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January 9, 2010

The Turtlenecked Hairshirt

Fetid and Fragrant Futures for the Humanities

In a reflection on all the recent hubbub about the sordid state of the humanities and the recently proposed possibility of a cure in the form of the "digital humanities," Cathy Davidson offers the following lament: When I think of what the humanties offer...it is astonishing to me (and tragic) ...

January 9, 2010

The Turtlenecked Hairshirt

Fetid and Fragrant Futures for the Humanities

In a reflection on all the recent hubbub about the sordid state of the humanities and the recently proposed possibility of a cure in the form of the "digital humanities," Cathy Davidson offers the following lament: When I think of what the humanties offer...it is astonishing to me (and tragic) ...

July 24, 2009

The Metaphysics Videogame

Part 1: Why a Videogame?

A brief history. Back in the late summer of 2006, a few months after the publication of Unit Operations, I exchanged a few emails with Graham Harman, whose book Tool-Being I had cited in the early pages of mine. We talked about a few things, including Leibniz, Badiou, Heidegger, Meillassoux, ...

June 12, 2009

Cascading Failure

The Unseen Power of Google's Malware Detection

I often worry about the consequences of what Siva Vaidhyanathan calls Googlization, the way Google is changing and disrupting the creation and dissemination of ideas. I've resisted using Google services like Gmail and Google Docs, despite their popularity and, in some cases, their convenience. I've mostly been disinterested in allowing ...

May 4, 2009

Top Ten Reasons I Returned My Kindle

This week has witnessed much talk about Amazon's possible release of a new, larger Kindle eReader designed for newspapers and textbooks, culminating in an article in the New York Times that claims confirmation of such an impending announcement. That's on top of talk from magazine publisher Hearst's announcement that it ...

November 16, 2008

Carrying On Over Carry-Ons

A Review of the Tom Bihn Checkpoint Flyer

For years now, it has been necessary to remove laptops from carry-on bags for inspection at airport security here in the States. The TSA imposes this requirement to insure a clear view of the internal components of some electronics. Scanning a laptop separately allows security personnel to insure that a ...

August 2, 2008

The Geek's Chihuahua

A Review of the iPhone

Despite attempts to maintain my geek cred, despite my propensity for gadgeteering, despite my favor for the cult of Apple, despite my lust for shiny things with microprocessors, I didn't get an iPhone when it first came out earlier this year. Indeed, I also didn't get one when the new ...

March 7, 2008

Reading Online Sucks

Reflections on scholarly writing on the web

Or more subtly: reading online isn't the same as reading on paper, yet we continue to treat the web as a distribution tool rather than as a medium with its own material constraints, both suited and unsuited to certain kinds of content. I've been thinking about this recently after I ...

October 29, 2007

Chumby and the Rhetoric of Openness

Small, cute, insidious

Note: Chumby representative Andrew "Bunnie" Huang has replied to this thread, and I have in turn replied to his response with more questions. I encourage you to read through all the comments for more detail. Finally, I should point out that I am not an attorney and nothing herein should ...

August 19, 2007

A Professor's Impressions of Facebook

Musings after several months of use, as I prepare to start the semester

This spring, I created an account on Facebook. I'm a web 2.0 cynic (and a cynic in general), so this surprised some of my friends and colleagues. But I was encouraged by so many of them, I wanted to give it a try. For example, Ian McCarthy just wanted an ...

August 10, 2007

My Appearance on The Colbert Report

A clip of my segment and some responses to common questions from friends and colleagues

I appeared as a guest on The Colbert Report on Tuesday August 7. A lot of my friends and colleagues have been asking the same questions, so I thought I'd try to cover them all in one place. First, if you haven't seen the interview, I've embedded it below. It ...

June 16, 2007

Bloomsday on Twitter

A performance of Wandering Rocks on Twitter, and a commentary on both. Created with Ian McCarthy.

I do not like Twitter, the micro-blogging service that allows users to send short (SMS-sized) text-based updates that are displayed publicly and shared with friends social-network style. ...