March 2006 Archives
Now an entire generation has grown up with a different set of games than any before it - and it plays these games in different ways. Just watch a kid with a new videogame. The last thing they do is read the manual. Instead, they pick up the controller and start mashing buttons to see what happens. This isn't a random process; it's the essence of the scientific method. Through trial and error, players build a model of the underlying game based on empirical evidence collected through play. As the players refine this model, they begin to master the game world. It's a rapid cycle of hypothesis, experiment, and analysis. And it's a fundamentally different take on problem-solving than the linear, read-the-manual-first approach of their parents.
In an era of structured education and standardized testing, this generational difference might not yet be evident. But the gamers' mindset - the fact that they are learning in a totally new way - means they'll treat the world as a place for creation, not consumption. This is the true impact videogames will have on our culture.
I hope there's nothing in this article that I haven't already discussed with my students, but I'll link to it anyway.
New York Daily News - Home - What a tangled Web we weave
You may be the perfect candidate for the job, but if your name pulls up something incriminating in a Google search, you could lose your shot. "People do need to keep in mind that the information they post online - whether in a résumé, profile or otherwise - should be considered public information," warns Danielle C. Perry, director of public relations at Monster.com. Sure, you may not have intentionally posted something controversial about yourself online, but from blogs to dating profiles, the Web has become a place where people air dirty laundry without a thought, making it a dangerous place to mix business with pleasure.
The other night, I felt the need to beef up my GBA SP collection, soooo I made a trip out to Best Buy, with a couple of left over Christmas gift cards. I was slightly annoyed that they didn't have a bigger selection of Gameboy Advance games, and that most of them were stupid, yet I did find a couple of gems! The last games that I bought new for my second lil' best friend (first lil' best friend being my I-Pod) were last summer, the NES Collection Dr. Mario and Legend of Zelda, which are both wonderful on the SP! Anyways, this time I picked up Super Mario Bros. 3 and Mario Tennis Power Tour, both of which inspired me to do this blog.
Alright. I eagerly drive home with new Nintendo products in the yellow Best Buy bag, its freezing outside I feel like it is 1988. I finally make it back to my apartment, and begin to open my boxes. Nintendo products in 2006 are nearly the same as they were 20 years ago. The same shrink wrapped, colorful boxes. The same cute, tiny instruction books and the same amount of excess cardboard inside. These games are the packaged the same as NES games that I opened new, Christmas 1987. I look over the instruction book, which has this soft, Sanrio plasticy smell, I love that. The cartridge itself is the same. Yes, everything is printed and made in Japan. I flip the switch and my Flame Red SP glows to life.. the first cart I try is Mario Tennis, given that I was a HUGE fan of the Gameboy Color version, years ago... a great summer, floating in the pool game that mixed RPG with action.
This new Advance version is similar, and I love it.. it's cartoony RPG and crazy fun. Ever want to play Princess Peach or Toad versus Donkey Kong or Luigi in tennis? Ha! I can, and it's ridiculous. The RPG adventure looks amazing and really fun... no doubt inspired by the GBC Mario Tennis of a few years ago, which was outstanding.. it was like Final Fantasy in a Tennis Academy! LOL. I love Nintendo!
After a lil' while, I have to put this down and try Super Mario Bros. 3! I loved this game on the NES, and am pleased that it is one of the few NES games that I own that I do not have to "blow into," to get it to work. It fires right up on my near 20 year old system, and plays flawlessly. It's been a long time since I donned the Raccoon Mario or Tanooki suit, sooooo I just had to have this.
What a surprise! It has been totally updated, to give it a Super NES look! It's beautiful! Yes, I am a purist, but I can't get over how amazing this new version looks... and yes, it has the same superfun gameplay. Nintendo, again.. rules. It's so beyond the NES version in graphics and sounds.. it has digitized Mario and Luigi! It looks very much like the beautiful SNES Super Mario World, that came with that system, and is still one of the best games ever made. Again, the colorful instruction book, on glossy, high quality paper, printed in Japan. The soft, plasticy smells. The game enclosed in a tiny, soft plastic bag, inside the box. This is all so cute, I cannot stand it. Oh, and before you go and think I'm turning into a video game wimp, I'll easily wipe the floor with you in PS2 SOCOM III.
The music, the graphics, the gameplay, everything is perfect. I love that after 28 years of playing video games, things like this still make me smile. The simple pleasure of opening a new Nintendo product is so delightful, I can't stand it. Everything is so perfectly put together. Super Mario 3 easily frustrates the hell out of me, and makes me laugh at the same time.. those dogs popping out of manholes to throw bones at you in the second world are insane, not to mention how Toad jumps up and down while explaining how the King has been "Transformed!" It's all so silly. Nintendo's sense of humor never lets me down... from King Hippo in Punch-Out to bridge-building monkeys in the first GameBoy Zelda to this. I love it. Few game companies, if any have made games such as this, for 20+ years, that can infuriate as well as entertain. The first time I saw Donkey Kong upside down with stars around his head and missing teeth after falling in the ancient Donkey Kong arcade game, 25 years ago, I knew that something was good. I couldn't imagine that I'd still be laughing, at age 33 over such things, however. Back to Mario Tennis, for an instant.. the opening conversations beween my character, "Clay" and my female partner, "Ace" are hilarious. I am collapsed in bed, too tired to move, while she yells at me and puts my things away. I toss and turn in my underwear, and she calls me names, telling me to get up for breakfast, in the most ridiculous cartoony fashion. Sigh. I just can't belive the conceptual continuity that Nintendo has, they are truly a special company, with incredibly talented programmers and game developers, not to mention having some of the funniest people in the world on their development teams.
Oh well, it's getting late, and I'm beat. Lucky for me, my GBA SP needs recharged, otherwise, I'd be up for the rest of the night, laughing and playing until I either throw the thing or start calling people at 4am, telling them about how wonderful it all is.
I just stumbled across this site, blogs.princeton.edu, which hosts a MT website. I don't see any links to community-produced content. THe home page reads, "The intent of this site is to provide news updates about the Princeton University Blog Service and its server, as well as make available tips, tricks, and tutorials for the community of Movable Type users at Princeton."
About this site « Princeton University Blog ServiceIf you have any tips or techniques for using Movable Type at Princeton, feel free to use the comments, or contact blogs@princeton.edu with an idea for an article, and we may make you a guest author.
The Princeton University Blog Service is administered by the New Media Center, part of OIT Academic Services at Princeton University. The New Media Center reserves the right to limit this blog service to weblogs that are academic-related and/or related to the mission of Princeton University. (Emphasis added)
Having arrived in Lancaster, PA for the College Republicans State Convention, the SHU CR's have discovered that their hotel has free wireless internet. And so, this enables us to report on today's events while on the road!
The first night of convention events included a list of wonderful speakers and a rally with Lynn Swann. The University chapter was also mentioned during one of the speeches as being one of two leaders in developing college student campaign diaries.
So check out our evening's posts, and look for more on tomorrow's events... tomorrow.
I've upgraded our blogging software to MT 3.2. The interface has been tweaked, and behind the scenes the spam protection has been simplified. I was pretty good at blocking spam with the old system, and I imagine things may slip temporarily as I learn the new sysetm, but already in a few hours this system has blocked over 200 spam attempts.
“Win a Trip With Nick” offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to an intrepid, intellectually curious student at an American college or graduate school. One extraordinary individual will be chosen to accompany Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas D. Kristof, Op-Ed and TimesSelect columnist, on an all-expenses paid reporting odyssey to the African continent this summer. The winner won’t merely be Nick’s traveling companion but will also bring fresh perspective to his reporting on developing countries. As Nick says, “You won’t be practicing tourism, but journalism.”
Go to the Web, young journalist!There never has been a better time to get into Web journalism. We are making money, we are hiring, and we are actively searching for new, innovative ideas. After ten years, there are no veterans in this field. This is your chance to be among the first.
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'Adapt to new technology or die,' Murdoch tells newspapers - Yahoo! News
"Societies or companies that expect a glorious past to shield them from the forces of change driven by advancing technology will fail and fall," he said in a speech to the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers.
"That applies as much to my own, the media industry, as to every other business on the planet. Power is moving away from the old elite in our industry -- the editors, the chief executives and, let's face it, the proprietors.
"A new generation of media consumers has risen demanding content delivered when they want it, how they want it, and very much as they want it."
Blogs were down from sometime Saturday night until shortly before 5pm today. All should be well now.
The management regrets the inconvenience, and hopes that you will continue to use blogs.setonhill.edu for all your blogging needs.
Before Spring Break, my Media Lab class completed an exercise on the limits of free speech, discussing ethics in journalism. One of the exercises discussed whether or not it would be ethical to print incriminating information, based on anything but 100% clear evidence, not simply someone's claim of wrongdoing. Recently there is a perfect example of this in the world of sports journalism, and I think otherwise reputable sources have not chosen the right path. Two San Francisco reporters have written a book supposedly detailing baseball star Barry Bonds' steroid use. The front page of sportsillustraded.com runs the headline "Bonds Exposed." Earlier in the day, CNN.com ran a similar headline. When I saw this, without reading the full article, I thought, "wow, they finally caught him." It was only later in the day I learned the only evidence of Bonds' steroid use was a book. In their next issue, SI will print an excerpt from the book, which, for all they know, could be completely false. To me this seems dangerously close to libel, and I wonder if the media would be jumping all over this story if it concerned a more congenial ball-player, not Bonds.
I Can Write 600 Words About Anything | The Onion - America's Finest News Source
In life, every single person belonging to the Homo sapien species—be that person man or woman, boy or girl, adolescent male or adolescent female—has a special (meaning unique and distinct) talent that sets him or her apart from the other persons belonging to that aforementioned group, the Homo sapiens. The particular gift that I have been endowed with? I can write 600 words about any topic assigned to me in school, no matter what that topic is, without any exception.
In other words: There is nothing I cannot write 600 words about.
While preaching about time-management is obligatory when you teach a lot of freshmen, I never pretend that I don't suffer from the same problems.
Inside Higher Ed :: Academic AWOLThe busy academics who subscribe to my newsletter have probably not even noticed its absence. Yet, as I returned to regular publishing schedule, I longed to resume with a zinger of a story, one that would make my readers exclaim, “These tips were certainly worth the wait.” The longer I procrastinated the more grandiose my goals became. As January slipped into February, it got more and more difficult to sit down and write.
