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Emily Short

Interactive narrative designer and critic; author of interactive fiction including Galatea and a long-time contributor to the Inform development system.

10 things

MoleskineOther Moleskine

loved

So, Moleskine: good paper, tough but flexible binding, an elastic band to keep the book shut in transit. I'm never going back.

Her Uses This interview, on the tools behind her interactive fiction and criticism.

2011-02-07·usesthis.com ↗

Sennheiser CX 300 IIHardware Sennheiser

liked

To go with that, a pair of Sennheiser CX 300 II in-ear headphones. Cutting out the white noise makes a world of difference to how much I hate long flights.

Her Uses This interview, on the tools behind her interactive fiction and criticism.

2011-02-07·usesthis.com ↗

BBEditSoftware Bare Bones Software

liked

I frequently brainstorm on paper or in BBEdit. I also use BBEdit for composing reviews and articles, as much as I can get away with, and turn to Microsoft Word only when it's professionally necessary.

Her Uses This interview, on the tools behind her interactive fiction and criticism.

2011-02-07·usesthis.com ↗

ScrivenerSoftware Literature & Latte

liked

For assembling research for academic purposes, I like Scrivener. It keeps together a lot of odds and ends of information and makes it easier to go from a pile of quotes and references to a finished document.

Her Uses This interview, on the tools behind her interactive fiction and criticism.

2011-02-07·usesthis.com ↗

ProcessingSoftware

liked

I've dabbled in Processing, and thought it was awesome, but haven't had enough time to devote to doing anything significant with it so far.

Her Uses This interview, on the tools behind her interactive fiction and criticism.

2011-02-07·usesthis.com ↗

InformSoftware

usestheir own

Inform is the interactive fiction development system I've been helping to develop for the last few years. I use it on a near-daily basis both for my own work and to develop example material and do troubleshooting for other interactive fiction authors.

Her Uses This interview, on the tools behind her interactive fiction and criticism.

2011-02-07·usesthis.com ↗

OmnigraffleSoftware The Omni Group

uses

To visualize complex puzzle or narrative structures, I rely on OmniGraffle.

Her Uses This interview, on the tools behind her interactive fiction and criticism.

2011-02-07·usesthis.com ↗

PapersSoftware

uses

Academic PDFs I organize with Papers.

Her Uses This interview, on the tools behind her interactive fiction and criticism.

2011-02-07·usesthis.com ↗

Xbox 360Hardware Microsoft

uses

For reviewing purposes, I also have an Xbox 360. It was a gift; exact specifications I am therefore less sure about, but it has plenty of storage space.

Her Uses This interview, on the tools behind her interactive fiction and criticism.

2011-02-07·usesthis.com ↗

WordSoftware Microsoft

disliked

(I have never forgiven Word for screwing up the encoding of every Greek quotation in my dissertation weeks before the deadline, in such a way that even backups didn't work, and requiring me to set the entire thing from scratch in Pages.

Her Uses This interview, on the tools behind her interactive fiction and criticism.

2011-02-07·usesthis.com ↗

Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.

The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.

A dashed affiliate link, sponsored or their own label means the post disclosed a relationship. It is shown, never hidden.

The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.

The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.

What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:

Stripes mean the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no shading.