Gamers Struggle to Preserve Past. Thousands still long to play video game classics like Joust and Tempest. Unfortunately, the originals are becoming harder to find. Some are actually in danger of being lost forever. And the industry isn't willing to help preserve them. By Suneel Ratan. [Wired News] I loved Joust! [A blog doesn't need […]

Loads of comparative national stats. There are several sites available to let you compare your favourite nations to one another online. Each has its merits… [Blog.org] This is will be a good resource for teaching students in my comparative class.

The Public Goods Problem. During a course on IP rights at SIGGRAPH, Bob Ellis (the org's public policy program chair) commented on how many people perceive music (or more specifically MP3s) as a “public good”. That is, once a musician creates a piece of… [Reality Panic] Well, what the IGDA has, like DIGRA, and AoIR, […]

Creativity Techniques Catalog. Ever been stumped with a difficult problem and looking for just the right tool or techique to break the impasse? Here's handy online catalog of creativity and systematic thinking tools with short, concise descriptions and helpful examples. Creativity Techniques — At a New Address. A while ago I posted a link to […]

Open Source Philosophies: 3 Takes. tobias c. van Veen sent along: The Architecture of Information: Open Source Software and Tactical Poststructuralist Anarchism Raises some interesting parallels between the open source movement and various forms of poststructuralist thought. And then it stops, just as the questions get interesting. I assume (hope) there is more to come. […]

Bridging the gap between research and practice of communities. My colleagues are organising a workshop “Bridging the gap between research and practice of Communities of Practice“ during C&T Conference (19 September, Amsterdam). The plan is to bring together presentations of a researcher and a practitioner for each topic, so there are opportunities to contrast their approaches and discuss them. […]

What the Wha? Bush Admits He Destroyed the Economy. George W Bush: Yes. No, to answer the last part of your question. First of all, let me — just a quick history, recent history. The stock market started to decline in March of 2000. Then the first quarter of 2001 was a recession. And then […]

A New King of Beers?. Who'd have thought that Scottish breweries would pick up the title for the Best Beer in Britain two years running? Judges in the Champions Beers of Britain contest named Bitter and Twisted its Supreme Champion in a ceremony today. The beer, from the Harviestoun Brewery in Dollar, Clackmannanshire, is described […]

Lincoln Caplan, Censoring Science, LegalAffairs, J …. Lincoln Caplan, Censoring Science, LegalAffairs, July/August 2003. Excerpt: “The Bush Administration is treating American universities as if they can't be trusted to make their own judgments about restricting sensitive information, but the responsibility of balancing security and openness isn't a new one for academics. Ever since the Manhattan […]

Battles over Web Services Messaging. CNET has an article on the battles over web services messaging: Standards stupidities and tech's future: “Microsoft is pushing something that it calls WS-ReliableMessaging, which was co-developed with IBM, BEA Systems and Tibco. Meanwhile, a competing specification called Web Services Reliable Messaging is being backed by Sun, Oracle, Fujitsu, Hitachi, […]