Posts from — March 2007

Second Life Education Research » Blog Archive » Will Voice Chat make Second Life a more Cohesive Community?:

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No. but that does not really matter. the introduction of any new technology into an environment is always divisive, until there is enough momentum to encourage everyone to migrate to that… the real question is.. will voice enable or hinder activity and enjoyment in sl? which ones and why?

Eric’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Idea: steampunk star wars:
Inspired by this neat little project, I decided I wanted to reimagine the Star Wars universe in a steampunk context. I know, whenever anyone reimagines anything, they either make it a) adult and edgy (99%) or b) steampunk (1%), so I’m not getting any originality points, but it’s still a pretty exciting idea for me. Meaning I’ll be bored of it in a week and start drawing dogs wearing hats or something.

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cool

Dissertation Advice:
The point is: what are you trying to show?
The point is: what is your point?
If you can get that straight in your head, and put it up front
at the beginning of your document, you will be able to proceed in a straight
line.
You will know what things are essential, and what things are distractions
or detours.
You will know when to stop writing: when you have demonstrated your thesis.
If your thesis committee makes unreasonable demands of you, you will be
able to tell them:
“(a) My thesis, as stated, is a solid advancement of the field, and
(b) I have supported my thesis.
This is all I need to do to graduate;
your requests are above and beyond this threshold.
Cancel them and give me my degree.”

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my thesis is… more or less that software is policy. not that code is law, but that software interfaces are policy devices that control and normalize humanities interaction with machines and that these policy devices have a politics, which plays a part in the political economy of the internet as seen through the open source/free software tradition.

LiveScience.com – The Rich See What They Believe:
The Rich See What They BelieveBy Jeanna BrynerLiveScience Staff Writerposted: 28 February 200704:22 pm ET

People see
what they believe, not vice versa, when it comes to social injustice.

And this mind-altering trick of perception
keeps moral outrage at bay, especially among the rich, a new psychological
study suggests.

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it is not just the rich, everyone sees what they believe, umberto eco has a nice essay with evidence about seeing color through culture that demonstrates this quite well.

Francis Wheen | Top 10s | Guardian Unlimited Books:
2. The market is rationalFinancial sophisticates in the 21st century smile at the madness of the South Sea Bubble or the absurdity of the Dutch tulip craze. Yet only a few years ago they scrambled and jostled to buy shares in dotcom companies which had no earnings at all nor any prospect of ever turning a profit. To justify this apparent insanity, they maintained that such a revolutionary business as the internet required a new business model in which balance sheets were irrelevant. In short, they thought they had repealed the laws of financial gravity – until they came crashing down to earth.

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ahhh, modern delusions….

The Web’s Best Interface Design — Business Logs:
The Web’s Best Interface Design

The amount of new web applications, features, and companies sprouting up is just astounding, and while some like to characterize “Web 2.0″ design as involving lots of cliché diagonal lines and shadows it still takes a lot of skill to execute an attractive user interface. I’ve been checking out new sites and web applications for many months now and I’ve put together my list of the best interface design examples I’ve found. Some companies/sites on this list may not be as “Web 2.0″ as others (and I purposely chose not to includes sites based on design or design firms) but they still deserve the same recognition.

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some of these are pretty good, some could use some improvement… but… for what they are… the arguments put forth for them being best are somewhat convincing, so check them out.