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Monthly Archives: November 2011
Skyrim: Random Likes and Dislikes
So I’m spending an obscene amount of time playing Skyrim these days. I can’t help it. Elder Scrolls games just do this to me – I get sucked into their world for months at a time. Fallout 3 and Fallout … Continue reading
Invoked Computing: augmented reality with bananas
Two weeks ago I talked about really shallow vision of future UI paradigms. Last week, I talked about my own vision in which UI ceases to exist. Sadly there is a big gap between these two extremes, and in the … Continue reading
Posted in futuristic musings
5 Comments
Essential SF Books You Should Read
We are all fans of science fiction here. Some of us enjoy it more than the others, but most of us read it. Most literary genres have their share of crappy novels, but it often seems like ours has it … Continue reading
Posted in literature
33 Comments
Day in Life of an Elven Huntress
So I have been playing a lot of Skyrim lately. I already wrote a rather lengthy post about my initial impressions, so if you would like to know that I think about the stupid interface, and bugs go there. You … Continue reading
The Ultimate UI
Last week I talked a bit about the future of UI design. I criticized Microsoft for the lack of vision but I never really tried to counter it with my own. Alas, I am not an UI designer. I do … Continue reading
Posted in futuristic musings
29 Comments
Tatja Grimm’s World by Vernor Vinge
Taja Grimm’s World has a rather interesting pedigree. It started as a short story titled Grimm’s Story which Vinge published some time in the early 60′s. In 1968 he expanded it into a novella format, renamed it to Grimm’s World … Continue reading
Future of UI Design
Let me start this off by sharing a cute “futuristic” video about possible future of the mobile technology. Please keep in mind that this was created by folks at Microsoft so you won’t actually see any innovative ideas or ground … Continue reading
Skyrim: The Field Report
Guys, I am officially to busy playing Skyrim to blog about right now. Also, I am terribly lazy. Fortunately, I have been more or less live tweeting my gaming sessions so those of you who follow me on twitter have … Continue reading
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
If you have been following my literary reviews for a little while, you have probably noticed a pattern according to which I select my reading materials. I love hard SF, and I am fascinated by anything that even brushes against … Continue reading
Entertaining Time Wasters
Some time ago, I made a post about artsy flash games. A lot of these are very interesting, rewarding and worth checking out but they lack one thing – replayability. Most have a strong narrative and forgiving game play, because … Continue reading
Posted in video games
5 Comments
Project Topics
In the class I teach, the students have to do a group project which combines a lot of the skills they acquire during the semester. It requires them to create outlines in a word processor, make spreadsheets, utilize a database … Continue reading
Posted in school and teaching
14 Comments
What operating systems do you run?
In the past I used to prattle a lot about “switching” – a concept that nowadays seems silly archaic and outdated. In those days most of us were tied to a single computer – one, singular piece of hardware that … Continue reading
Posted in technology
31 Comments
Fan Day: Part 1
The thing about being an IT professional or a sysadmin is that your workload comes and goes in waves. Some days are just slow and lazy, and there is not much for you to do. You are all caught up … Continue reading