ChillingEffects.org

January 27th, 2012 by Brian No comments »

Do you know your online rights? If you write fan fiction, are you breaking copyright? If you link to another site, are you breaking the law?

ChillingEffects.org, a shared project from a number of universities, came to my attention because of recent decisions by Twitter to censor people’s status updates depending upon the laws of certain countries. In China, your Google search is filtered stricter than even a school network, and that took years to come about. Twitter isn’t even allowed in China.

Twitter was influential in the Middle Eastern and Russian protests in recent years. It will be interesting to see how protesters will coordinate now. ChillingEffects will at least keep a record of government requests to censor online messages.

Check out ChillingEffect’s database of cease and desist messages by clicking here.


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Posted in Technology

Chess logo

January 25th, 2012 by Brian No comments »

I’m working on designing the logo for this year’s chess team. Here’s what I have so far:

It’s nothing too mind-blowing, but I think it might make for a fun wallpaper (on your home computer). Click the thumbnail to view the full size.


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Posted in Chess

2012 Newbery and others

January 23rd, 2012 by Brian No comments »

The ALA announced its Newbery award winners (as well as a number of other ones). Check it out here.


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Posted in Administrative

Actions vs. words

January 18th, 2012 by Brian No comments »

Wikipedia followed through on the blackout, although you can get around it by turning off JavaScript in your browser. Google changed their logo. Twitter is tweeting about it. We’ll see if the statement was heard by lawmakers.


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Posted in Technology, Wikipedia

Are you ready for the Internet to shut down tomorrow?

January 17th, 2012 by Brian No comments »

As a protest against SOPA and PIPA, Google, Wikipedia, Facebook, and a number of other big sites on the Internet are planning to stop services for 24 hours. Instead of a normal Google search, a page describing why they’re protesting.

The text of the Stop Online Piracy Act is here. The Protect IP Act is here. Essentially, the bills say that if a site is found to have material on it that breaks copyright, Internet service providers are required to deny access to those sites.

Are you ready to get some sunshine tomorrow? What are we going to do with ourselves? Use Bing?


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Posted in Google, Technology, Wikipedia

HippoCampus

January 13th, 2012 by Brian No comments »

I’ve mentioned this before, but if you’re looking for a great collection of educational videos streaming on the Internet, check out HippoCampus.


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Posted in Creative Commons, lessons

Creating a template in pbworks

January 11th, 2012 by Brian No comments »


This is a really quick tip that will save you a ton of time. When viewing a page as an administrator in pbworks, you can add a tag. If you type the word “template” all lower case as the tag, you can reuse the page as a template for when you create a new page.


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Posted in Tech How To

Bloody Times by James L. Swanson

January 10th, 2012 by Brian No comments »


Bloody Times: The Funeral of Abraham Lincoln and the Manhunt for Jefferson Davis by James L. Swanson is the YA adaptation of Bloody Crimes. I really enjoyed it because I’m constantly on the lookout for nonfiction that’s engaging.

You may be familiar with the concept of Bloody Times: President Lincoln is assassinated and the country stages a funeral procession from D.C. to Illinois. At the same time, Confederate President Jefferson Davis tries to keep the Civil War going despite General Lee’s surrender at Appomattox.

The details are great and help to dispel some myths, like what Davis was wearing when he was captured. The myth is that he tried to sneak away in women’s clothes. In reality, he woke up one morning, saw Union soldiers outside of his tent, and put on an overcoat and a shawl to keep warm for his journey. The shawl was the same type that many men wore, yet newspapers printed mocking photos to discredit Davis. Circus owner P.T. Barnum wanted the shawl and overcoat for one of his shows, but when Edwin Stanton, secretary of war, saw that it wasn’t women’s clothing, he held onto it and the myth was born. Swanson’s attention to detail challenges what many people have accepted as fact.

Even though most readers know that Lincoln will die, Swanson still builds up the emotion leading up to and after the event. He also does a skillful job of intertwining the rival presidents’ lives. Also, no one will soon forget the descriptions of how the embalmers kept Lincoln presentable in the hot summer months.

It’s history at its best. Students who have checked it out enjoyed it. I’m going to booktalk it in time for President’s Day and I predict it to be a popular checkout.


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Posted in Historical, Nonfiction

Floppy drives as musical instruments

January 9th, 2012 by Brian No comments »

I just found this video of five floppy drives playing a cover of daft Punk’s “Derezzed” from Tron Legacy:

So, that’s a lot of fun, but the really cool thing is that YouTube user Sammy1Am uploaded a how-to video for how to do this with your own old floppy drives:


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Posted in Tech How To, Technology

Fatal Alliance by Sean Williams

January 6th, 2012 by Brian No comments »

This one’s a Star Wars book, but it’s a little different because it’s built around the MMORPG The Old Republic.

Sean Williams also did the novelization of The Force Unleashed, so he’s familiar with taking a guy walking around slashing things with a lightsaber and creating some connecting narrative. The Old Republic has a storyline, but what makes it different is that multiple users play along and help create the experience.

That being said, Fatal Alliance feels like an online role-playing game. Each character represents a playable class in the game. You have your grizzled soldier, your naive Jedi, and your conniving diplomat. Williams did creatively twist some characters, but for the most part, these are characters we’ve seen before.

There is a mystery driving the plot. A planet not in the charts promises wealth for both sides of the galactic war and two different parties try to get there first to stake a claim. You may have guessed already that the planet has a hidden danger and that there will be some kind of alliance…a fatal alliance…that forms to defeat the common enemy.

What I really liked was seeing main characters from both the light and dark side of the Force. This is one of the first Star Wars books that I’ve read where one of the Sith may actually be a protagonist alongside a Jedi. (I know there are books that detail the bad guy perspective, but not one that I’m familiar with where both sides are the heroes.) It makes sense, though, when you consider the source material is a game where players can create characters from any place on the moral spectrum.

I enjoyed reading it. Granted, I’m a Star Wars fan, but someone picking up this book is probably going to be a fan. I more want to highlight it for students who know about the game and want something to read that’s connected to it.


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Posted in Sci-fi