A longtime technology critic has fashioned a prototype of a device that he says could do away with traditional colleges and teachers, replacing them with knowledge-dispensing terminals that look like A.T.M.’s. Jeffrey R. Young —Behold the “Automatic Professor Machine” Similar:Video Game about Cancer and GriefOn my list for the next time I teach “Vi…AestheticsThere are…
The Navy is providing handheld computers to almost all of its new officers and giving them to graduates of the Naval Academy and other naval programs. CNN.com Similar:Peter Sallis: Wallace and Gromit actor dies aged 96 The voice of Wallace has died. The si…CultureWhy fake news worksFake news works on our emotions, usually…CybercultureApple threatens to remove…
More proof that the apocalypse is nigh: “Typing of the Dead” is a typing tutorial that also just so happens to be 3-D computerized gorefest. GamesDoman review of Typing of the Dead. Similar:One Child, One Laptop … And Mixed Results In PeruBecause you couldn’t go online, everythi…CybercultureNortheast braces for temps near boiling point – Yahoo!…
(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:The hidden billion-dollar cost of repeated police misconductThe story notes that…
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:NASA has flown a drone on Mars. A tiny robot. A flying robot. On. Another. Planet. NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Succe…AwesomeWoodward dismisses CNN's lawsuit against the White…
“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:Robot Dramas: Autonomous Machines in the Limelight on…
“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:At Home In Fantasy's Nerd-Built WorldsIn other words, more than the profound l…AestheticsRemember That Class Assignment I Hated? The One…
“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:Microsoft “lobotomized” AI-powered Bing Chat, and its fans aren’t happyMicrosoft limits long conversations to a…Current_EventsAir miles be damned. I say the best way to find out…
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:How Common Core Testing Damaged High School English ClassesHelping my students understand how my ro…AcademiaGoogle responds to streaming report with shruggie GIFThe Daily Dot proceeded to shrug the…
“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:This is what an "umm" looks likeThis image, of the audio waveform from a…MediaIn Pittsburgh, science gets playfulImagine: sharing a secret with a friend …AestheticsRemember That Class Assignment…
A blurb is a short paragraph that previews what’s on the other end of a link. You’re reading a blurb now. If it helps you decide whether you should click the link, then it has done its job. Dennis G. Jerz —Blurbs: How to write them for your web pages Similar:The 22 rules of storytelling,…
may be crappy, but its CEO claims to have patented the search engine. Kieren McCarthy.AltaVista Similar:Who cares about hyphens, commas and capital letters? You should.You’re a busy editor, fighting a deadlin…Books The Expensive Education of Mark Zuckerberg and Silicon Valley Because what he never managed to grok …BusinessClassroom Vignette: MLA StyleStudent (shouldering backpack and headin…AcademiaMy students…
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:At Computers and Writing #cwcon for the weekend.Am I wise now? At an event for encouragi…AcademiaCan't upload photos to Facebook from my MacBookI spent 30 minutes trying to…
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…
“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:Nellie Bly statue to be unveiled at Pittsburgh airport ThursdayIn…
Fascinating account of DirectTV’s war against hackers. Slashdot. Similar:Infrared photo confirms Munch wrote "madman" inscription first noticed in 1904“Kan kun være malet af en gal Mand!” (“C…AestheticsThe LA Times deletes tweets that used passive voice, as details emerged about police killi… Several journalist-involved tweet dele…Current_EventsOregon Trail: How three Minnesotans forged its pathRawitsch, a lanky, bespectacled 21-year-…CultureAt…
, 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:Slash: Not Just a Punctuation Mark AnymoreI will have to watch for these uses of “…AcademiaTrump communications director Murtaugh rallies supporters by tweeting fake…
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…
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:Anonymous comment cards from student journalists at the end of the second week. These folks are amazing! It’s such a…AcademiaFive myths about daylight saving timeNo, Daylight Saving Time…
“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:Enjoyed watching the restored version of the hugely influential 1927 sci-fi movie #Metropo…Enjoyed watching the restored version of…AestheticsJuly 7, 1936: Get a Grip…