Zach Whalen Sometimes Blogs Here http://whalen.umwblogs.org But mostly he blogs in lots of places and some of it gets funneled and reposted here Wed, 20 May 2009 14:31:37 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en How I use Drupal to roll my own (continued, pt. 1) http://whalen.umwblogs.org/2009/05/20/how-i-use-drupal-to-roll-my-own-continued-pt-1/ DAC 09 Proposal, Revised http://whalen.umwblogs.org/2009/04/28/dac-09-proposal-revised/ Proposal for DAC ‘09, Feedback Welcome http://whalen.umwblogs.org/2009/04/25/proposal-for-dac-09-feedback-welcome/ Inform 7: New Resources! This is new. I just came across this mentioned on Nick Montfort's blog, a new website, launched yesterday(?), for the programming environment some of you have been working in (or toiling with -- depending on how much success you've been having). It's a whole new presentation for Inform 7, complete with some new documentation, screencasts, and a bunch of complete working examples. If you're still putting some finishing touches on your IF project (if you're doing an IF project), you may very well find something useful.

I've only looked at the site briefly, since I wanted to get this post up, so please take a look. And if you find anything on the new site that you think is particularly helpful or that leads to any epiphanies, post it in a comment here so others can benefit as well!

]]> http://teaching.zachwhalen.net/electro/content/inform-7-new-resources Inform 7: New Resources! This is new. I just came across this mentioned on Nick Montfort's blog, a new website, launched yesterday(?), for the programming environment some of you have been working in (or toiling with -- depending on how much success you've been having). It's a whole new presentation for Inform 7, complete with some new documentation, screencasts, and a bunch of complete working examples. If you're still putting some finishing touches on your IF project (if you're doing an IF project), you may very well find something useful.

I've only looked at the site briefly, since I wanted to get this post up, so please take a look. And if you find anything on the new site that you think is particularly helpful or that leads to any epiphanies, post it in a comment here so others can benefit as well!

]]> http://teaching.zachwhalen.net/e-lit/content/inform-7-new-resources A note on blogging, spoilers, and opinions Many IF works, including most of the ones we are playing in this class, involve some degree of puzzle-solving. In some cases, those puzzles are explicit within the game world, like the dam control puzzle in Zork. In other cases, the puzzle or riddle may be more subtle, like figuring out just what exactly is going on. In Snack Time! for example, it may take the player a while to discover just what she is playing as in the game.

I've noticed that many of you have been writing blog entries about Snack Time! and Everybody Dies, which is great, but in the interest of allowing everyone to solve the puzzles on their own, I am requesting that from now on you try and avoid posting spoilers or solutions to puzzles.

Sometimes, of course, you need to talk about the ending of a game, and that's fine. When you do, however, make it clear to your reader that you're going to reveal something they may not want to have revealed just yet. Keep in mind that the individual reading your blog entry may or may not be in this class. Maybe someone googles Everybody Dies to see what people have said about it; that person may not want to see it explained to them.  read more »

]]> http://teaching.zachwhalen.net/electro/content/note-blogging-spoilers-and-opinions A note on spoilers and the posting thereof Many IF works, including most of the ones we are playing in this class, involve some degree of puzzle-solving. In some cases, those puzzles are explicit within the game world, like the dam control puzzle in Zork. In other cases, the puzzle or riddle may be more subtle, like figuring out just what exactly is going on. In Snack Time! for example, it may take the player a while to discover just what she is playing as in the game.

I've noticed that many of you have been writing blog entries about Snack Time! and Everybody Dies, which is great, but in the interest of allowing everyone to solve the puzzles on their own, I am requesting that from now on you try and avoid posting spoilers or solutions to puzzles.

Sometimes, of course, you need to talk about the ending of a game, and that's fine. When you do, however, make it clear to your reader that you're going to reveal something they may not want to have revealed just yet. Keep in mind that the individual reading your blog entry may or may not be in this class. Maybe someone googles Everybody Dies to see what people have said about it; that person may not want to see it explained to them.  read more »

]]> http://teaching.zachwhalen.net/e-lit/content/note-spoilers-and-posting-thereof Turn your web browsing surreal with Tumbarumba Have you ever noticed something out of place? Something that just seemed a little odd at first, but after a second look and a third, it expanded into a world that transformed your everyday reality into something else entirely?

Well, I haven't, at least not in the real world. In terms of the real world of the web, however, you can, add something to your browser to imbue your daily information streams with the potential for cracks to open up between your world and another. Tumbarumba itself is not electronic literature, per se, and the stories it delivers are not technically interactive or hypertextual in any of the ways we've been studying in class. But the way it inserts itself into your life is certainly uniquely electronic.  read more »

]]> http://teaching.zachwhalen.net/e-lit/content/turn-your-web-browsing-surreal-tumbarumba Collaborative definitions in real time Today, we experimented with EtherPad, a tool that lets multiple authors work on the same document in real time, with color-coded edits.

It was interesting to see how the conversation developed around the documents, and in some cases, arguably, undermined the quality of the documents themselves.

As promised I'll post the combined final version of each definition below. In addition, I welcome your comments here on EtherPad and the experiment in general.  read more »

]]> http://teaching.zachwhalen.net/electro/content/collaborative-definitions-real-time Real time collaborative definitions Today's class was an experiment in collaborative decision making. I asked you all to work together on documents that defined a list of key terms from Montfort's chapter. This was an experiment from my point of view, and probably yours as well.

I liked what you all produced, and I appreciated that EtherPad made it easy to jump right in to editing a page.

I'll paste the final version of each document below, and I welcome your comments on the experience of real-time collaborative authorship. For my part, I think it's interesting how some of the definitions become more like conversations than direct statements.  read more »

]]> http://teaching.zachwhalen.net/e-lit/content/real-time-collaborative-definitions