Human Pain
I've been watching Battlestar Galatica on DVD. One of the roles of science fiction, I think, is to raise controversial issues, to help us understand what it means to be…
Patrick Swayze
At 8:05 tonight, the AP announced that Patrick Swayze had died. By 8:25, my Aunt Ava had posted a FB status update that he had died of pancreatic cancer. Within minutes…
Playing With Swine Flu
Everyone seems to be talking about and planning for the H1N1 virus these days. My university, for example, sent out a memo to encourage us to plan for extended absences due…
Summer Play
As I've mentioned before, I'm chairing a panel at NeMLA in April about using Web 2.0 technologies to play. Because of this panel, I've spent much of my summer playing…
Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Radical Medical Technology
Unless you have been on an island somewhere lately, you probably know that Eunice Kennedy Shriver has been hospitalized for the past few days and died this morning at age…
Recognizing Patterns for NetFlix
My area of research when I was in computer science was artificial intelligence. AI is a broad field with many subfields, each of which has many applications. Within AI, I was…
New Kindle Developments
I was talking to my dad tonight about the Kindle. He's a fan and wants one, but feels as though he doesn't read enough to justify the expense. I've written about…
Board Games ‘R Us
A friend of mine recently posted a list of board games that she had as a kid (and wished she had never gotten rid of). She had quite an interesting…
Experiments in Online Education
Ian Schreiber, co-author of Challenges for Game Designers, is undertaking an interesting experiment in online education this summer. He is offering an online course called Game Design Concepts via Web…
The Decision Engine
I've seen a couple of commercials on TV for Microsoft's newest product, Bing. Microsoft claims that Bing is a "decision engine." What exactly is a "decision engine"? According to a press release from…
Travesty of Justice
The Supreme Court yesterday ruled in a case from Alaska that the state does not have to provide physical evidence (which the state still has) to a man who has been in…
Changing Medical Technology
I just finished reading My Lobotomy by Howard Dully and Charles Fleming. Howard Dully received a transorbital lobotomy (also known as an "ice-pick lobotomy") when he was 12 years old. The…
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…
