11.15.2009

Augmented Reality Advertising

Consumed - The Hype Around Augmented Reality - NYTimes.com
Very broadly, augmented reality can be thought of as an inversion of the venerable “virtual reality” buzz concept. Instead of plunging us into a completely digital environment, augmented reality means placing digital things into the regular old world. Those things might be bits of information or renderings of imaginary objects. And they, of course, aren’t really in the real world at all — they just appear to be there if you filter your gaze through the proper screen.

D.I.Y. Games

Can D.I.Y. Supplant the First-Person Shooter? - NYTimes.com

These game designers, a self-described indie scene, form a tightly knit group with a do-it-yourself culture and a rebellious spirit — something like a ’zine movement for video games. New and cheap technologies have enabled the movement’s rise. New tools for production and distribution — through smartphones, over the Web and via downloadable services on PlayStation, Wii and Xbox consoles — now make it possible for individuals to conceive, develop and publish their own games.

Rohrer himself is a kind of Thoreauvian game designer, a 31-year-old back-to-the-land programmer-philosopher who lives in Las Cruces, N.M., where he codes his eccentrically engrossing games, which can feel like digitally mediated poetic moods, on an ancient computer and makes them available free online. “Now anyone can do it,” he says, “which is not how the mainstream video-game industry works.”

11.12.2009

Email 101

Great advice for students learning how to communicate effectively with your Professors OR anyone using email:
Design Educator: Email 101
I will not begin this post with the word “netiquette” (you can get the book for more details), because the term dates to the 1980s and this is something I hope someone, especially my students, will read. I’m writing this because someone has to tell this generation of students about the meaning of the poor choices they repeatedly make , most especially in regards to email. OK, ok, twist my arm, I will. Listen up!