Archive for January, 2010
Apple’s new iPad
So on Wednesday, Apple unveiled their much anticipated iPad. Yes, there are a variety of limitations (the name, flash incompatibility, sticking with AT&T’s 3G network, no stylus, limited ability to multitask), but there are so many things about this device that seem right. In many ways, it’s a glorified iPhone, larger and without the ability [...]
Wysocki et al (2004): Writing New Media
Writing New Media: Theory and Applications for Expanding the Teaching of Composition by Geoffrey Sirc My rating: 5 of 5 stars In this fine collection, Wysocki, Johnson-Eilola, Cynthia L. Selfe, and Sirc provide a chapter or two each arguing about an aspect of new media and composition studies, and then a section offering classroom activities [...]
Wednesday will be like Christmas
A few weeks ago I blogged about new ereading devices. Since then Plastic Logic has unveiled the QUE reader, which looks pretty cool. I was anticipating a flexible screen since I heard of Plastic Logic a few years ago, but that was a no-go. I’m most excited though, for Apple’s upcoming unveiling on Wednesday. My [...]
Johnson-Eilola (1997): Nostalgic Angels
Nostalgic Angels: Rearticulating Hypertext Writing by Johndan Johnson-Eilola My rating: 5 of 5 stars While the examples Johnson-Eilola uses in Nostalgic Angels to discuss hypertext are dated (e.g., the 1990s program HyperCard), his arguments seem to be just as salient today. Throughout the book, Johnson-Eilola complicates notions of hypertext, especial those claims that hypertext are [...]
Latour (1993): We Have Never Been Modern
We Have Never Been Modern by Bruno Latour My rating: 5 of 5 stars This summary is probably going to be a bit flawed and definitely elides some of Latour’s critical moves. I really enjoyed reading this, and thought it was very insightful. Latour starts his book with 1989: the fall of the Berlin Wall [...]
Crowley (1998): Composition in the University
Composition In The University: Historical and Polemical Essays by Sharon Crowley My rating: 5 of 5 stars Crowley’s 1998 Composition in the University is Crowley’s perspective on the history of composition as a discipline and first-year requirement in North American universities. Much of her book explores how Composition has been undervalued in many ways by [...]
The rise of white nationalism in the United States
This video from Democracy Now, an excerpt from Rick Rowley and Jacquie Soohen’s White Power USA, is just terrifying. It chronicles the rise of white nationalism in the United States over the last year. I’d embed it, but the embedding code doesn’t appear to be working on this blog. The except from the documentary is [...]
flattery will get you… somewhere
Now this is interesting. According to a study reported at Scientific American, people are still susceptible to flattery, even when they’re aware that the flattery if obvious and insincere: Most people tend to not appreciate flattery accompanied by obvious ulterior motives, and consider themselves fairly adept at determining whose compliments are sincere and whose are [...]
Warnick (2007): Rhetoric Online
Rhetoric Online: Persuasion and Politics on the World Wide Web by Barbara Warnick My rating: 4 of 5 stars Warnick’s Rhetoric Online is a helpful contribution to the study of persuasion in political discourse online. Warnick argues persuasively that scholars of rhetoric need to focus on online communication as rhetoric and that the medium affects [...]
new reading devices
I’ve been thinking about getting one of the two new reading devices that are coming out shortly. Tomorrow, Plastic Logic unveils its QUE ProReader at CES. From what I’ve read over the last year, this device is larger than most ereaders, built for business documents, and is flexible — that is, the device can be [...]
