In the selling of the Mac/Intel convergence, why is it necessary to insult Windows-based machines and their users? Because it’s fun? Technically, it may be an interesting move and will open the choices, but the campaign soils.
Category Archives: New Media
WordPress and Modularity
The design note post below is really about the notion of modularity and connections in new media. A sequence is, of course, a kind of module where A may lead to B or to A.2 if A and B are cogent enough. At Spinning, Susan Gibb is weaving in a circle of modular elements (I’m using modular here to make a point about connections: can’t have a module as a thing to itself), ranging from current pubs to Boethius, as new as anything else to a reader unfamiliar with Theodoric and the Ostrogoths. I persist in the idea that age is illusion in the practical and everyday. This post could turn into one about reading. Reading is also on my mind since at Sixnut we’ll be talking a lot about it over the coming years. At Spinning, there’s a connection between Boethius and Tom Bisell.
Reading as connection, often having nothing to do with books and sentences, but with links, sauces, and dust bunnies.
Collaborative Fiction
Nick Montfort alerts us to Francis Hwang’s call for fiction writers. See point-to here. Perhaps my friend Jason would be interested.
Site Revamp
John Timmons has revamped his Five Fingers weblog into the WordPress 2.0 range.
For future: I shall be reorganizing the sidebars into further categories. In addition, a few changes will be made to the BL2 course to include Byron’s Manfred and some Jane Austin.
Gallery Practice
Testing Dave Waller’s photo gallery plugin.
Adobe Achievement
From the Adobe pressroom
Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced its call for entries to the sixth annual Adobe Design Achievement Awards. The premier student design competition recognizes the world’s most talented and promising student graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, digital filmmakers and computer artists from the top design, film, and broadcast institutions. This year’s competition will extend the program’s scope to 24 participating countries.
“The Adobe Design Achievement Awards celebrates student creativity and reinforces Adobe’s continued commitment to design education,” said Melissa Dyrdahl, senior vice president of corporate marketing and communications at Adobe. “It is truly inspiring to see how this event dissolves boundaries between cultures and unleashes great talents through the convergence of technology and creative arts.”
For the first time, students in Belgium, China, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, and Taiwan will join their counterparts from Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Switzerland, the United States and the United Kingdom in submitting projects in nine categories. This year’s categories include live action, motion graphics, environmental graphics/packaging, print multi-page, print single page, animation, digital illustration, digital photography and interactive design (includes website, user-interface, curriculum, and kiosk design), enabling students across various disciplines to compete.
Poetics
Yes, short punchy linky posts. Here’s another: Kenneth Newby informs the empyre listserv that Computational Poetics is back up and running.
Games and Time
Will Wright on games, time, and chaotic systems. Very much worth a look and listen. In his talk, he touches on lots of elements that go to spatial qualities of game spaces. This semester we’ll be talking a lot about systems, chaos, space and time.
Weblogs and Teaching
This weblog has been running for two years and its seen a few permutations. I think it’s an excellent thing, the weblog. With the weblog comes the habit of writing and reading in this space, making links, reading off into the hyperzones of the web. This habit is important. It seems to me that people choose to take part and are doing so, and this habit or virtue can quickly become a necessity. Writing and reading.
But this habit is also the weblog’s greatest weakness as a teaching tool. When I introduced my wife to the weblog after buying her a laptop happy with wifi, she quickly took up the habit and now reads them regularly. The habit, however, can’t be forced, and the inclination to open people to the possibilities won’t necessarily lead to anything profitable if the habit conflicts with others.
bbpress and tags
Excellently put by Jim Revillini
there’s no doubt about that – tagging is a novel approach to information organization. it’s one of the best systems that the web has adopted and until something better comes along, information systems should make use of it.
. . .
vista’s structure is rigid and hermetically sealed in a proprietary JSP/java applet world. it will die once enough educators rally around the fact that you can’t teach every single course the same way online. the membranes of structure need to be breathable and stretchy – in technology terms: extensible.
vista HAS NO METHOD for organizing ideas. you are right, you could create a better education environment with bbpress and a little training. i think mediawiki might even be a more suitable learning environment, although i’m not sure if there is a tagging extension for it yet. if not, it’s GOT to be in the works.