Latest on Napster

(See also: Digital Hollywood- No Resolution) —Latest on Napster Update, Feb 27, 2021 The above links are dead, but here’s a screenshot of what the Yahoo News “Technology Full Coverage” section looked like on February 23, 2001.  (Courtesy the invaluable Internet Archive Wayback Machine) Similar:Dozens of Colleges’ Upward Bound Applications Are Denied for Failing to…

Digital Copyright Reading List

Copyright: Your Right or Theirs? In Defense of Copyleft Timeline- A History of Copyright in the U.S. SUL- Copyright & Fair Use- Copyright FAQ Digital Copyright Reading List Similar:Non-Euclidean Doom, where the value of pi is not 3.14159Weirdly beautiful. Wonderful bit of game…CybercultureLocal TV News Stations Present Amazon PR Video as JournalismAbout a dozen local…

Electron Band Structure In Germanium, My Ass

“Now, let’s look a bit more closely at this data, remembering that it is absolutely first-rate. Do you see the exponential dependence? I sure don’t. I see a bunch of crap.” Undergraduate physics student Lucas Kovar reconsiders his career choice. —Electron Band Structure In Germanium, My Ass Similar:One in a Billion: email tips – Google…

Marjorie Garber’s Academic Instincts

“Amateur and professional are mutually interconnected. Amateurs are sometimes professionals; professionals are sometimes amateurs. Moreover — brace yourself — history exists.” Marjorie Garber‘s Academic Instincts blows kisses at the literary establishment. Review by Russell Jacoby. Similar:Stapler jam during a midterm exam.My years of watching MacGyver definitely…AcademiaPresident JoAnne Boyle Announces Plans to Retire from Seton Hill…

Victor Borge’s “inflationary language”

“Twice upon a time there lived a boy named Jack in the twoderful land of Califivenia.” Read a sample of the late comedian Victor Borge’s inflationary language. Richard Lederer. Similar:What’s Wrong With Being From the South? Just Ask an Academic in the NorthAs an American studying in Toronto durin…AcademiaIndustriousness. Self-improvement. Thrift. And orange slime. The…

Nearly 20 years after giving up on it, a grown man finds a walkthrough for the classic text game, “Savage Island.”

Nearly 20 years after giving up on it, a grown man finds a walkthrough for the classic text game, “Savage Island.” James Lileks revels in computer nostalgia.  Similar:From The 'London Times' of 1904A Mark Twain short story, written in 189…CybercultureSam Shepard Giggles, Doesn't GoogleI wrote my undergraduate honors thesis o…CybercultureAfter 10 Years of Blogs, the…

Are Users Stupid?

“Typically, when project managers observe their design undergoing a usability test, their initial reaction is: Where did you find such stupid users? Jakob Nielsen —Are Users Stupid? Similar:We Need to Talk about the Burgeoning Robot Middle ClassMaybe it’s not the super-robots we need …BusinessHabits for happiness: tips for looking on the bright side of lifeHabits…

AltaVista

may be crappy, but its CEO claims to have patented the search engine. Kieren McCarthy.AltaVista Similar:Younger Americans and Public LibrariesMillennials are quite similar to their e…BooksVideo Tips for Students: Don't do what I'm doing!  You can't see my eyes, the background i…You might have been asked to submit a sh…AcademiaWhat have my students learned about…

Sharing news articles via email: compulsive metacontent

One example of metacontent: “People often pass around news articles via e-mail. Some even do it compulsively, in part because it’s so easy…” NY Times (registration required) Similar:Designing Cabinets in Blender3D — ExperimentsI designed these simple 3D cabinets in B…CybercultureWhat Is Life Like For an Amazon Worker?You dont actually get hired by Amazon. A…BooksWhat if…

Once again, The Onion gets it right: Clinton Not Expecting To Collect White House Security Deposit

Once again, The Onion gets it right. Clinton Not Expecting To Collect White House Security Deposit Surveying the White House’s walls and bathroom fixtures in preparation for move-out, President Clinton said Monday that he expects to forfeit his security deposit. “It’s just not worth it,” Clinton said. “I’d rather lose the $575 than have to…

Who Killed George Washington?

“Once we accept something as ‘good,’ we often persist in doing it even when the result is clearly bad, while telling ourselves that we just haven’t done enough of it. We are subject to a defect of reason…” Dave Kopel —Who Killed George Washington? (National Review) Similar:Carolyn at about 7yo drew Titania in love with Bottom.…

DirectTV’s war against hackers

Fascinating account of DirectTV’s war against hackers. Slashdot. Similar:Evolution of Gambling: Pay by Phone CasinoWhat will we use our phones for next?&nb…BusinessWhy We Dug AtariGame collectors have their story, too. F…CybercultureDo television and electronic games predict children’s psychosocial adjustment?Wow… what a drab, unquoteworthy, unsou…AcademiaYour verbs have been lost and will be invisible until sentence author…

Allen L. Sack

, a Notre Dame football player in the ’60s, argues that “The gap between college sports and the fundamental mission of higher education has widened significantly since that time.” Allen L. Sack Similar:Death to high school English”There’s such an emphasis on keeping stu…AcademiaA serious summer activity.Once classes start again, we will all ha…CultureFBI: 'Exercise Caution and…

Healing the Web

The lessons I learned in just over an hour showed me how poor most Websites are and just how easy it would be for companies to perform their own usability tests to fix a lot of the problems.–David Lidsky, Healing the Web Update: Dec 2014. I originally blogged the above back in 2001. Lidsky’s brief article, written as the…

Writing Effective E-Mail

Top 10 Tips:  Write a meaningful subject line; keep the message short and readable; avoid attachments; identify yourself; don’t flame (and more). Jessica Bauer. —Writing Effective E-Mail Similar:A Beginner's Guide to HTML & CSSFiling this wonderful resource for the n…CybercultureBrilliant, Troubled Dorothy Parker by Robert GottliebIn 1915, Parker, aged twenty-two, went t…Culture“Your resume is not about…

Rethinking Internet news

“A new era of newspaper experiments on the Internet, fueled in part by the fear that the Web will not generate profits, has begun.” (NY Times… free registration required.) —Rethinking Internet news Similar:Snarky Error Message Comments on "the transience of linked information in the internet age…Arent you glad you didnt cite to this we…AmusingVanessa Otero's…

Monsters and dungeons and gender, oh my

“Fighting monsters and escaping from dungeons is a whole different world when you’re a woman. Men are oh-so-helpful when they’re not busy whistling at you.” Andy Patrizio cross-dresses as a half-naked elf babe. Wired.com Similar:Scrooge Is My BrotherMy daughter delivered the opening “Marle…CultureIn journalism, the speech is more important than any speaker. (Put newsworthy quotes…

Filter THIS!

The American Library Association is none too pleased with a new federal law requiring Web filters in public schools and libraries, and has decided to sue. ZDNet —Filter THIS! Similar:The belief that if people only were better educated, they'd engage  A few hours after the horrifyi…AcademiaHalloween Candy Poisonings, School Shootings and Human Psychology What can…

The ultimate snack-chip adjective

“As any snack aficionado knows, crunch-tastic is the ultimate snack-chip adjective, outranking crunch-riffic, crunch-rageous, and even crunch-mongous.” The Onion. Similar:Things may be awful, but at least an invasive species of spider the size of a child's hand…AmusingWhy I Was Wrong About Liberal-Arts MajorsIt’s a little bit shallow and solipsisti…AcademiaEssay on meaning of a life grounded…