Posted in Art, Education, Programming, tagged air guitar, Education, guitar hero, Programming, south park on June 10, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Since I started listening to Alan Kay’s ideas I’ve kept hearing him use the phrase “air guitar” to describe what he sees as shallow ideas, both in terms of educational and industry practice, which are promoted by a pop culture. Kay is a musician, among other things, so I can see where he’d come up [...]
Posted in Art, Education, tagged edin, john dowland, music, sting on May 31, 2008 | 2 Comments »
I know this is going to be old news to some people. I first heard of this through PBS in 2006. I just got inspired to write about it now.
Sting, with Edin Karamazov, created a wonderful collaboration, bringing back to life the 400 year-old music of John Dowland. Sting and Edin, both playing lutes, and Sting [...]
Posted in Art, History, Just For Fun on November 10, 2007 | No Comments »
Going Retro
Here are some modern “retro” videos I found that harken back to the 8- and 16-bit era. I just thought they were neat.
“Move Your Feet”, by Junior Senior
A friend introduced me to this music video a few years ago. It harkens back to the olden days of blocky but colorful 8-bit graphics. I’m sure [...]
Posted in Art, Just For Fun, Programming on October 12, 2007 | 7 Comments »
I found this on reddit today. “Programming: You’re doing it completely wrong”.
Trivia question: Who’s that staring back at you in the poster?
I agree with one of the comments: They should make one up with Dijkstra’s mug in it.
Posted in Art, Education, Programming, Technology and Software on September 26, 2007 | No Comments »
Dr. Randy Pausch gives his last lecture (h/t to Mark Guzdial)
Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie-Mellon University and the creator of Alice, is dying of pancreatic cancer. I learned this past weekend that he had given his last lecture recently, while he was still in good health. It’s become kind of commonplace for universities to have [...]
Posted in Art on May 9, 2007 | No Comments »
I received the following notice yesterday from Joaquin Montalvan:
Dear MARK,
…just thought I’d let you know that THE WAIT IS OVER!!!
“VISUAL FUTURIST: the art & life of syd mead” is
“Officially” available to the public at Syd Mead’s “Official”
Website here: http://www.sydmead.com/features/documentary/
JOAQUIN MONTALVAN
Sledgehammer Films
==========================
Great news! It is on the pricey side, $29.99 for the DVD, plus $7.50 S&H [...]
Posted in Analysis, Art, Education on April 17, 2007 | No Comments »
I’ve added some more to my post “On our low-pass filter”. Look for the “Edit” marker towards the bottom of the post. Occasionally I use my blog more like a wiki. I imagine this doesn’t get reflected well in the RSS feed though, hence the reason I’m posting this little notice here.
Posted in Art, History, Just For Fun, Technology and Software on March 20, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Unfortunately I can’t remember where I got this. A while back I was reading something that Alan Kay wrote, or watching an online video of him. Anyway, in one part he talked about what computer literacy (in the context of a new medium) meant. I believe he said he observed something years ago, and it illustrated [...]
Posted in Art, History, Technology and Software on March 19, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Edit: This was originally Part 2 of a series on commercial computer history, the first part talking about and showing in online video the 3-part documentary, “Triumph of the Nerds”. That didn’t work out. So instead I rewrote the first part in a post entitled “Triumph of the Nerds”, which just describes the series. This rewritten post [...]
Posted in Analysis, Art, Education on March 12, 2007 | 7 Comments »
I’ve been reflecting on the concept of humanity’s “low-pass filter” lately, following up on my previous post on the state of computer science education today. Quoting Alan Kay, again:
One could actually argue—as I sometimes do—that the success of commercial personal computing and operating systems has actually led to a considerable retrogression in many, many respects.
You [...]
