Searching for Articles

I thought that i would put something on the blog to help you go through step by step how to find articles through Google. It's a tool/skill that I stumbled upon, and not a lot of people know it, so i thought I’d write a small tutorial for you and it will help you do your research and make sure you end up with some good outcomes from your search... (hopefully)

A lot of papers from conferences and articles from journals get thrown up onto the internet, hidden away under the piles of trash. Sometimes people put things up as a form of storage so they don't link from their website to it and it sits on a server as a back-up, Academics are notoriously unorganised so the tech savvy ones know this is a good way to keep things safe. GOOGLE BOTS AND SPIDERS FIND EVERYTHING, and a lot of people don't realise that even if it's not linked to it's still there to find, it just takes the bots longer, that's their job, to trawl the internet finding stuff. Most of this stuff gets .pdf'd to try and cut down on size and to try and stop people copying it (which doesn't work unless your really clever about it)

OK... so without further ado how to use advanced search in Google to get good results...

Instead of just using the normal Google search bar and button on http://www.google.co.uk/ click on advanced search

Enter in the search terms, i usually use the "all these terms" box unless I’m looking for an article i want that i know a sentence from and I’ll put it into the "exact words" box. The exact words box is great if you have a text that you think people might have quoted from in their work and you want other opinions or someone might be writing or have used the same paper. Some lecturers also use this to see if your work is plagiarised as an initial search before we start feeding your work into the system and bring out the big guns (software that sniffs out plagiarism). Plagiarism is easy to spot, Lecturers have probably read the work you’re copying from and it's easy to spot the change in tone or language you’re using. Lecturers are sent on training courses to sniff it out... don't do it, you will get caught.

Anyway, enter you search words and in the "file format" drop down box, pick "Adobe Acrobat PDF" and click the advanced search button

You can skip all that though and streamline your search by typing "filetype:pdf" after your search in the normal Google search bar or website. If I’m trawling through looking for lots of different stuff I’ll just cut and paste that bit, keep it on my clipboard and just paste it after each search.

Hope this is helpful and it should improve your research skills and what sort of work your referencing.

Maybe we can start sharing links through the blog that you have found using your newly learned skills...

Wii-Mote Hacks

This is non-module specific content...

I thought i would share this with you all after a discussion that i had after the class on Thursday with one of you (who will remain nameless). It is only 5 mins long and a must see for game developers...

Johnny Lee: Creating tech marvels out of a $40 Wii Remote

The wii-mote seems to have boundless possibilities with how we interact and interface with computers and blows open the some what limited capabilities that game controllers had in the past. It is an area of research for me at the moment and thought it might interest you as well.

Here are some other wii-mote hack projects i am following at the moment...

Wii-mote finger tracking
Wii-mote finger tracking Youtube link

Wii-mote controlled robot
Wii-mote controlled robot Youtube link

Wii-mote dance suit
Wii-mote dance suit Youtube link

Leisure Suit Larry to Exploit Wii Technology - The new Leisure Suit Larry to use new wii-mote interactivity

Wii + Second Life = New Training Simulator Real-world simulations like these are perfectly suited to Nintendo's Wiimote, says MIT research fellow David E. Stone. In fact, he claims the motion-sensitive controller is "one of the most significant technology breakthroughs in the history of computer science." Say what?

Share the wii-mote hack links in the comments...

Literary Theory and the Game

We have looked at the benefits and limitations of using Literary Theory to investigate games and their narrative structures.

Three key areas that we have looked at are:

• Poetics
• Hermeneutics
• Aesthetics

And defined these terms in very simple terms as

• Poetics – The study of literary conventions and rules
• Hermeneutics – The study of literature’s meaning, what signifiers mean within the text
• Aesthetics – The study of literature’s effects

I think that a review of Genre construction is important and it is important to understand how the poetics of videogames plays a part in their construction.

Further Reading on Games and Literary Theory

Kücklich, J. - Literary Theory and Computer Games

Ryan, M.-L. - Immersion vs. Interactivity: Virtual Reality and Literary Theory

Rockwell, G. -Gore Galore: Literary Theory and Computer Games (you may need to login to Athens in order to view these)