Linked List: September 8, 2008

Monday, 8 September 2008

How Videogames Blind Us With Science 

Clive Thompson, on kids using the scientific method to get better at video games:

One of the reasons kids get bored by science is that too many teachers present it as a fusty collection of facts for memorization. This is precisely wrong. Science isn’t about facts. It’s about the quest for facts — the scientific method, the process by which we hash through confusing thickets of ignorance. It’s dynamic, argumentative, collaborative, competitive, filled with flashes of crazy excitement and hours of drudgework, and driven by ego: Our desire to be the one who figures it out, at least for now. It’s dramatic and nutty and fun.

(Via Tim O’Reilly.)

DesktopCoreLocation 

Philippe Casgrain’s entry to the C4[2] IronCoder contest: “a clean-room implementation of Apple’s CoreLocation.framework, complete with sample application.”

The Continuing Correlation Between Apple’s Share Price and Steve Jobs’s Weight 

Speaking of Dan Frommer, he sums up the thinking on Wall Street regarding tomorrow’s “Let’s Rock” special event:

New iPods — expected to be announced during an Apple media event tomorrow — are key to Apple’s holiday sales. But key to Apple’s (AAPL) stock activity tomorrow: How CEO Steve Jobs — who’s expected to deliver a keynote — looks on stage.

Robert Holmes, writing for TheStreet.com, questions whether Jobs will even appear on stage:

Jobs has previously battled pancreatic cancer, but his frail appearance during the launch of the iPhone 3G in early June ignited speculation that he is continuing to battle the disease, sending Apple shares tumbling more than 7% during the week. Many Apple shareholders hope Jobs will be the keynote speaker during tomorrow’s event, assuaging fears.

Spoiler: Jobs will be on stage, in his usual role. But he remains just as thin as he was in June. This isn’t some sort of state secret, though. Jobs is a common presence on the Apple campus. He eats in the cafeteria, he walks around between buildings. He’s not and has never been a recluse.

Dan Frommer: ‘Zune Gets New Features That Won’t Help Sell Zunes’ 

Sometimes the whole story fits in the headline.

Tony Kaye About Kubrick 

A few weeks back, I linked to Armen Antranikian’s “Kubrick”, a short film for the UK’s Channel 4 featuring people talking about their personal experiences watching the films of Stanley Kubrick. The whole thing is just three minutes long, but Antranikian posted to YouTube a 20-minute outtake of Tony Kaye’s interview.

The film is terrific, but the Kaye interview is just fantastic. The URL for the YouTube version recently changed, so I’m re-linking to it here.

Umbrella Today? 

“It’s like totally the simplest weather report ever, Julie.”

(Via Rands.)

Ryan Block Disassembles Dan Lyons’s ‘Apple as Monopolist’ Newsweek Piece 

Ryan Block:

Maybe it’s just me, but I think Dan did a much better job at cutting to the heart of what makes Cupertino tick when he was doing so with subversive parody.

Laptops Go Live 

Sasha Frere-Jones in The New Yorker, on the growing use of computers in live music performances:

Last December, a friend and I went to a release party for Mary J. Blige’s “Growing Pains” album. Near huge screens showing Blige videos, a d.j. was playing records on two turntables. The d.j.’s eyes, however, were trained on an Apple MacBook on a shelf above them. As a succession of Blige songs faded from one into the next, the d.j. never changed the records. My friend asked, “Is there a new Mary medley I don’t know about?”

The answer was no. The d.j., like many today, was using a program called Serato Scratch Live, which uses a turntable as a knob or a switch.