Yes, I know it’s 2010 (pronounced “twenty-ten”), and I know that nostalgia for the analog age is a 30-something cliche, and I know the cassette has become a sickening node of ironic culture. But for just a few minutes, I ask you to set aside your pernicious Family Guy-inspired liking for hackneyed 80s references to consider the cassette as it should be understood: as a lost assertion of our basic rights, a technological and social artifact, and a symbol of friendship, grassroots culture and low-fi audiophilia.
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I recently set up an installation of WordPress MultiUser (WPmu) + BuddyPress for the History Department where I work. We have a number of different user groups on the site, including Courses, Workshops, and Projects. Eventually we will also have Personal sites (for students, staff, and faculty in the dept.) and perhaps some small organizations and campus groups. Right now the site is small, so it would be reasonable to manually create and maintain a topical directory. As the site grows, however, this could become a burden to say the least. Nobody likes to do that kind of crap – not even graduate assistants. So with the help of an outdated plug-in and a couple of tiny hacks, I easily created a directory of Blogs by Topic so I never need to hand code the directory. Read on to find out how.
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As the dialogue on the emergent (yet increasingly passe?) edupunk movement has begun to penetrate the mainstream press, I’ve been thinking a lot about what the term might mean to my present occupation, and also about what punk rock has meant to me historically (both in terms of my personal history and also my views on History with a capital H). I’ll spare you the many cliched “life experiences” I’ve enjoyed as a result of my involvement in punk culture, and focus here on how it has impacted my views on art, literature, politics, society, technology and education (i.e. the (digital) humanities).
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