
Look for an “escape from frames” or “turn this frame off” link. Right-click on a link (or, on a Mac, hold down the control key while clicking) and select the command that will let you “open link in new window.” —Frames: Finding the URL of a Framed Document Similar:Paleo-Future: robotsThis is from the robots category…
“Writers, pause and think what your purpose is. Sure, you have to earn a living, but does it disgust you to write over-simplified articles that tell a partial truth, or even worse, lie, because your editor and publisher won’t buy anything with more depth. Does it frustrate you that readers know you’re lying, and seek…
Why computer games sacrifice story for graphics: “Often great graphics can enhance a game, but just as often, graphical emphasis — whether in a game or the review thereof — is a result of developers and journalists taking the easy way out. When that happens, we all lose, especially as long as game publishers think…
What do The Iliad, Beowulf and Hamlet have that Doom, Quake, and Tomb Raider don’t? After all, each involves bloodshed, revenge and people armed with nasty weapons running amok. USA Today Similar:'Robot Journalist' Out-Writes Human Sports ReporterSports journalism is full of colorful fi…GamesJournalists Verify ClaimsConfirm what your sources tell you. Fact…CultureComputer grading will destroy our…
The fantastic and faith-filled works of C.S. Lewis will be re-issued by HarperCollins. Similar:Sweaters from Rover?From Awful Library Books. For more schad…BooksInterface (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 7, Episode 3) LaForge, using experimental augmen…Rewatching ST:TNG The cold open featu…AmusingFamily ( #StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season Four, Episode 2) Picard Retreats to Family Vineyar…Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year…
“We put up the instructions on the booths,” said Don Hersey, Putnam County’s supervisor of elections. “We tell them, `Fill in the ovals. A check or an X may not work.’ But that’s the problem we’re having — some people just don’t follow instructions.” —3% of Floridians spoiled their votes in Election 2000 Similar:Digital literacy…
“[P]rofessors who give easy grades gain just a fleeting popularity, salted with disdain. In later life, students will forget those professors; they will remember the ones who posed a challenge.” Harvey C. Mansfield (Mansfield has been criticized for bringing race into the grading equation) —Grade Inflation: It’s Time to Face the Facts Similar:What if Generative…
You be the judge… is this plagiarism? [ Jerz handout | UCSB handout ] [Note: at first, the UCSB website did not mention my name anywhere, though it did provide a link to the original source.] Similar:Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class. Twelfth-grade reading scores are a…BooksBeautiful, meditative video shows how…
John Lennon Artificial Intelligence Project: Hey, this is John speaking…Who’re you? [Enter your first name below] > Dennis Nice to meet you Dennis > What do you think of computers? If you could have any kind of pet what would it be? > A walrus? Go on. > I am the eggman! What does it…
“Cases of badly translated English text in Asia remain quite common. Movies, signs, menus, ads, clothing – and now Web sites as well – harbor myriad examples of funny, cute, or just bizarre translations into English. Native English speakers tend to make light of such sightings, but this seems unfair…” Asia Internet Report —All Your…
Browsing through the shelves is one of the great joys of visiting the library. But when the shelves get too tall and threaten to take away precious study space, books are relegated to warehouses, sold, given away, or worse — retired to the circular file… Katie Dean —Library Card Catalog, R.I.P. Similar:PLS York Plays 2025…
A study of just four users of the Bowling Green State University website finds “that parents received the message better than students, regardless of professed ability to use the computer, both students and parents have trouble finding the sections intended to carry their messages, even when directed to the areas intended to carry their messages,…
Despite the ever-ballooning size of the World Wide Web, which some experts claim is on the order of 550 billion Web pages, much of the most interesting and valuable content remains hard to find. The best search engines, such as Google or AltaVista catalog about 1.4 billion Web pages, or less than 1 percent, barely…
It isn’t as if we have yet lost all awareness of the social significance of modes of address, though that day might yet come. For the moment, people are still aware of the differences between calling someone “Bill” or “Jones” or “Mr Jones”. Theodore Dalyrmple. —Please don’t call me Theo Note: I once worked at…
“There are three gigabytes of e-mail stretching back to 1983, another gigabyte of articles, letters and papers that I’ve written, and one more gigabyte of programs that I’ve coded, photographs I’ve taken, financial records and electronic keepsakes. Every time I get a new computer, I painstakingly copy this data from one machine to the next.” …
“Do [computer] animators’ abilities to make their creations more lifelike actually detract from the spirit of animation? It depends on who you talk to.” Wired. —Every Pixel Tells a Story Similar:Teaching with iPads: Motivation, Inspiration and Alienation in the AppleverseHere are the slides for the half-day wor…AcademiaAdventure | T.M. CampGreat story of nerdiness and discovery…
held the most important religious office in Sumer — high priestess at Ur; she is also being credited as the world’s first known author, writing only 300 years after written language developed in what is now Iraq. [Why it took a California psychoanalyst to translate her 4,000-year-old poetry is unexplained by the article, but it…