Recycling
If you're anything like me, you probably have a couple of old, unused computers lying around your house gathering dust. In my house, we had six computers until recently, two…
Security Theater
Nothing captures the public's attention like a named killer. Jack the Ripper. The Boston Strangler. Son of Sam. Zodiac. The Night Stalker. The Green River Killer. Last month, a new…
NeMLA 2010
There have been quite a few stories that have captured my attention in the nearly six month break that I've taken from writing entries in this blog. I will be…
Failed Predictions
Predicting the future is a notoriously difficult endeavor and yet there is never a shortage of people willing to play the game, especially at the end of a year. Many…
FaceBook: A Hotel California?
Robin forwarded an article called How Sticky Is Membership on FaceBook? Just Try Breaking Free from the New York Times. Of course, because I'm completely addicted to FaceBook, my first…
Mob Wars
I have recently been playing Mob Wars on FB. I started because Ann and Liz both invited me to be part of their mobs. I nearly stopped playing after Thanksgiving…
Missing in Action
Clearly, I have been missing in action. The only thing I have to say about that is that my real life (as opposed to this, online, unreal life) has been…
Isn’t It Ironic?
The MediaShift blog on PBS's web site (written by Mark Glaser and which I highly recommend) recently reported an interesting story about the experience one of its interns had in…
Parking Wars
Earlier this month, I was out for drinks with colleagues. Most of us are friends on FaceBook as well as in real life. A new colleague, Marylena, mentioned that one…
Digital Rights Management
Back in the late 1980's, I worked as a volunteer on a running race. Because I had a background in computer science, one of my tasks was to set up…
Fringe
I am watching a new show on Fox tonight. It is called Fringe and it's from JJ Abrams, the guy who developed Lost which is one of my favorite shows of all time. …
We ARE Telling Stories
As I suggested in a previous post I don't understand why FaceBook calls each status update a story. I said that if we were to consider each update a plot…
AcademHack
My last post about my frustration with our faculty day speaker prompted some interesting discussion, with several people sharing their own, similar frustrations. So I thought I'd see if I…
How Not to Do Educational Technology
At the start of each academic year, my university hires a speaker to address the full faculty, presumably to inspire us to take on new challenges. Like most universities, mine…
Hamlet (The FaceBook News Feed Edition)
FaceBook is changing how we view and think about many aspects of our lives, including literature. As an example (from McSweeney's), here is Sarah Schmelling's version of Hamlet, written in…
Honorarium
More proof of Ian Bogost's brilliance comes in the form of an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education. It describes his new game Honorarium.
Technology, Sports and Cheating
A lot of the Olympics news coverage has focused on the fact that so many swimmers set world records in their events, partly because of advances in swimsuit technology. Speedo's…
You Can’t Always Believe Your Eyes
In yet another step toward hyperreality, it has been revealed that the opening ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics were (partially) faked. If you watched the spectacle on television, you were…
FaceBook Revisited
In honor of the recent release of the remake of Brideshead Revisited, I thought it might be interesting to revisit FaceBook. I've been using FaceBook for nearly a month now…
We’re Not Telling Stories
One of the aspects of game analysis that my students struggle with has to do with the dramatic elements of a game. According to the text that I use in…
