This is totally the work of a PR firm, but the video is so entertaining that I figured it was worth a look. After all, while it’s not quite “the evolution and history of music,” it’s definitely a fun look back over formats, changes, and how far music and the way we enjoy it has come over the past 60+ years. But then, the PR firm that made the video is pimping its ability to make cool videos.

[ Mashable :: The Evolution of Music in 3 Minutes ]

Dorkly is wonderful for many things, especially its old-school video game videos (are they machinima? I suppose so!) but this article has a special place in my heart. Now granted, I’ve fought a number of bosses that didn’t make the list that I really think should have (I’m looking at you I-no, Guilty Gear XX) but it’s still a good list regardless. Anyone who’s a big fan of videogames will proabably agree with at least some of them.

Frankly, I think M. Bison is a classic example of what we like to call the “rubberband AI,” meaning a first fight that’s so ridiculously easy that anyone can handle it, but is programmed only to lure you into a false sense of thinking that the fight will be at all reasonable in the long run. He then – like every boss like him – turns around and behaves impossibly good, reading the buttons you’re pressing to determine what you’re about to do and counter/avoid it, and does impossible amounts of damage on every hit.

Well, that’s my opinion anyway – who do you think should have been on the list that didn’t make it?

[ Dorkly :: 7 of The Cheapest Boss Fights in Videogame History ]

If you were a fan of Reading Rainbow as a child, and miss having the opportunity to share it with your kids or with a new generation of young readers, you’re not alone. When Reading Rainbow officially stopped airing, LeVar Burton noted on Twitter that this wouldn’t be the end of the show (you can follow him, if you don’t already at @levarburton) and now he’s made good on the promise.

LeVar is rebooting the series as an iPad app and other tech-based resources, called RRKidz, along with a wealth of companion content that will get to young readers right where they are these days: on mobile devices like tablets. From an excellent article at FastCompany about this:

LeVar Burton, a children’s literacy advocate and a former star of Star Trek: The Next Generation, plans to make an ambitious comeback, giving the once-loved Reading Rainbow brand a 21st-century upgrade. Burton’s for-profit venture, RRKidz, plans to launch an educational iPad app that lets children explore topics of interest–such as, say space–in a multimedia-rich environment, with voice-over-enhanced children’s books, familiar videos of Burton at real-life places (like NASA), and, of course, games. Burton tells Fast Company he’s on a mission to “get kids hooked on books,” and says his company is “going to where kids are today; those devices that they love to spend time on.”

From the way that FastCompany explains it, this is just the beginning – the iPad app is only going to be one component in what will hopefully be a rich and long-lived educational venture, and with LeVar Burton behind it, I can’t see how it’ll be anything but wonderful.

[ Fast Company :: Reading Rainbow: The Next Generation ]

The world getting you down? Heartache? Money trouble? Job stressing you out?

Try this button. Submitted without further comment.

[ The Magic Button ]

(image snapped from Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus)

While I knew many people had difficulty understanding and accepting scientific papers as a basis for discussion and argument (mostly because whenever facts contradict opinion, the people on the wrong side of the facts take issue with them,) I didn’t know that some people had difficulty telling solid facts from conjecture, and that people had that much difficulty actually finding studies pertinent to the things they’re researching or interested in.

To that end, this piece from Scientific American about how to find and tell good information from bad information on the Internet is one of those “bookmarkable” stories – the kind you send to people when you find that their entire argument rests on horribly outdated or disproven information. They start off with this gem, and move on to some tips on how to find good information, corroborate it, and interpret it:

The internet empowers us to educate ourselves and make more informed choices and decisions without leaving our couches. But if we believe everything we find on the internet, we are likely to wind up making some very poor decisions. In this new digital information age, how do we keep from being misinformed? As a skeptical environmental research scientist and educator I have picked up a few tricks that anyone can use to find and select high-quality information from the internet.

One of my favorites is how to find and use scientific papers (and not to be afraid of scientific papers when you find them) and of course, to be careful which web sites you trust. The whole piece is worth a read, but admittedly, many of us are already familiar with these tips:

[ Scientific American :: Finding Good Information on The Internet ]

(image above from the fine folks at Penny Arcade, from this comic in 2004. Click to enlarge!)

Anil Dash is a prominent blogger and commentator, and while I don’t always agree with his perspectives, this one is interesting. Dash posits that if the community around your website is problematic or disrespectful, the fault probably lies with the site owner and editors for not making sure they foster an environment where constructive discussion is encouraged and trolling or negativity is discouraged or moderated.

It’s a complicated piece for me, because part of what Dash is saying is so contrary to what bloggers and writers have been told for years – that if you want people to read your work, you should encourage all discussion, whether it’s positive or negative. As in, criticism is one thing, but any comments, even trolls and hateful ones, are better than no comments at all. Personally, I’ve never believed that, I think that too many people already misinterpret what their freedom of speech is and think that it gives them the right to say whatever they want, whenever they choose, on any site or platform they wish. Nothing could be further from the truth (for one, the first amendment only protects speech in public places, and only protects the individual from having their speech oppressed by the state, not by other individuals or groups) but most sites – if they’re worth the space they take on the web – encourage both positive and negative conversation, even if it’s critical, and allow their communities to moderate themselves, outside of spam and outright hateful commentary.

Still, Dash proposes that if your site is being plagued by trolls and others who have nothing positive or constructive to say, it’s likely because you’re not spending enough time moderating the comments, or because you don’t have anyone on your staff responsible for coming up with a community policy and moderating the community according to those rules. It’s a pretty good read, even if you don’t completely agree with it.

[ Anil Dash :: If Your Website's Full of Assholes, It's Your Fault ]

(photo by Seth Anderson)

I worked in computer support for a long time – long enough that I thought that I may not do anything else, so I completely understand how this is. I’ve had friends – even long after I worked in support and wound up working in more enterprise-type administrative technology roles – still ask me for help fixing their busted computer, cleaning out spyware and viruses, and generally speeding it up. So yeah, I know how this list is.

At the same time, the list is more hyperbole than actual truth, but if I said there’s no truth to it whatsoever, I’d be lying. After all, doing things like uninstalling the protective programs that your “computer savvy” friend installed for you, or running off and doing things that your computer savvy friend specifically asked you not to do are generally Bad Ideas. Then – none of you reading this would ever do such a thing if you had someone look at your computer for you, right?

[ Cracked :: 6 Reasons The Guy Who's Fixing Your Computer Hates You ]