So two articles, one from MLA's Profession helpfully titled "The Sky is Falling" and another in The Atlantic that suggests "Here's How Higher Education Dies," perhaps from some kind of sky impact. Put together one might wonder if the MLA and its disciplines might manage to hold on long enough to die with the rest of higher education. This... Continue Reading →
podcasting: basic rhetorical questions
As you may have seen, I posted a podcast yesterday. I think I am finding starting up a podcast to be similar in its rhetorical challenges to starting this blog many a year ago. Back then I was asking myself some basic rhetorical questions about audience, genre, and purpose. These are all one question in... Continue Reading →
Ep 101: Siri’s Voice
This is my first attempt at this, so I'd love your feedback. And here's a link I mention in the podcast: Dennis Klatt's History of Speech Synthesis.
distributed deliberation #rsa50
In the wake of 2016 US presidential election, many questions were raised about the role of Facebook in disseminating fake news. Mark Zuckerberg’s response, posted to Facebook, points to the challenge fake news presents. Identifying the “truth” is complicated. While some hoaxes can be completely debunked, a greater amount of content, including from mainstream sources,... Continue Reading →
Blackboard and the arse end of the internet
There's no doubt there is no dearth of cesspools on the web, and I wouldn't want to get into a debate about which is the worst. But Blackboard is it's own special circle of internet hell. As I've mentioned a few times here, after ending my stint as WPA, I'm back to teaching a regular... Continue Reading →
A different direction for asking why you heard what you did
So the basic story of the recent "Laurel or Yanny" story, as near as I can figure, is this. You're listening to a degraded digital recording of a voice that has distorted some of the low frequency sounds a human voice makes. So depending on a number of factors--some physiological, some psychological, some technological (e.g.... Continue Reading →
the late age of late ages
It's undeniably a quizzical situation. For the middle-aged rhetorician it's the comically late age of the humanities/English Studies and the tragically late age of humans (cf. climate change) in the midst of a still spry rhetorical universe that will go on without us. I can only imagine a generation of mid-century factory workers punching clocks... Continue Reading →
when AIs start vlogging
Right now I have two scholarly/professional interests, and I'm wondering how they intersect. On a general thematic level they appear to share a lot as they are both about digital technologies and communication/rhetoric. However, they also represent two very different segments of digital culture. I've been writing/speaking about both recently on this blog. The first... Continue Reading →
30 years on…
30 years ago, I was an undergrad and just starting a job working for a start-up, family business in the nascent IBM PC clone market. We assembled computers and sold them on to retails. We distributed hard drives and other components. We consulted with small businesses to provide them with IT solutions for point-of-sale, inventory... Continue Reading →
