Apple announced the iPad yesterday, and the wave of dissent from the tech community seemed overwhelming, although not altogether surprising. I think it’s one of those cases where techies, like hardcore gamers, think that they are the only relevant market because they’re the only ones who can appreciate cutting-edge technology, and that the masses just eventually follow along. Lots of people seemed to have trouble describing the product without comparing it to another product: “a giant iPod touch,” “a colored Kindle,” “a big iPhone without the Phone,” and so on. I’m not sure how ultimately revolutionary it is, but I do think that, from a marketing point of view, it’s a pretty smart move to position it as a “third product” between laptops and smartphones.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Posted by Aaron Chia Yuan Hung at 09:06 AM. Filed under:
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Every morning, before I start my day, I’ve gotten into the habit of browsing through Digg posts. For those of you who don’t know what Digg is, it’s basically a site that gathers together the most popular news reports, videos, webcomics, blog posts, etc. of the day. In more and more sites today, you are about to click a “Digg this” button to vote for the post, which basically bumps it up on the Digg listings. Since the site tracks the most popular Dugg posts of the day, the submissions usually (but not always) reflect updated news and events.
Posted by Aaron Chia Yuan Hung at 02:53 PM. Filed under:
Monday, November 30, 2009
I’ve been following the so-called “Climategate” with some interest, especially come from a science studies/actor-network-theory perspective. Recently, a bunch of hackers released emails from scientists at the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, just in time for the climates talks at Copenhagen. Parts of these emails reveal some of the discussions that go on between scientists, some of which, to an outsider, comes across as suspiciously partisan. For example, some calling on their colleagues not to cite scientists and journals with dissenting views on the anthropogenic (i.e. human-caused) issue of global warming, or suggesting ways of making the data seem more aligned with their theory as they really are.
Posted by Aaron Chia Yuan Hung at 01:11 PM. Filed under:
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a book that everyone should read, and every academic (especially game researchers) must read.
The premise of the book is simple enough. Basically, his thesis is that we think we know more about the world than we really do, and that there are “Black Swans” out there that exist beyond any models of forecasting we can build. The Black Swan notion comes from the belief people had for centuries - that all swans were white because no one ever saw a black swan, until they discovered it in Australia. Because people tend to imagine the world based on their empirical observations, people tend to have a “confirmation bias” that makes them notice things that fit their worldview, and ignore what they can’t fit in.
Posted by Aaron Chia Yuan Hung at 08:13 PM. Filed under:
Saturday, September 26, 2009
I found a great website by Dr. Katrin Becker, who has put together a fine collection of masters and doctoral theses on video games studies from 2000-present. So far, it has mostly theses from Canadian universities, but if you have a completed theses on digital games, I highly encourage you to submit it to her site. Her collection has been mentioned on a few blogs I subscribe to, so it might get you some attention.
You can use this template and page to submit your theses.
Posted by Aaron Chia Yuan Hung at 08:44 PM. Filed under:
Recommended Reading
The Black Swan
By Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Interesting Stuff
In my spare time, I’ve been trying to educate myself through reading classical Greek literature, history and philosophy. I’ve also tried to reflect on how the learning is happening, and how one might approach a complex subject matter such as this without going through schooling.Some of the work can be seen at StudyPlace, a wiki maintained by Teachers College.
I’ve been helping Dr. Varenne on his work with Dr. Lin and Dr. McDermott regarding NCLB. Specifically, they are interested in mapping the relationship between the government, schools, personnel and groups such as Kaplan and Princeton Review who help “failing” schools. Specifically, I’ve been using a comic book creating program that lets you easily put together a story.